Match Ratings For WWE Smackdown Live 5/7/19, Podcast Notes From Sean Ross Sapp

Opening Segment

• AJ Styles says he missed Smackdown Live. He’s been gone for like three weeks.
• Styles tries to explain the Wild Card. He doesn’t do it very well.
• Sami Zayn is out as WILD CARD NUMBER TWO and Styles.
• New Day are out now and they kind of dance around the WILD CARD. They also make fun of Sami Zayn for smelling real bad.
• Kofi Kingston challenges both guys in the ring to a title match, and says he doesn’t care who it is.
• The Kofi title run has been very good. No fear, acts like a babyface champion should.

Backstage Crappenings

• Kevin Owens is shown earlier today. He went home because it’s his birthday.
• We get a really, really long Roman Reigns video.
• Where’s Liv Morgan? Eric Young? Nikki Cross? Buddy Murphy?
• Matt Hardy comes out and talks Jeff’s injury. R-Truth interrupts in a friendly manner, but intentionally forgot about Lars Sullivan. Lars is there, and Matt Hardy hilariously squares up. Lars takes both of them out. Truth gets powerbombed through a table. The camera work was miserable.
• Aleister Black is MOODY AGAIN.

Ali vs. Andrade (w/ Zelina)
N/A

• Ali has a video promo that rules. These are in his style and his vision, and that’s the right way to do it. Zelina also cuts a pretty good promo on the way to the ring.
• Andrade was one of those guys I was told last year that people had to campaign to just get on the screen, then when he had a big match Vince fell in love.
• Vince is still high on Andrade, especially since his English is coming around.
• They have a good back and forth, but Randy Orton interferes. He ends up catching Ali off a springboard with an RKO.

Tag Team Champions

• Shane McMahon trashes Miz for using a chair on him.
• Shane talks about the tag team division, and who deserves the tag team titles.
• He brings out Daniel Bryan and Rowan.
• The Usos come out and say they want the titles to be earned. Shane McMahon makes the match.

Smackdown Tag Team Championships
Rowan & Daniel Bryan defeated The Usos to become champions
6/10

• Rowan and Bryan work surprisingly well as a team early on.
• Jey Uso is getting worked over and mounts a comeback, but Rowan cuts him off with a great body press.
• We come back to see Bryan hit a basement dropkick. He applies a Lebell Lock, but gets superkicked hard.
• Rowan is going for the Recycle Bin, but gets superkicked to death. An Uso Splash can’t pin him.
• Bryan doing the running knee outside scares me.
• The Recycle Bin gets the win for Rowan and Bryan.
• Backstage, Bryan and Rowan run into Heavy Machinery, who congratulate them. Bryan just shakes his head. Heavy Machinery got no reaction.

Shane

• Shane is supposed to make some Money in the Bank announcement.
• Miz attacks him. That’s five. Five. Jesus Christ.
• The B-Team attacks Miz, but Miz overpowers them.
• Shane returns with a chair and lays Miz out.

Fire & Desire defeated Ember Moon & Carmella
5/10

• Carmella does the Mella Go Round, but gets speared by Deville.
• Ember Moon comes in and dominates Mandy.
• There are a lot of strikes and a lot of “OOH” calls from commentary.
• Sonya sacrifices herself to eat a suicide dive from Ember. Mandy wins with Angel’s Wings!
• Not sure why Ember Moon couldn’t hang around on Raw to lose pointless tag matches.
• Paige comes out and says she traded up from Fire & Desire to Asuka & Kairi Sane. They’re having a match next week.

WWE Championship
Kofi Kingston (c) (w/ Xavier Woods) defeated Sami Zayn and AJ Styles
6/10

• Well, I guess this answers it. It’s a triple threat match.
• Kofi pretty quickly hits his slingshot Vader Bomb.
• Styles is FOLDED on the Kingston Splash.
• Back from commercial, Zayn lands an outstanding superplex. He’s rewarded with a super Frankensteiner from AJ.
• Kofi does an SOS on Styles, while Styles DDTs Zayn.
• Kevin Owens shows up and attacks Xavier Woods. I’m confused why he’s out here at all. He has a match with Kofi in a few weeks.
• Zayn hits the Blue Thunder Bomb and doesn’t even acknowledge Owens. A second hits, but it’s kicked out of. He goes to the well a third time, and no good.
• Trouble in Paradise and Kofi wins.

Rating guide

10- Perfect, 9- MOTY Territory, 8- Excellent, 7- Great, 6- Good, 5- Average to above average, 4- Slightly below average, 3 or below: Poor

Each match starts at a 5 and slides up and down based on entertainment, execution, time, environment, reaction and stakes. The ratings are in no way an indication of a “star rating,” which is a completely different system. A standard, non-offensive “TV match” lands at a 5.The gap between 5.75-6 is generally the largest, with anything reaching 6 being recommended viewing.

These are opinions, and incredibly inconsistent ones. Don’t take them too seriously, and have (and share) your own!