Kevin Owens had enough of Roman Reigns’ big dogging, Big E & Daniel Bryan were gunning for Sami Zayn’s Intercontinental Title, & sadly Smackdown’s Announce Team did not expand to a three person booth with Billie Kay.
We’re about two weeks away from the last ppv of the year in TLC. So far, nothing has been booked on Smackdown’s side of the card. Did any of that change tonight? Let’s take a look.
A Quick Note On Pat Patterson
Full disclosure, I don’t know much about Pat Patterson’s career outside of him stooging with Gerald Brisco for Vince McMahon during The Attitude Era & him being the first Intercontinental Champion. I’d be doing a disservice to everybody reading to sit here & try to write about the man without the knowledge to back it up. Therefore, all I’ll say is Pat was clearly beloved by lots of people from WWE & may he rest in peace.
Now let’s get to tonight’s Smackdown.
Leave A Message After The B’lee
Roman Reigns is going to mess around & win wrestler of the year while only working for half of it. The guy is above & beyond anything else in WWE currently. And I didn’t say Smackdown, I said all of WWE. This stuff is becoming appointment television & he is the most compelling character they have going right now.
Roman has such an easy narrative to follow too. All he says is wants people to fear him & there will be consequences for Jey Uso if he cannot deliver. Both get paid off tonight. It’s such basic story telling. Cause & effect. I hate to belabor the point, but given everything else on the show, it’s refreshing to see a plot point made & then followed through on logically.
Nobody is spared tonight save for maybe Paul Heyman, who looks like he’s on the verge of a panic attack during the main event, so even that might not be true. Everybody else is annihilated either physically of verbally. It’s great. The first video doesn’t have it, but Hey Kayla gets talked down to literally & figuratively to the point Heyman needs to save her job. Otis is practically fed the ring steps. Kevin Owens has to go it alone & gets choked the hell out & destroyed by chairs for his efforts. Finally, Jey too catches a chair beat down for talking out of turn & not being feared by Kevin Owens in the show’s opening. See. Cause & effect. Jey doesn’t inspire fear. Gets got. Owens & Otis don’t fear him or Roman. Get got. Hey Kayla asks dumb questions. Get lost.
I think my absolute favorite thing about it all is just how much Roman Reigns does not give a shit about wins & losses. We joke about how they don’t matter in WWE anyway, but he’s turning that into a character trait. And I don’t mean like the usual chickenshit heel approach, who take purposeful count outs or use a chair to retain a title via disqualification. Roman really just wants to kick your ass & he could not care less about the referee’s opinion on the matter. To stress the Reigns love even further, I am about the biggest Kevin Owens fan around these parts & I am actively rooting for Reigns to end his existence at TLC. That’s how good he’s been. Keep this Reigns forever.
Main Of The House
Heads up, everybody, as this rest of this show is an absolute disaster.
We get perhaps the biggest possible house show match ever televised with “The Pat Patterson Memorial Six Man Tag”. You know, for all those trios matches he’s been known for that we always see highlights of. It’s Hogan body slamming Andre, Undertaker throwing Foley off a cage, & Pat Patterson six mans. The match itself is perfectly fine in a it’s Tuesday night at a civic center kind of way. Nobody looked bad or anything, but it’s a weird grouping of guys who were all Intercontinental Champions at one point, but don’t really make sense tagging right now. We do get Big E’s old entrance taunt back, which is good, while also getting a new theme, which is decidedly not good.
WWE also decides the best way to honor their first Intercontinental Champion is for the current one to get pinned cleanly when he’s teaming with a pair of guys who never take pins in Shinsuke Nakamura & Dolph Ziggler. I wonder if that puts Daniel Bryan in line for a title opportunity?! Zayn takes the loss & the faces all celebrate by beating up Dolph Ziggler after the match. Like I said, very house show-y. Normally I’m all for Ziggler getting his ass kicked, but this is the FOURTH straight Smackdown or RAW where a challenger has pinned the champion. Bryan tonight, Roode & Ziggler last week, Lana & Asuka back to back Mondays. It’s this Groundhog Day of terrible booking. Stop it.
Sons Of Monarchy
Forget King of The Ring, Corbin is officially the King of Hired Goons. That’s about the fourth different set of underlings he’s had at his side to be his henchman. I guess Mel Brooks was right & it is good to be The King. In case you can’t tell, Corbin’s new hired muscle are Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake, the former Forgotten Sons. I’m sure Jaxson Ryker can be reached for comment on Parler if you guys really want to know where he disappeared to.
