BRM Reviews the 11/6/2020 Smackdown

Post Reply
User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

BRM Reviews the 11/6/2020 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 11th, '20, 19:16

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS BAYLEY- fine
This wasn’t good, but it did at least bring the big idea here- that Sasha always loses the belt in her first defense- to the forefront of our minds right before the title match.


WWE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Sasha Banks(c) vs. Bayley- 7.75/10
Holy sh*t, we got a clean finish here in a nice, long match! And Sasha won! I was expecting some sort of f*ck finish and that they would keep going with this feud into December.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t care for it.
Carmella attacks Sasha from behind on the ramp and lays her out. We’ve got over six weeks until the next PPV that isn’t wasted on Raw vs. SD, so having Carmella come out and attack Sasha now has me worried that we’re in for six weeks of talking in circles and doing the same stuff time after time. At least let Carmella get some wins on TV so she feels credible before having her attack Sasha. Also, can we please let Sasha celebrate her accomplishment for a week before laying her out again?
Can I construct a scenario where doing things this way is necessary? Yes. (Carmella is punished for attacking Sasha ahead of her important match with Asuka by not being allowed to be on the Survivor Series team because she’s not a team player, and thus you have a reason why she’s not in the match to and thus doesn’t have to get beaten) but I highly doubt that’s going to happen, because if they were putting that much thought into making sure their challengers felt worthy before a title shot, they would have given Carmella some wins before doing this).

KEVIN OWENS & JEY USO BACKSTAGE- Good… I think?
This got some important points over (Owens and Jey are on the same team at Survivor Series, Owens is a babyface and is worried about Jey, Jey is taking his oath of loyalty to Roman seriously and doesn’t appreciate Owens joking about it), but the interaction was so awkward (more on Owens’ end than Jey’s) that it was hard to concentrate on anything else. And if that was the point (and I think it was), bravo. If it wasn’t, then this was bad.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS JEY USO- hated it
Other than her first question, Kayla felt too much like she was trying to stir up sh*t rather than ask an important question (which is fine for a heel interviewer, but Kayla is a babyface). Heyman shutting the interview down because Roman didn’t authorize it means that neither Roman nor Heyman gave enough of a sh*t to look at the format for tonight’s show. Either that or Roman is being spiteful on purpose, which doesn’t serve Roman’s purposes at all because he already has Jey complying with his demands. He should be rewarding Jey right now, not antagonizing him.
The worst part of this, though, was Jey’s response to why he attacked Daniel Bryan. He said that he considers Bryan a friend, but he did it because of “family.” In other words, Jey is so worried about being kicked out of the family that he’ll assault a good friend who has done nothing to him, simply to avoid Roman decreeing that the others can’t talk to Jey or whatever. Where is the line, then? What if Roman told him to kill someone? Would the others really obey Roman’s order to not talk to him if he refused to commit a murder? I know that sounds like reductio ad absurdum, but if the rest of the family will obey a decree to not talk to Jey because he refuses to do something morally reprehensible (like assaulting an innocent person), then Jey ought to rethink things. I’m sure his wife’s family will happily take in him and his children. Spend time with that family and not these clearly morally bankrupt Anoa’is.

DOMINIK AND REY MYSTERIO BACKSTAGE- good segment
Rey’s match is next but he’s not dressed because he’s trying to call Aalyah. Dominik rushes over to him to warn him about the match. Rey asks Dominik if he has seen Aalyah today and he says no. Rey tells Dominik to go get him his gear while he keeps calling. Corbin jumped Rey, and Dominik ran back to chase him off.

ROMAN REIGNS, PAUL HEYMAN, & JEY USO BACKSTAGE- mostly good
I think my problem here was more with the premise than anything else, and I explained those issues above, but I will say that until Roman said “it sounds like he’s disrespecting you,” I was worried that Roman was going to start acting like the stereotypical villain, being controlling for controlling’s sake. Thankfully, he didn’t. Roman was GREAT here, both in his manipulation of Jey and his scolding of Heyman after Jey left. I can’t in good conscience say Roman is a worthy contender for best promos this year, but that’s much more a nod to how great Taz, MVP, Bobby Gunns, and Pat McAfee have been than it is a criticism of Roman.

