{"id":40984,"date":"2017-04-06T14:46:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=40984"},"modified":"2017-04-06T14:46:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:46:35","slug":"wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-46-nakamuras-debut-naomi-bliss-shane-mcmahon-j-styles-corbin-vs-ambrose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/04\/06\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-46-nakamuras-debut-naomi-bliss-shane-mcmahon-j-styles-corbin-vs-ambrose\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES 4\/6: Nakamura&#8217;s debut, Naomi and Bliss, Shane McMahon and A.J. Styles, Corbin vs. Ambrose,"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1548339735\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3><b><u>SMACKDOWN HITS<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Naomi vs. Bliss:<\/b>\u00a0 This was a pretty good Women&#8217;s Championship with Naomi defending her newly won Women&#8217;s Title against the former Champion Alexa Bliss.\u00a0 Neither Naomi nor Bliss is a great worker.\u00a0 But, they are both good.\u00a0 They performed well here.\u00a0 They were given 10 minutes which is probably as much as they should have gotten.\u00a0 They worked the knee angle well which fit in perfectly with the storyline of Naomi just coming back from the knee injury which caused her to relinquish the Title in the first place.\u00a0 I also like that new submission hold that Naomi is using as a finisher now.\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t great, but it was good enough to get a Hit.<\/p>\n<p><b>Tye Dillinger:<\/b>\u00a0 The Perfect 10 got a nice introduction to Smackdown with a hot reception from the WrestleMania week crowd.\u00a0 This was one of the few times when the crowd felt as hot as they did for Raw the night before (more later).\u00a0 He got a great reception and the fans were very much into the 10-10-10 gimmick.\u00a0 Introducing him with a 2 minute squash match was strong.\u00a0 He has more than just the Perfect 10 gimmick.\u00a0 When he was having struggles in NXT winning the &#8220;big one&#8221;, he came across as earnest and relatable in a very good way.\u00a0 I hope WWE explores that with him and does something to really make him connect with the larger Smackdown audience moving forward.<\/p>\n<p><b>Nakamura:<\/b>\u00a0 This was the second time when the crowd reacted with the excitement that you&#8217;d expect.\u00a0 Just like with Dillinger, this is the perfect time to debut Shinsuke Nakamura.\u00a0 It is great when a violinist starting to play some music gets the biggest pop of the night.\u00a0 Part of me wishes that Nakamura had said something.\u00a0 Just &#8220;The King of Strong Style is on Smackdown!&#8221; would have been enough.\u00a0 But, maybe it wasn&#8217;t needed.\u00a0 It worked very well without any words.\u00a0 We don&#8217;t know what the roster will look like after next week, but right now it certainly feels like Smackdown needs Nakamura more than Raw, so this was the right move to make.\u00a0 This followed on the heels of the funny bit with The Miz and Maryse doing the final &#8220;tribute&#8221; to John Cena and Nikki Bella.\u00a0 That was amusing, but now you have to move Miz onto something new.\u00a0 Assuming he stays on Smackdown, a feud with Nakamura has a lot of potential.\u00a0 I can see some great stuff on the mic and a very good match to help introduce Nakamura to the larger audience.<\/p>\n<p><b>Corbin vs. Ambrose:<\/b>\u00a0 The Intercontinental Championship on the WrestleMania pre-show was not particularly good.\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t bad.\u00a0 It was just ok.\u00a0 There has been some good stuff in this feud, but over all it hasn&#8217;t felt important.\u00a0 Baron Corbin getting the win here in this non-Title street fight adds some juice to the feud.\u00a0 This was better than their WM match.\u00a0 They used the street fight gimmick well.\u00a0 It was physical and intense.\u00a0 It sets up a rematch for the IC Title.\u00a0 But, it could also just be giving Corbin a boost before moving him to Raw next week.<\/p>\n<h3><b><u>SMACKDOWN MISSES<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Opening Segment:<\/b>\u00a0 You could feel that the WrestleMania week crowd was running out of steam by the time they got to Smackdown.\u00a0 It is fully understandable.\u00a0 If someone actually went to the Hall of Fame, NXT Takeover, WrestleMania, Raw and Smackdown (plus maybe an indie show too), that person would be exhausted by\u00a0Tuesday\u00a0night!\u00a0 There wasn&#8217;t nearly as much energy in the crowd as there was for Raw.