Last week, WWE produced one of the best episodes of Smackdown, possibly ever. Not since the days of Eddie Guerrero lying, cheating, and stealing has their been an episode of “the blue brand” that’s been completely and utterly compelling.
The NXT invasion of Smackdown was amazing. It showed the WWE’s ability to be spontaneous, and it showed when they’re backed into a corner, they can and they will come out swinging. The show was unpredictable, it had terrific matches, including the obvious best WWE televised match of 2019 in Daniel Bryan versus Adam Cole. Most importantly, the episode had you riveted to your seat. You felt there were stakes. Everything mattered. Everything was important.
Simply put, it was great.
Sadly, this week, Smackdown on FOX 11/8 episode in Manchester, was a return to a form. And that’s not a good thing. The emphasis on NXT was lessened tremendously. Replacing the spontaneity of last week were forced promos with dog poop bags, and a crowd that was fairly dead. Matches didn’t have drama, or stakes — they were fairly cold, or just done to death.
Simply put, it the Smackdown on FOX 11/8 episode was better served as background noise than must-see television.
Was it Smackdown on Fox 11/8 of pure hot garbage? No. There was some good on the episode, so let’s get to it.
The New Day winning the tag titles was great! However, I don’t get it. Are we just kind of forgetting about Kofi and the WWE Title? Is that all not important anymore? So we just wiped his wonderful run away in 10 seconds? That’s fantastic. Yes, that’s sarcasm. But, honestly New Day and The Revival don’t have bad matches. Like, ever.
Imperium coming out to brawl with Heavy Machinery was fun. However, there’s so many issues I have with this. And maybe this is the vodka talking, but holy biscuits you guys, why not try and get NXT: UK over in this segment?
Why not have Matt Riddle and Keith Lee come out to brawl with Heavy Machinery. Have the locker room come out and surround the ring. Someone, maybe Lee or even Triple H, say something to the fact “You think NXT is just in the United States?” And then have the NXT: UK roster come out and lay waste to the under card of Smackdown. Look what having the NXT gang on the show last week — their ratings increased exponentially! Instead of having Imperium pop up, why not have everyone show up and cause havoc? Why not incorporate them into Survivor Series? Why not put eyes on that product?
But what do I know?
Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura with Sami Zayn aka “The Heel Stable That Should Be Running Smackdown” took on the super team of Ali and Shorty G. I’ve never commented on the whole Shorty G thing before. Simply put. It’s terrible. You know what wasn’t terrible? This match. It was so much fun. Heels Inc. won the match when Ali got pinned after shenanigans.
This match also allowed for a great Daniel Bryan segment. He was scouting the match, and backstage we saw Sami Zayn actively recruiting him to join his squad. First, yes. Make this happen. Second, give me a Sami and Bryan feud if it doesn’t happen. However, this lead to something I wasn’t expecting — THE FIEND. Yes, I was legitimately stunned that the light flickers during Sami and Bryan’s interaction meant The Fiend was coming. And this makes total sense. Clutch my pearls, logic in WWE! Bryan and Bray have a history and WWE needs to bring this up. This feud is going to be print money. Bryan isn’t going to be the scaredy cat that Seth Rollins was, and these two are going to be great together in the ring.
Sasha Banks took on Nikki Cross next. First, let’s say this. Sasha’s heel entrance SLAPS. It is so damn good. The match itself was pretty solid, however, what’s the end game? We focused on Nikki slapping around Bayley. But Nikki isn’t challenging Bayley at Survivor Series — it’s Bayley vs. Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler. It’s just this weird 50/50 booking thing WWE does and after seeing logic in the booking literally everywhere else in wrestling — NXT, AEW, Impact, NWA, MLW — it’d be nice if WWE had some.
The dead crowd came to life when Shayna Baszler did a repeat run-in on Bayley. Shayna’s the goods, and the crowd is into it.
In a match to determine who will be on Sasha Banks’ team at Survivor Series it was Fire & Desire vs. Dana Brooke & Carmella. Since WWE didn’t specify who Banks’ team is fighting (that’d be important) I did some research and it looks like Banks will lead a five woman team against another five woman team. No brand specifications. Listen, if you don’t tell me why I should care about a match, I’m really not going to.
As for the match itself, it was perfectly fine. Dana Brooke should be commended not only on the terrific shape she’s in (not that she was ever not in good shape), but also how exponentially better she is in the ring. Good for her. She’s put the work in and it shows. However, her and Carmella — a fairly new team — beating an established team that’s in dire need of direction is not the best logic.
Tyson Fury came to the ring in some jaunty purple trousers. He cut a babyface promo which popped the UK crowd. He calls out Braun Strowman and says he wants to tag with The Monster Among Men. Makes sense. I can get behind this. The B Team comes out. The B Team talks shit. The B Team gets decimated.
So, Tyson Fury. Super problematic dude. WWE probably shouldn’t be using him. However, we can’t put undo this. I think he’s charismatic enough to be a WWE attraction post-retirement. However, unless he starts training like a son of a gun, he’s best served as an attraction paired with someone more competent in the ring like Braun.
In the main event. we got the absolute snore that was Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin. Last week we had Daniel Bryan battle Adam Cole in a thrilling, stakes-filled main event. It had drama, it had great wrestling, it was perfect. This week the main was complete BS. No one cares about this “feud.” With Survivor Series coming up, this feud means absolutely nothing It’s RAW vs. Smackdown (we guess) vs. NXT. Corbin and Roman’s issues mean nothing. Build the damn Survivor Series match not some D Level feud you’re going to stretch out for months on end. For some reason Dolph Ziggler and Robert “Bobby” Roode came out to help Corbin. Yawn, don’t care. Their interference in the match cost Roman the match, and the crowd went…home and didn’t care.
Final Thoughts: Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ, WWE. You had such a beautiful thing happen last week. You saw how it not only helped NXT gain massive ratings, but also help the ratings for Smackdown. So instead of altering the course and doing something new, fresh, and different you run the card you planned on last week. Instead of pushing Survivor Series as an undeniable must-watch show, something your shows outside of Wrestlemania have not been, you go with this mediocre garbage. Instead of giving the hard push to NXT, and GOD FORBID NXT: UK to help put eyes on the product, you give us Baron Corbin holding poop bags. You give us this lousy episode of television.
With all the great wrestling on TV, “just okay” doesn’t cut it anymore. WWE needs to realize this.
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