WINNER QUALIFIES FOR THE SMACKDOWN MEN’S SURVIVOR SERIES TEAM: Baron Corbin vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. (w/Dominik Mysterio)- 6.25/10
Corbin’s attack meant that Rey didn’t get a chance to change into his gear. I don’t think the announcers mentioned this once, which seems like a big miss to me.
Corbin dominated early on, but Rey made a comeback…and, of course, Seth picked that moment to come out… and, of course, this was the cue to go to a commercial break. One of the easiest things WWE could do to make their show feel less scripted was not always go to commercial break on the same notes, and to sometimes make a point of NOT going to commercial when one of those notes is hit.
Corbin eventually took a cheap shot at Dominik, which resulted in Dominik not being able to defend himself when Seth attacked him. Rey had to go save Dominik, resulting in him giving up an advantage and losing. He was also distracted by Murphy and Aalyah coming out. Aalyah told Rey that Murphy was here to help, and they came out soon enough after Seth was dealt with that this still felt plausible.

WINNER QUALIFIES FOR THE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S SURVIVOR SERIES TEAM: Natalya vs. Zelina Vega vs. Ruby Riott- 2/10
Just like last week, we had a short three-way match in which the story was that it was a three-way. The story was good, but it would be really nice if we could not make the show feel the same.
The finish here made Nattie look like the biggest loser ever. She locks in the Sharpshooter on Vega, then Ruby also locks a submission hold in on Vega. Nattie lets the hold go to try to take Ruby out, and while she is turning around to get a Ruby, Vega taps out.
Cole flat-out said “we don’t know who” would win the match if Vega tapped while in two different submission. Well, why not? This company has been having non-elimination three-way matches for over twenty years now. I know this situation has come up before, so why the hell hasn’t WWE’s rules committee or whatever come up with an answer to this question?

BIG E. & THE STREET PROFITS BACKSTAGE- This was extremely obnoxious. All of these guys were way too over the top. That laughing at the end had me wanting to change the channel. That being said, I was very happy to see Big E. not sell out in the name of this nebulous “brand loyalty” bullsh*t, refusing to give the Street Profits any inside info on Woods and Kofi.

BILLIE KAY & THE STREET PROFITS BACKSTAGE- pointless and dumb
Billie Kay is a clown. At least the babyfaces pointed out the major flaw in her logic.

WINNER QUALIFIES FOR THE SMACKDOWN MEN’S SURVIVOR SERIES TEAM: Seth Rollins vs. Otis Dozovic- 3/10
Speaking of clowns, Otis makes me want to change the channel. The Mysterios were shown watching backstage, all standing facing the camera while trying to watch a TV that was behind them.
Otis Clownovic was beating SETH ROLLINS fair and square until Murphy came out and distracted him, allowing Seth to win. Murphy then headed to the back, holding his hands in his disciple pose. I assume this is a ruse, simply because if it weren’t it would make Seth and Murphy incredibly stupid for blowing whatever their plan was with Aalyah so that Seth could win a match to be on a team on a meaningless ten-man tag.
We were shown the Mysterios backstage, and Aalyah seemed happy with it. Either she was in on the ruse, or she’s a terrible actress. I hope it’s the former.

ROLLINS AND MURPHY BACKSTAGE- Seth wants to know if Murphy is with him. Murphy says he is with Seth again. I love how everyone sees where this is going other than Seth and Mysterios.

AALYAH CONFRONT MURPHY BACKSTAGE- meh
I’ll give Aalyah a pass on being fooled by this, as she has some major emotional skin in the game. That being said, Murphy really should have found something better to say to her than using Seth’s catchphrase after she confronted him. (Yeah, I guess maybe he thought Seth was still in earshot, but why not send a f*cking text BEFORE you go out and do this?)

MICHAEL COLE’S SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH LARS SULLIVAN- great
They’ve framed Lars so that he looks a lot less… well… freakish. The beard is definitely part of it. Now he’s telling us about being bullied and having his lunch stolen. I’m calling bullsh*t. Mocked and insulted? Absolutely. But the guy being bullied because he’s so much bigger than everyone else doesn’t have his lunch stolen.
They’ve done a tremendous job here of turning Lars into a sadist. Someone who got bullied and emerged from it stronger, but rather than helping others, he decided that he just wanted to become the bully. Other than that one part where he roared and we were supposed to find it scary, he came off GREAT here.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS KEVIN OWENS- great!

JEY USO vs. KEVIN OWENS- 6.5/10
Owens was in control of things, so we cut backstage just in time to see Roman order Heyman to the ring. For those of you wondering Roman Reigns’ “influence with WWE management” (as the announcers put it) is so great that he is allowed to stand facing a TV and watch it like a normal person.
Heyman coming out caused a distraction that Uso capitalized on Owens got control back until Roman came out, distracting everyone and allowing Uso to hit a low blow and win. This was good for the story, but Jey Uso just plain is not a main event singles act and they need to stop pretending that he is.


A lot of the wrestling here was meh and there was a lot of stuff I didn’t like, but this still somehow managed to not feel like a bad show, so good for WWE.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests