blue brand chocolate town
source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

It’s another Friday SmackDown In A Nutshell, and this week the blue brand visits Chocolate Town.

For the uninformed, that would be Hershey, PA-the sweetest place on earth.

But, I digress.

It’s our first live SmackDown in a couple weeks, given the travel and all involved with Elimination Chamber.

And while the blue brand visits Chocolate Town, there is a lot to get into this week.

After all, we are on the Road to WrestleMania.

We know that Brock Lesnar will be there. He promised Paul Heyman as much on RAW.

That will be turned into a contract signing, seeing as we (for now) have a champion versus champion match in Dallas.

There is a lot to be done to set things up, so lets see what happens this week…

SmackDown In A Nutshell: Blue Brand Visits Chocolate Town

blue brand chocolate town

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Let’s unwrap this chocolate covered Nutshell and enjoy!

Best Match of the night:

New Day versus Los Lotharios.

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source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

It was a good match, on a night where we had like…one good match.

Worst match of the night:

Xia Li and Natalya?

smackdown

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Shotzi and Sasha Banks?

Even McIntyre versus Madcap Moss.

Xia’s was too short and felt off.

Shotzi had some issues, match was short, and the highlight was Naomi teaming with Sasha after.

McIntyre against Moss and Corbin feels like we could see that become a tag team match at WrestleMania…but I doubt this is the return of Tyson Fury.

I mean…could you get 3 different matches on the card involving celebs?

Crowd Chants of the Night:

Lots of Suplex City chants

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source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Star of the Night

Brock, Roman, even Heyman.

Like, Paul is still pushing that Lesnar is losing the title next week at the MSG house show.

One, it’s a way to drive tickets (WWE hopes…are they doing that bad?).

Two, it makes you wonder who will be the challenger, if as expected it cannot be Lashley.

Spot of the Night:

The whole segment of Brock destroying the guards.

Like, flipping the table to take three of them out?

Then using the table (I think on the same three?) to put them over the top rop?

Or flinging the chair at the one guy who looked terrified.

Jobber of the Night:

Roman’s security guards.

blue brand

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

That was truly easy.

Honorable mention to Natalya.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

It actually came a bit before the show, but here it is, officially

Not sure how I feel about a unification…though the one question I do want to ask is…will we get a new belt out of it?

And, if we do get a new belt…will it be better than the current ones? I miss the old era titles, like the Hogan/Hart era one.

Botch of the night:

Not a single one, but there were a couple bad exchanges between Shotzi and Sasha Banks.

They called it as a Sasha block (I think), but it looked like Shotzi failed to execute a suplex.

LOL Moment of the night:

Lesnar called the jobber security guards “skid marks”.

Noteworthy Moment:

A few worth throwing out tonight.

One, the title unification match between Lesnar and Reigns is locked in as the Sunday night main event during WrestleMania.

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source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Two, Vince McMahon is set to be a special guest of the Pat McAfee show on Thursday. Not saying he’s going to make a big announcement, but that appearance feels significant.

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source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Also have a SmackDown tag title match next week, Ronda Rousey working a SmackDown match and a new women’s tag team formed.

It was a busy show in Chocolate Town.

Overall lowlights:

I may change my mind after seeing it, but calling Brock-Roman “the biggest WrestleMania match of all time” feels like a stretch.

And while I acknowledge fans seem into it, I am allowed to see a Knoxville-Zayn WrestleMania match as a bad idea.

chocolate town

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Meaning, either we end up with a headline of “Johnny Knoxville, Intercontinental Champion”, or we have a WrestleMania title match that ends in a DQ or something so that Sami retains, but Knoxville wins.

Overall highlights:

While I’ve already said I am skeptical about how they are billing it, the main event segment was good. I don’t feel like it is our biggest ‘Mania match ever though.

I mean, you had Hogan-Warrior, Hogan-Rock, Cena-Rock…and I am surely missing quite a few.

But, forgetting the history, it is getting the big match hype…and I’d bet we see more rent-a-jobbers getting beat up so that Brock and Roman don’t touch until Dallas.

After the final bell:

It was good to get a live episode of SmackDown in a Nutshell, and sweeter because the blue brand was in Chocolate Town.

And, it was a nice live return for the blue brand, but room is there for improvement.

The focus, of course, was on Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns…but the other matches are shaping up too.

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