Smackdown July 19th 2016

Smackdown

This day marks the first ever episode of Smackdown Live and also the 2016 Draft. How I'll be doing this is I'll be covering all the matches in depth in this post and just saying who got drafted, then in a different post go in depth on my opinion about who got drafted where. So let's get started.

Rules For The Draft

Draft Picks: Round 1

Raw: Seth Rollins

Smackdown: Dean Ambrose

Raw: Charlotte

Smackdown: AJ Styles

Raw: Finn Balor (From NXT)

John Cena defeats Luke Gallows

After John Cena came out, Luke Gallows entered flanked by Karl Anderson and the newly drafted AJ Styles. Just when The Club thought they'd have the numbers advantage, Enzo and Cass came out. The match went on as a regular match until both John Cena and Luke Gallows were on the ground. Enzo and Cass were on the ring apron and opposite of them also on the apron was AJ Styles and Karl Anderson.

Both sets of two got in the ring and had a staredown before the two thirds of The Club charged, only to get tossed out of the ring by Enzo and Cass. John Cena then picked up Gallows and hit the Attitude Adjustment to pick up the victory. This match is definitely one of the most anticipated for Battleground and I think the hype for it is as high as it can get.

Draft Picks: Round 2

Raw: Roman Reigns

Smackdown: John Cena

Raw: Brock Lesnar

Smackdown: Randy Orton

Raw: The New Day

Darren Young and Zack Ryder defeat Rusev and The Miz

After Bob Backlund prompted Darren Young for it, Darren locked in the Crossface Chicken Hold on The Miz, which was Bob's signature submission. This forced The Miz to tap out. Will we see Zack Ryder and Darren Young standing tall at Battleground like they were tonight? Unlikely.

Bray Wyatt defeats Xavier Woods

Bray at first kind of had Xavier in a trance, it was almost as if he'd hypnotized him, but Bray knocked him out of it by hitting him with a right forearm. Throughout the match Xavier still looked very afraid of Bray and eventually took the Sister Abigail from Bray Wyatt allowing Bray to get the win. This is one of those matches that at Battleground I'm still not sure what's going to happen, and it's still very possible that Xavier could turn to the Wyatt Family.

Kane vs Kevin Owens

Kane was already in the ring and Kevin Owens was on his way down to face him when Sami Zayn attacked him from behind. Their brawl would spill in to the ring and they would both end up getting choke slammed by Kane. I thought this was rather stupid because it didn't make neither Kevin nor Sami look strong. Why was Kane even there?! Why is he still relevant? 

Draft Picks: Round 3

Raw: Sami Zayn

Smackdown: Bray Wyatt

Raw: Sasha Banks

Smackdown: Becky Lynch

Raw: Chris Jericho

Charlotte and Dana Brooke defeat Sasha Banks in a 2 on 1 Handicap Match

Sasha came close when she applied the Bank Statement on Dana Brooke but the numbers advantage was too much and eventually caught up to her when Charlotte hit Natural Selection and pinned her for the win. It's good that Charlotte and Dana Brooke won because if Sasha had of won there would've been no point for her to have a tag team partner ruling the whole reveal pointless.

Draft Picks: Round 4

Raw: Rusev with Lana

Smackdown: The Miz with Maryse

Raw: Kevin Owens

Smackdown: Baron Corbin

Raw: Enzo and Cass

Chris Jericho defeats Cesaro

Although this was a good match between two very talented competitors, I don't like matches that don't have a purpose. These two aren't in any sort of rivalry, not saying that's good, but it'd be better if they were forwarding a story line somehow. The match ended with Chris Jericho reversing a springboard corkscrew uppercut in to a mid air Code Breaker.

Natalya Attacked

When Smackdown came back from commercial Becky Lynch was attacking Natalya who was supposed to have a match with Alicia Fox. I don't like this rivalry but at least Becky has a reason to attack Natalya unlike *cough cough* Natalya.

Draft Picks: Round 5

Raw: Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson

Smackdown: American Alpha

Raw: The Big Show

Smackdown: Dolph Ziggler

Raw: Nia Jax (From NXT)

Draft Picks: Round 6

Raw: Neville

Smackdown: Natalya

Raw: Cesaro

Smackdown: Alberto Del Rio

Raw: Sheamus

Dean Ambrose defeats Seth Rollins to retain the WWE Championship

As I said on my last post, they're digging their own graves because now that Seth has gone over for Dean Ambrose clean he looks very weak for their Triple Threat Match this Sunday. In my opinion they should've had some sort of tricky finish or just ended it in another draw or something but this way made Seth look weak.

Draft Picks: Round 7

Raw: Golden Truth

Smackdown: The Usos

Raw: Titus O’Neil

Smackdown: Kane

Raw: Paige

Draft Picks: Round 8

Raw: Darren Young with Bob Backlund

Smackdown: Kalisto

Raw: Sin Cara

Smackdown: Naomi

Raw: Jack Swagger

Smackdown: The Ascension

Draft Picks: Round 9

Raw: The Dudley Boyz

Smackdown: Zack Ryder

Raw: Summer Rae

Smackdown: Apollo Crews

Raw: Mark Henry

Smackdown: Alexa Bliss (From NXT)

Draft Picks: Round 10

Raw: Braun Strowman

Smackdown: Breezango

Raw: Bo Dallas

Smackdown: Eva Marie (From NXT)

Raw: The Shining Stars

Smackdown: The Vaudevillains

Draft Picks: Round 11

Raw: Alicia Fox

Smackdown: Erick Rowan

Raw: Dana Brooke

Smackdown: Mojo Rawley (From NXT)

Raw: Curtis Axel

Smackdown: Carmella (From NXT)

Undrafted

Heath Slater

Luke Harper

Star Of The Night: NXT Drafts

It's so cool to see some of my favourites from NXT, specifically Finn Balor and Alexa Bliss, come to the main roster. All of those who were drafted from NXT are talented and I can't wait to see if WWE will use their talent like it deserves to be used.

Overall The Draft was exciting but the matches were below average in my opinion, hopefully this doesn't become a trend for Smackdown Live.

Until next time,

Devon Wizard