WWE SmackDown Live 5/9/17 Retro Recap, WWE Raw 5/8/17 Review

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Fred Richani recaps WWE SmackDown Live, taped May 9, 2017, and Raw on May 8, both from the United Kingdom, on the road to Backlash.

SmackDown and Raw Review

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

SmackDown was better than Raw, mostly because it wasn’t three hours long, but the booking was questionable, as it’s been for the past month. Natalya beat Becky Lynch to set up a six-woman tag match, and Erick Rowan finally got a win, at the expense of Luke Harper, maybe the most underrated wrestler in WWE. Are you kidding me? Breezango beat The Ascension ahead of their Backlash tag team title shot against The Usos. They’ve been treated like a joke for most of their careers, but they’re getting over, and the Fashion Files skits are awesome.

Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens and Baron Corbin beat AJ Styles, Randy Orton and Sami Zayn, and Jinder took out Orton again ahead of their WWE Championship match at Backlash. Nothing against Jinder, who has a great physique and is a competent worker, but WWE took him from negative 100 to 100 real quick. A guy who went something like 5-50 since his return could be wearing the title that dates back to Bruno Sammartino. At this point, I’ll embrace it.

Raw felt dull, like the crowd noise was muffled. Kurt Angle made Dean Ambrose acting general manager, and Stephanie McMahon made The Miz co-GM. Finn Balor beat Miz, and Bray Wyatt beat Ambrose thanks to Miz, setting up Ambrose vs. Miz for the Intercontinental title, which is effectively Raw’s top title while Brock Lesnar is away until Great Balls of Fire. Braun Strowman appears to be legitimately hurt, possibly from that ambulance angle with Roman Reigns, and I hope he recovers quickly, because he could be a top money-drawing babyface.

Sheamus and Cesaro won the tag team turmoil match, when I would have liked to see Golden Truth get the shot. Seth Rollins beat Samoa Joe by disqualification, Alexa Bliss beat Mickie James and Sasha Banks beat Alicia Fox. TJP, a former TSC guest, beat Jack Gallagher in short order, and it feels like he’s being booked to dethrone Neville when Austin Aries should be in that spot. Overall: a meh Raw and a decent SmackDown. Also on TSC this week: a boxing edition of TSC News on MNN with Ray Mercer, Gerry Cooney and Fernando Vargas, and Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer joins us Thursday.