Smackdown tonight was about one hour and 45 minutes of complete and utter boredom. Well, that's not entirely fair. Jack Swagger vs. Alberto del Rio continued their streak of having a terrible feud punctuated by really good matches, but the time between Swagger pinning his Mexican nemesis and when the gong first played, the show was dull. It was a pastiche of the same old shit that has made Smackdown almost unwatchable in the last year: warmed over matches where nothing was advanced, ad nauseam recaps from RAW, recycled tropes.
But then, the gong hit, the competitors hit the ring, and Dean Ambrose was having his first singles match on the main roster against the goddamn Undertaker. How many people get to say that? How many more people get to say that they looked like they belonged in the ring? Then again, I think we all suspected that he'd fit in fine in a WWE main event against one of the best ever.
And while Taker won, the last image on Smackdown was of Taker in the detritus of a destroyed table, courtesy of The Shield. For fifteen minutes at the end, Smackdown was the best show in the world. Is that enough to make up for the utter ennui that it peddled on us prior? I don't know. But whatever it was, we at least got to see a glimpse of WWE's future mingle with one of the icons of its past.
But then, the gong hit, the competitors hit the ring, and Dean Ambrose was having his first singles match on the main roster against the goddamn Undertaker. How many people get to say that? How many more people get to say that they looked like they belonged in the ring? Then again, I think we all suspected that he'd fit in fine in a WWE main event against one of the best ever.
And while Taker won, the last image on Smackdown was of Taker in the detritus of a destroyed table, courtesy of The Shield. For fifteen minutes at the end, Smackdown was the best show in the world. Is that enough to make up for the utter ennui that it peddled on us prior? I don't know. But whatever it was, we at least got to see a glimpse of WWE's future mingle with one of the icons of its past.