WWE SmackDown Live 9/13/16 Retro Recap, WWE Raw 9/12/16 Review

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Back from covering UFC 203 in Cleveland, Fred Richani recaps WWE SmackDown Live on Sept. 13, 2016, the first show after AJ Styles won the WWE Championship at Backlash, plus his thoughts on Raw.

SmackDown and Raw Review

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

At 39, AJ Styles, the former TNA, NWA and IWGP champion, is WWE Champion, holding the title with a lineage dating back to Bruno Sammartino and Buddy Rogers. I DVR’d SmackDown and savored every moment. He doesn’t have the stereotypical WWE look, and I never thought he’d even be in the main event. Heath Slater and Rhyno won the tag team titles, and Becky Lynch became the first SmackDown women’s champion. It’s a good time to be a SmackDown fan, in large part because it’s only two hours long.

John Cena, noticeably slimmer, interrupted AJ’s opening promo, then Dean Ambrose interrupted them. Ambrose saying titles come and go devalued the title immediately, and Cena made a good point: Ambrose crotched AJ on the top rope and is complaining about a low blow. Something has been missing with Ambrose since that Steve Austin podcast and his Dolph Ziggler feud. Cena and Ambrose beat AJ and The Miz in the main event, and Ambrose hit Cena with Dirty Deeds afterward. His character could use the heel turn refresh. It’ll be AJ vs. Cena vs. Ambrose at No Mercy.

Alexa Bliss pinned Nikki Bella to win a five-way and become the No. 1 contender. These multi-woman matches lend themselves to blown spots, so I’m happy we’re getting a one-on-one women’s title match. Becky’s promo felt overly scripted. Let Rebecca Quinn be herself. Baron Corbin beat up Apollo Crews, and Jack Swagger confronted him. I don’t mind Corbin, but book him to squash jobbers like he did in NXT. And if Randy Orton is still dealing with concussion-like symptoms after missing his Backlash match with Bray Wyatt, he shouldn’t be doing anything physical on TV. Promoting a match and not delivering it was irresponsible.

Raw, like every three-hour Raw, dragged. Sasha Banks beat Bayley and Dana Brooke in what looked like a double pin to earn a title match with Charlotte at Clash of Champions. Chris Jericho attacked Sami Zayn, setting up Jericho vs. Zayn, Cesaro beat Sheamus to make their series 3-2, and Nia Jax speared Alicia Fox through the barricade. Gallows and Anderson beat The New Day, and the shining stars’ Epico beat Enzo Amore, one of the most over acts in the company. In a great main event, Kevin Owens beat Roman Reigns after a Rusev distraction, so Owens defends against Seth Rollins one-on-one. Rollins hasn’t come off as a great babyface after everything he’s done.

SmackDown gets a thumbs up, and Raw gets thumbs in the middle with a major thumbs up for the main event. There are way too many pay-per-views now. Back in the early brand extension days, alternating pay-per-views kept things fresh and made TV matches mean something.