Grab your utensils, festive bibs and hearty appetites, because a holiday-themed Wrap Up is headed to the kids' table.
By holiday-themed, I of course mean short. This'll be a quick one. We all want to get out of here and hit the road and/or curl up in bed with a good book that's actually Netflix and not a book at all. It's the season to spend time with our families and/or the lineup of sock puppets we made one day because a Drake song made us sad and eat a lot of yams and junk. Speaking of root vegetables - James Ellsworth!
Human "Human Centipede" Ellsworth is a polarizing figure these days. Hell, even I've gone back and forth on him depending on the week, my mood, how he's used, etc. On some SmackDowns, he's genius. Other times...ehhhh...you kind of just want him to take that final beating and fade off into the event horizon. In fact, I thought that may have been the case with the Braun table toss at Survivor Series a few days back.
But not only have they doubled-down on Ellsworth, they've tripled-down. If that's a thing. He's beaten AJ Styles three times now - the third time this week for an official SmackDown Live contract. The biggest criticism against Ellsworth is that he's kind of an uncharismatic lump with limited skills. Though the fact that he's such a mush is what's working for him right now. His strength, for whatever "lightning in a bottle" reason, rests solely within his mediocrity in the ring and on the mic. That being all that, he does throw a decent superkick.
The second criticism about Ellsworth, basically, has to do with how he's being used to make Styles look like a fool. If you like your heel champs strong, especially when the champ is a top-tier worker like Styles, then you'll be hating on the Ellsworth underdog phenomenon that's taken the Phenomenal One and transformed him into a bit of a clown. On that note...anyone else sort of miss Styles dressing up like a turkey come Thanksgiving time? Oh, TNA. You're still on the air somehow.
BUT, here's what's great about Ellsworth. Inserting this guy into the multi-month feud between AJ and Dean has worked wonders for their specific story. Because look, we all know how feuds go these days. There's a fairly common blueprint that gets followed. The foundation changes a bit depending on if it's a 1 PPV, 2 PPV, or 3 PPV feud, but the song remains the same. Distractions cause roll up-slash-schoolboy losses. One dude will come down to guest commentate and a brawl will ensue. In-ring confrontations, contract signings, separate video packages, sneak attacks (either backstage or post-match) - there are only so many things you can do when two guys got beef. If Bray's involved, you can add some spooky candle-lit corridor action, but other than that, it's lather/rinse/repeat.
Ellsworth has allowed the Ambrose/Styles feud to last four months. Granted, the start of the feud had John Cena in it, so at that point he was the third man, but Ellsworth coming in granted this storyline a wonderful stay of execution. Dean and AJ don't have to do the same things we've seen over and over again. Sure, I suppose Styles losing repeatedly has grown tiresome, but because SmackDown is so good at seizing strange opportunities when they present themselves, and pushing them to the top -- like Heath Slater and Ellsworth -- it's given AJ and Dean a much needed vigor injection. Ellsworth is the middle man, the buffer, preventing the two guys battling for the world title from doing the same old tiresome tricks.
Dean, in particular, was pretty freakin' funny this week, constantly popping back up on the show even though Shane kicked him out. Daniel Bryan almost event lost it at one point thanks to a choice Mountie costume and credible commitment to an old catchphrase.
Following Survivor Series (you can read my live blog/recap-o-rama here), I guess have some complaints about the various commissioner/GM "consequences," but nothing too serious. Steph never fired anyone for losing so that threat was totally empty. Likewise, Coach Undertaker didn't Tombstone anyone on his team for failing either.
Mick Foley, for whatever reason, punished Sami Zayn despite the fact that Miz cheated to win, while over on SmackDown Bryan was ashamed of the way Miz won. Though Bryan didn't seem to have a problem with Ellsworth cheating for Team SmackDown in a sneaky "two hands" way that eliminated Braun Strowman. Very little about the RAW vs. SmackDown Survivor Series feud made sense and, as predicted, now there's really nothing left to show for it.
The results are in and...who cares? RAW's bragging about winning three of the five matches -- which they refer to as "dominating" -- while everything just carries on, as normal, as if the PPV really never took place. Owens and Jericho are still best friends, Dean's still facing AJ at TLC, Ziggler's getting his IC title rematch, Alexa is facing Becky again...it's all the same. The only thing that's really different is that Bray and Randy are going to be a tag team (*single tear rolls down Luke Harper's cheek*). They were the survivors for Team SmackDown so they'll now get to dethrone Slater and Rhyno.
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