I was interested to see how much mainstream media talk there was about the WWE moving their Smackdown show to Fox. Obviously it was a big topic of conversation on Fox itself and FS1, but I heard people talking about it on ESPN and the MLB Network. There was so much talk about this that I even tuned in for the start of the show.
Now I use to watch every minute of wrestling that I could. As a child I was introduced to wrestling by my father. My father worked two jobs and his second job was overnight on Friday and Saturday night as a security guard. He’d work from 11:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. and then on Sunday’s when he got home he’d make a big breakfast for my mother and I. After that he’d sit down to read the Sunday newspaper and turn on the television. We’d watch AWA which was a professional wrestling company owned by Verne Gagne. After that wrestling show there was another one on from time to time that I believe was called Bob Luce wrestling. I don’t remember the name of the federation that wrestled on that show, but I do remember the wrestlers doing some of the local commercials on that show and they where classic.
That’s how I got started as a wrestling fan and I just continued to watch wrestling after that. Believe it or not I actually spent some time as an independent pro wrestler, but sadly I’ve lost most of my interest in wrestling over these last few years.
Last night I turned on the pre-show on Fox, but I quickly became bored and turned it off. I just didn’t enjoy what they where doing on the pre-show, but I was interested to see who got to open the show and who was in the first match. I thought it would be a pretty big deal to open the show or get to be in the first match. I was figuring that it would be a wrestler that WWE was high on and that they’d have some type of interaction with one of the many special guest that had been advertised for the show and I guess I was kind of right.
Becky Lynch was the first wrestler out to start Smackdown. As Lynch was doing her promo she was interrupted by Baron Corbin. as the banter was going o between these two they where interrupted by Dwayne Johnson who WWE fans know as “The Rock”. If you’ve seen “The Rock” perform in the WWE before you kind of knew what you where in for. He did his usual shtick, but he was very entertaining and the fans loved him. After “The Rock” with some help from Lynch made fun of Corbin the segment ended with Corbin being beaten down by “The Rock” and Lynch which the crowd again loved.
I flipped over to check the score of the New York Yankees/Minnesota Twins game; so I didn’t see the introduction for the first match, but I got back to Smackdown before the first match started.
I was a little surprised to see that Lynch not only got to do the opening segment, but was also in the first match. Lynch teamed with Charlotte Flair against the team of Sasha Banks and Bayley. In the end Lynch and Flair picked up the win as Flair was able to make Bayley tap out to her figure eight finisher.
Now I was done with the WWE and Smackdown after this match; so I don’t know how the rest of the show went, but there are some very interesting take a ways just from these two opening segments.
While Lynch her “The Man” persona started on Smackdown she is currently the RAW women’s champion, but she was chosen to open this show. Corbin just won WWE’s King of the Ring tournament, but he is also a RAW wrestler. Now I know that it’s typical for wrestlers from one of WWE’s show to show up on another show even though I believe this is going to end by Fox’s choice. It’s interesting that the first two wrestlers to make appearances on Fox’s new show where wrestled that are prominently featured on WWE’s other show.
Maybe it’s just me and I’m reading too much into it, but I would’ve thought that a new show would’ve wanted to feature a performer from it’s show to start off.
If you watched Smackdown let me know what you thought of it and let me know fi I missed anything of note since I turned away after the first match.
We had four MLB playoffs games last night as every playoff team was in action.
The first game of the day saw the Houston Astros win the first game of their series with the Tampa Bay Rays 6-2. Justin Verlander went 7 shutout innings striking out 8 as he got the win for Houston.
The next game saw the Atlanta Braves even up their series with the St. Louis Cardinals at one game apiece as the Braves picked up a 3-0 win in Game 2.
Mike Foltynewicz pitched 7 shutout inning for the Braves while Adam Duvall came up with a big pinch hit 2-run homer in the bottom of the 7th to make it a 3-0 game. After getting knocked around in Game 1 Mark Melancon picked up a save. Melancon did give up 2 hits, but also stuck out two in his inning of work.
There where five home runs hit in Game 1 of the New York Yankees/Minnesota Twins series and even though the Twins out homered the Yankees three to two the Yankees picked up the win in Game 1 10-4.
Neither starting pitcher made it into the 5th inning, but James Paxson the Yankees starter got close pitching 4 2/3rds. Jose Berrios the Twins starter pitched 4 innings. The Yankees put the game away by scoring 2 runs in the 5th and 6th inning and 3 runs in the 7th inning. Even though Tommy Kahnle gave up a run in the 2/3rd of an inning he worked he still got credit for the win.
The day of baseball wrapped up with the Washington Nationals evening up their series with the Los Angels Dodgers by getting a 4-2 in in Game 2 if that series.
Coming off his first career relief appearance in the Nationals wild card victory Steven Strasburg return to his role as a starter and picked up the win going 6 inning and striking out 10. Clayton Kershaw was solid for the Dodgers, but his bad luck in the post season continued as he took the loss despite pitching 6 solid innings.
The National League teams are off today, but we’ll get Game 2 in each of the American League series today.
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