\u00a0 But, they also didn&#8217;t get as good a show so WWE didn&#8217;t do as much as they should have to get them excited and into the show (only the Dillinger and Nakamura debuts stand out as anything to get excited about).\u00a0 It started with this opening segment.\u00a0 The WWE Title storyline has been terrible.\u00a0 Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt at WM was bad.\u00a0 Orton as the WWE Champion feels stale already two days into this Title reign.\u00a0 You get some boring rudimentary mic work from Orton.\u00a0 You get more over the top silly mumbo jumbo talk from Wyatt.\u00a0 We got a tease of a House of Horrors match.\u00a0 That was ok.\u00a0 I really wanted to see supernatural elements in WWE retire with Undertaker\u00a0on Sunday.\u00a0 Instead we get Wyatt magically appearing in the ring.\u00a0 It was silly that the announcers were like &#8220;who is that?&#8221; when Erick Rowan pulled Orton out of the ring.\u00a0 Who is that?\u00a0 It is a tall guy with a long red beard wearing a sheep mask.\u00a0 Who do you think it is?\u00a0 This didn&#8217;t work for me.\u00a0 It did set up the main event tag match which was ok.\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t good enough to get a Hit and the hocus pocus crap at the end helped take it out of the Hit column.\u00a0 But, it wasn&#8217;t bad enough to get a Miss either.<\/p>\n<p><b>Shane &#8211; Styles:<\/b>\u00a0 We were told that Shane McMahon would be on later in the show to shed light on the Superstar Shakeup that Vince McMahon announced on Raw.\u00a0 I already went into great detail about why I don&#8217;t like this concept in my Raw Hits &amp; Misses.\u00a0 I won&#8217;t rehash all of that here, but I will say that part of my problem was the lack of details given to what it meant.\u00a0 I thought we were going to get some details here based on what the announcers said, but we got zilch.\u00a0 All we got was Shane saying that nobody should want to leave Smackdown and all the Raw wrestlers should want to come to Smackdown.\u00a0 Then we got the wishy washy appearance by AJ Styles.\u00a0 I guess that was supposed to be a babyface turn for Styles?\u00a0 I am happy if he is going to be a babyface now, but this wasn&#8217;t a great turn.\u00a0 The whole point of their WM match should not have been Shane winning the respect of Styles.\u00a0 Shane should still want to beat up Styles for putting his head through a window a few weeks back.\u00a0 He already said that he had respect for Styles as a wrestler.\u00a0 Why would he now have respect for Styles as a man?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/03\/30\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-328-cena-gets-heavy-handed-maryse-miz-luke-improves-mic-womens-division-wm-shanes-handshake-offer\/\">WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &amp; MISSES 3\/28: Cena gets (too) heavy-handed with Maryse &amp; Miz, Luke improves on mic, Women\u2019s Division at WM, Shane\u2019s handshake offer<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>OR CHECK OUT JASON POWELL\u2019S LATEST HITLIST ARTICLES AT PROWRESTLING.NET<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/prowrestling.net\/site\/category\/viewpoints\/jasonpowell\/\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-983367215\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i>Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com\u2019s WWE Hits &amp; Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2066345733\"><div id=\"pwtor-3270532780\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>SMACKDOWN HITS Naomi vs. Bliss:\u00a0 This was a pretty good Women&#8217;s Championship with Naomi defending her newly won Women&#8217;s Title against the former Champion Alexa Bliss.\u00a0 Neither Naomi nor Bliss is a great worker.\u00a0 But, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/04\/06\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-46-nakamuras-debut-naomi-bliss-shane-mcmahon-j-styles-corbin-vs-ambrose\/\" title=\"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES 4\/6: Nakamura&#8217;s debut, Naomi and Bliss, Shane McMahon and A.J. Styles, Corbin vs. Ambrose,\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,52,28,27],"tags":[90,1008,517,257,321,530,308,1620],"class_list":["post-40984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","tag-aj-styles","tag-alexa-bliss","tag-baron-corbin","tag-dean-ambrose","tag-naomi","tag-shane-mcmahon","tag-shinsuke-nakamura","tag-tye-dillinger"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/04\/NakamuraNXT.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40985,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40984\/revisions\/40985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}