Smackdown Live Analysis for January 17, 2017: The Return of Mickie James and "goofy" John Cena

I typically come out of Smackdown Live happy with the show, but this weeks episode just kind of felt like it was just there.  Don't get me wrong, Smackdown does a good job at hyping future events, as I was legitimately excited about the Becky Lynch/Alexa Bliss Steel Cage Match for the Smackdown Women's Championship, but I came out of the show feeling a little underwhelmed with it.  Granted we got treated to the surprise re-debut of Mickie James, but I just felt the match didn't live up to the expectations that it could have.  I don't know, maybe I got soured by how much time Charlotte and Sasha Banks have gotten in their matches, and was hoping for more of the same from these two.  Factor in the cage stipulation that was supposed to keep people out did nothing to keep anyone out.

It seems almost inevitable that we are going down the road of A.J. Styles versus Shane McMahon at Wrestlemania.  The two have had several interactions the last few weeks on both Smackdown and Talking Smack that seem to point to that.  I do not expect Styles to retain the title at the Royal Rumble against John Cena, and that's a shame as I feel Styles would be the much better champion, and deserves a long term title run.  I did enjoy his promo with The Miz, as we got glimpses of a face Styles.  That was of course until he started to forcefully heel himself on the crowd that was into him.  I get it's his job as a heel, but it's just another case of WWE putting a character in one spot, when he should be in another.  Nothing felt natural about him going off on the Nashville fans.

What I didn't like about the opening promo was John Cena.  Since his return, Cena's had a sort of an edge and attitude about him that seemed to me like he was tweaking his character a bit, but last night blew that all away.  I hate "cartoon" Cena, and his bouncing around Miz and Styles trying to instigate their match was just stupid.  Cena looked like an idiot, as did Shane McMahon, Miz, and Styles for falling into the narratives trap.

The Kings Court segment was a nice little call-back to the interview segment that used to be in all WWE programming during the late 90s.  Jerry Lawler did a good job here, and other than his minor jabs at the start of the segment to Dolph Ziggler, came out as a character you felt for.  Especially after the heart-attack thing was mentioned.  Ziggler though, was dreadful.  The guy just has no ability to emote correctly.  His "cold and heartless" demeanor and voice sounded more like he was bored to be there.  I fear the ship has sailed on Dolph as a heel or a face.  Way to go JBL for tripping on the way to Lawlers aid.

The rest of the show just came and went.  The Wyatts/Randy Orton angle has seemed to come off the rails as I have no idea what's going to happen.  While sometimes that's a good thing, for this angle it just seems like the WWE writers have no idea what they are doing.  One week it seems like Orton is setting them up for a turn, but then they decide that they like him with Bray.  While I was initially positive on his allegiance with The Wyatt Family, it's done nothing for his character since doing so.  That and the standard Orton match formula is just too boring, and the same can be said for his match with Dean Ambrose.  That being said, Ambrose's matches have become pretty "cliche" too, always hitting the same spots the same way.

The only other note worthy event on the show was the continuation of the Nikki Bella and Natalya feud.  I will say the feud has been better than I expected, but that's not saying much.  I feel the end result of this feud will be only to elevate Nikki, and other than being beautiful, she is not even close to have Nattie's talent.  Another aspect of the feud I dislike they are having Natalya take shots at her Uncle Bret Hart to get heat, only because it's hard to dislike her because her words towards Nikki are justified and true.  Just another case of miss managed characters in WWE.

I'd have to give this show a 7 out of 10.  Let's hope this is not a trend because "the powers that be" in WWE don't like the good press Smackdown is getting, while Raw gets buried week in and week out.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see...