WWE SmackDown 5/12/16 Retro Recap

Subscribe to TSC Wrestling with Fred Richani on YouTube for more wrestling interviews, news and reviews!

Fred Richani’s rapid recap of WWE SmackDown on May 12, 2016, two weeks before Extreme Rules, featuring Dana Brooke’s in-ring debut and Kevin Owens and The Miz teaming against Cesaro and Sami Zayn.

SmackDown Review

Adapted from the episode and edited for clarity and brevity. Listen above for the full review.

Extreme Rules comes to New Jersey in a couple of weeks, headlined by AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns. SmackDown featured Dana Brooke’s official in-ring debut against Becky Lynch, and the match wasn’t pretty. Dana won with help from Emma, so the feud continues, and Becky will likely bring in Sasha Banks, who has barely been used since her star-making performance at WrestleMania. Why not keep Sasha on TV in feuds between title shots? WWE has enough women on the roster and in NXT that it could eventually add women’s tag team titles. Props to Triple H and the Performance Center trainers for how far women’s wrestling has come.

A lot of people on my timeline are asking why Dana was called up. Cut her some slack. She paid her dues in NXT for about three years, works hard and is solid for her experience level. Is it fair that Bayley isn’t on the main roster while Dana is? No, but that’s on Vince McMahon, Triple H and Kevin Dunn, not Dana.

The Vaudevillains’ feud with The New Day continued, and Aiden English beat Kofi Kingston. I liked The Vaudevillains in NXT, but they debuted on the main roster with no video packages or highlights, and the act is one-dimensional. If English sang again, maybe they could be saved as a comedy duo.

The Usos beat Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson by disqualification. I’ve mostly liked Reigns vs. Styles, but Gallows and Anderson just debuted, WWE paid them a lot to come over, and they keep getting beaten like drums. How are they supposed to be a serious heel group? The Bullet Club interference worked in New Japan because it was rare there, while WWE runs distraction finishes all the time. At Payback, Styles couldn’t beat Reigns with two friends in a match with no rules. If AJ loses again, protect him, or better yet, have him win.

R-Truth and Tyler Breeze beat Goldust and Fandango, then the teams split, setting up Goldust and R-Truth against Breeze and Fandango. What a waste of talent. Goldust can still go, Breeze has barely won a match in 2016, R-Truth was phenomenal as a heel in 2011 and Fandango is stuck with a bad gimmick. Stardust should still be teaming with his brother as Cody Rhodes, too.

Rusev made Sin Cara submit and will face Kalisto for the U.S. title at Extreme Rules. Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho brawled again in a feud that has escalated to Mitch the plant vs. Jericho’s light-up jacket. It reminds me of Edge vs. Booker T fighting over a Japanese shampoo commercial at WrestleMania 18.

Kevin Owens and The Miz beat Cesaro and Sami Zayn in a good main event ahead of their fatal four-way, though it should be a triple threat. The Intercontinental and U.S. titles have sunk into irrelevance. Zack Ryder revitalized his career by winning the IC title at WrestleMania 32, and the next night they gave it to The Miz. I like Miz, and he works hard, but he adds nothing here. Owens should have regained the title from Ryder, which would have raised the stakes of his feud with Zayn.

Overall, a decent SmackDown, but I don’t like the Shane and Stephanie McMahon storyline. Once again the focus is on the McMahons, not the wrestlers. Darren Young also had a segment with Bob Backlund, which reminded me of the time Backlund lectured me at an expo for filming him without asking. I apologized and offered to delete the footage, and he said it was all right, then turned back and said, “But you should have asked.” One of the few times someone has yelled at me without yelling.

Editor’s note: Reigns beat Styles at Extreme Rules on May 22, 2016. Styles won the WWE Championship that September.