Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show by speaking about last night’s episode of Smackdown Live.

He points out that Smackdown live announcer, Greg Hamilton has stopped pausing for the audience to repeat ‘One Fall’ during his ring announcements. Taz says that as commentators and announcers, your main goal is to get the wrestlers over because they’re the stars. For this reason, it didn’t surprise Taz that Vince McMahon and WWE finally shut down Hamilton’s gimmick.

Taz says that the fans are attending WWE shows to have a good time, and they mightn’t understand why WWE would shut down something like this. He points out that once the audience starts focusing on ring announcers, that takes away from the talent who WWE are actually investing money in. For this reason, they don’t want any type of focus on announcers.

He points out that WWE is a very structured business, and working in ECW was the complete opposite of this. If an ECW performer came up with a cool idea and it started to catch on with fans, Paul Heyman would just ride with it and see how it plays out. In WWE, things don’t always work that way because if you come up with a cool idea it still mightn’t be what WWE Officials have in mind for you, so they might shut it down anyways.

Block 2:

Taz points out that we saw three more NXT women show up to Smackdown Live last night, attacking both Becky Lynch and Charlotte. He wonders if there is any connection between Paige’s attack on RAW and the Ruby Riot-led attack on Smackdown Live. He also thinks Daniel Bryan is involved in this angle in some fashion, due to the way he reacted in his backstage interview with Shane McMahon right after the NXT debuts.

Taz mentions that according to reports, The Miz dropped his Intercontinental Championship to Roman Reigns on RAW this week due to the fact that he’s going to be off television for the immediate future while he films a movie. This makes sense to Taz, but he still would have preferred if the Title was passed to someone who needed it, rather than Reigns.

He points out that Shane McMahon appeared to have some issues during his opening in-ring promo segment last night. He says that WWE’s promos have become so scripted, that when the performers forget a line or two they get completely thrown off. If performers were allowed the freedom to just hit bullet points while talking like themselves, you’d see less and less promos where performers lose their way.

He adds that guys like The Rock and Triple H aren’t overly scripted and that’s why they’re so entertaining on the mic. They never seem to lose their way during promos because their promos aren’t scripted word for word. Taz thinks WWE needs to revisit their attitude era policies when it comes to letting talents talk with some freedom during their promos.

Blocks 3 & 4:

Taz liked The Bludgeon Brothers’ debut, and he was particularly impressed by Luke Harper’s physique. Harper appeared to be more muscular than normal and Taz assumes that he’s been spending some quality time in the gym as of late. However, he feels that WWE might be trying too hard with these characters, in regards to their props and ring gear. In either event, these two big men brought the goods when the bell rang and the audience seemed to get behind it.

Taz adds that it only seems like yesterday that Mojo Rawley won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania. It looked like WWE was preparing to push Rawley hard after that victory but that never happened. Taz says this is an issue in WWE, because starting a push and stopping it prematurely does no one any good.

Taz hated the fact that Bobby Roode and Nakamura were at ringside, working as lumberjacks during the main event match of Smackdown Live last night. If WWE was determined to have these guys included, they both should have had an entrance.

He points out that WWE could have had Nakamura make his entrance, went to break, and then came back from break with Roode’s entrance. This would have made those guys feel more special than all the other lumberjacks, and that’s the way they should be presented. After that, the competitors in the match could have had their entrances and the match could have started.

That sums up today’s episode of The Taz Show. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya tomorrow for another recap!