New Year. First 2021 Smackdown Post! 01/08/2021

  

Starting off Smackdown with the head of the table, Roman Reigns cuts a lowkey scathing promo and towards the end of his promo, he called out WWE official Adam Pierce. Cutting right to the point, after asking multiple times if anyone was stupid, I thought Roman was really about to take Adam's head off, I would have loved that, but thanks to Paul Heyman that didn't happen. Anything with Roman these days, especially kicking off Smackdown this week..is GOLD!

  First match of the night, Big E v Apollo Crews. Great match all the way thru, then some unexpected lowkey controversy happened when at first the match was a draw after Apollo gave Big E a superplex, causing both guys shoulders to be counted down for the three count. Fortunately the match continued, as we all probably thought it would, after Apollo provoked E with a slap to restart the match. Following that, this match was still pretty good. Hats off to both gentlemen.

 Next Match, Street Profits v Ziggler and Roode. Pretty good storytelling of this mini feud, great resiliency by the Street Profits. This match was a nice back and forth heel v face match. Classic. I did not see the profits losing the titles but it was a good shock to me. They will definitely get a rematch next time around. Ziggler and Roode capped it off with an attack after the match, showing the classic heel tactics.

  Paul Heyman informs Adam Pierce that he's in the Gautlet match, which will determine who will be Roman Reigns next opponent for the championship.

  So to begin with the first match and elimination in this gautlet, Rey Mysterio returns and defeats Sami Zayn, who wasted valuable time and opportunity still talking about losing the IC title a couple of weeks ago. He really wasn't even focused on the chance to compete for a bigger title chance and because of that, Mysterio made quick work of him and eliminated Zayn from the gautlet with a 619. Sami may deserve better honestly, but not on this night.

Next, Shinske makes his entrance to take on Mysterio, which is a more exciting matchup on paper and in reality. This part of the match was kind of a more technical match, more so than a highflying, lucha libre-ish type of match. Nice bout, not boring, even though a gautlet match can sometimes become boring. Nakumara taps out Mysterio, which led to the next opponent to appear and attack Shinske, King Corbin.

  This match was the same, technical and much more hardhitting because of Corbin's style. Bottomline, Nakumara puts down Corbin. No surprise here. I mean come on, who would really like to see another Corbin and Reigns feud, I know I don't want to see that again. 

With that being said, The last match REAL match of the night for Nakumara is against Daniel Bryan. This match was veryy interesting. THIS was a nicce slow fast pace type of match. Daniel is such master of the mat when he wants to be,but  Nakumara is a master in his own unpredictable unorthodox, low-technical style. THIS was a wrestlemania level type of a match. This match should happen again soon. I enjoyed this match.

Now we get the last gautlet match, WWE Official Adam Pierce vs Shinsuke. Roman and Jey attacks Shinsuke and Adam Pierce, leaving Jey and Roman to pull Adam over Shinsuke for the win. 

Many, many questions I have about this, but I won't panic just yet, because there are still weeks until the Rumble happens, so maybe we still get Shinsuke v Roman for the title, instead of Adam.

We will see, but until then Happy New Year everybody!