The whole reason those two are out there is to have Corbin’s back for his rematch with Murphy after The Mysterios used The Damn Numbers Game last week to cost him a victory. Michael Cole tries to call Corbin a jerk about it, but what? He’s a bad guy for wanting to even the odds after being screwed? Come on, Cole. I know you’re supposed to be the straight man who hates everything the heels do, but that’s one of the worst counter arguments I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.
I like the match enough as Corbin is more than acceptable when he’s actually in a wrestling ring & never talking, while Murphy is low key one of the best workers on the show. That works for a little while, but the inevitable breakdown on the outside & Corbin’s cheap revenge were seen coming a light year away. At the very least, we get another tag team back & Smackdown has something resembling a division now. I’m sure that won’t happen for a while as we’re on to the obligatory six-man tag between The Mysterios & The King-Son Trio.
Gin Blossom’d
Hey, Jealousy!
Just to be sure I have this, Sasha Banks is the current Smackdown Women’s Champion, yet she is somehow jealous of Carmella? I’m not entirely sure, but I don’t think that’s how this usually works. Sasha Banks as a cocky babyface is… not great. I’m struggling to find something to latch onto to get behind her. For some reason it feels like she hasn’t really earned the swagger even after conquering both Bayley & Asuka these past couple months. If you want to say it’s false bravado, I can work with that, but that’s a heel characteristic & basically what Carmella’s going off of.
I do like Carmella’s point that she was a kayfabe hair dresser & shoot cheerleader who became a WWE Champion/Money In The Bank Winner while Sasha has been training for this her whole life. Even then however, Sasha’s body of work absolutely smashes Carmella’s if you compare the two, so while it’s nice shade to throw in Sasha’s face, it still falls a little flat if you do any research on their careers.
I think Carmella is better than most people give her credit for, but I kind of want to see her in a match before we get to the TLC one. She’s been gone for quite some time & throwing her right into a title fight feels a little premature without at least a tune-up match. I also just want to see if she still wrestles the exact same as before just in fire red latex instead. It’s like when you create a wrestler & just get silly with their alternate skin. This is a long way of saying I’m not super confident this match will be good at TLC & would really like something to happen to sway me in the other direction.
The Dullshooter
Can one of you request a Cameo from Vince McMahon so he can contact me & explain just what the hell he’s trying to accomplish here? We’re clearly moving towards a match with Bayley against Bianca Belair down the line. The best way they’ve decided to do that is for Bianca to beat Natalya last week by distraction roll-up & Bayley to… tap out cleanly to Natalya? No interference, no Bianca standing on the apron, or no clapping her hands along to words. Nothing. Just Bayley tapping out cleanly. Bayley. The champion for an entire year. Between this & getting pinned at Survivor Series first, why are they tanking Bayley like this? Is it to knock her down to Bianca’s level since she’s essentially a rookie on the main roster? Has Vince *seen* Bianca Belair? I’d throw her in there against Kota Ibushi & maybe go 50/50 on the odds.
So now we have to get excited for a match between two women who can’t beat Natalya on their own. Cool.
The only thing even resembling some sort of saving grace is the interaction between Bayley & Bianca backstage after the match. Extra bonus points to Bayley for remembering that The Sharpshooter puts stress on your back & not your knees (Michael Cole, if you’re reading, I’m talking to you) & for Bayley also reminding us she is in fact an E-S-T as well, as in the B-E-S-T. Bianca’s sunglasses are also top shelf & I would wear them to the grocery store.
Overall
Worth Your Time: Reigns & Uso vs. Owens & Otis, Reigns’ opening promo
If You Have Time: Six-Man Tag
Don’t Waste Time: Bayley vs. Natalya, Carmella & Sasha’s interview, Corbin vs. Murphy
There’s your show, wrestle friends. One of the poorer showings, I’m not going to lie. I still think the endgame at TLC looks promising with Owens vs. Reigns & Zayn vs. Bryan or Big E, but the women’s stuff is pretty much nonsensical, while the tag division took the week off & I’m low key hoping they take another. That’s not a great sign.
How is TLC shaping up for you, though? Looking forward to any of WWE’s current rivalries coming to head there? Hoping for a Stairs Match? Drop a comment below or on our SRP Discord. We’d love to hear from you & appreciate you stopping by. I’ll see you all next, where you better start fearing Roman Reigns or it’s your ass.
***Programming Note***
I’m not around next Friday, so we’ll either have a Smackdown review a few days later or I’ll do back to back reviews in a single post the week after. We’ll see how the timing shakes out. Or maybe a celebrity post for next week if anyone wants to volunteer.
