Weekly Wrasslin' Wroundup (SD Live)

Way more entertaining than it coulda shoulda been.

Just when I'm starting to question if and why I still like Dean Ambrose, Smackdown Live gives me so many reasons to say yes. Shame about the rest of the show.

Ziggler is out to celebrate his No Mercy win, which is appropriate. The Miz follows him out to complain about his No Mercy loss, which is appropriate. The Miz claims this isn't over, which is appropriate. Then he brings out the two "surviving" members of the Spirit Squad for a handicap match against Dolph, and that's not appropriate. The SS leftovers were a symbol of Dolph's loser past, so No Mercy should have been the last we saw of them. Hopefully after Dolph's dispatching of them, that's the end of that, although I did enjoy Mauro's "OH MY GOD HE KILLED KENNY" call on the superkick.

Post-match, Miz lays a beatdown and finisher on Ziggler, but the tag champs make the save, which means there's at least gonna be a six-man next week. Bleah.

Smackdown issues a challenge for Survivor Series - five best tag teams and five best women from each brand in Survivor Series matches. Since SD only has six tag teams and six women, I feel bad for, let's say, the Vaudevillains and Carmella.

Speaking of which, Carmella is out to wrestle Naomi for no stakes. Naomi wins after a distraction by Nikki Bella, who Carmella attacked backstage during the preshow. Nikki almost gets hold of Carmella post match, and Daniel Bryan makes Naomi-Alexa for next week, which is unsurprising.

Evil Jimmy Uso vs. Chad Gable I guess continues the Alpha-Usos feud like I thought, just not for the title. One thing about the Survivor Series deal is that it seems like the tag and women's divisions, at the very least, get put on hold in service of the inter-brand matches for nearly two months. It's fun seeing Gable wrestle anytime, but it's a short match that the Usos win via Shenanigans.

Oh, hey, another victory celebration. Here comes AJ Styles. Styles' heel schtick is fairly limited, but luckily, there's some old-fashioned wackiness about to ensue. Styles wants to give skinny weirdo recurring character James Ellsworth a non-title opportunity. Dean Ambrose wants to watch from ringside. Styles doesn't want that. Daniel Bryan makes Ambrose the special guest referee instead. A lot of the good kind of stupid business ensues. Ambrose milks the shit out of it, and it's really funny stuff.

Speaking of stuff that's stupid and not funny and irritating, Randy Orton talks crazy and gets Kane on his side, to tag against Wyatt and Harper. The match is nothing, but the Wyatts win when Luke Harper teleports and replaces Kane before Orton can tag him in. The WWE's dabbling in the supernatural is constantly irritating compared to Lucha Underground's full embrace of it.