Smackdown Live Review 11/21/2017

Hello Misfits. It’s time for this weeks Smackdown Live review. Its the first Smackdown Live since Survivor Series which Smackdown lost to Raw 4-3 in the battle of Brand Supremacy. Its time to figure out what the fall-out to all of this will be. How will Owens and Zayn be punished for interfering in the main event? Will Natalya be able to defeat Charlotte Flair to regain the Women’s Championship in her rematch tonight? Whats next for AJ Styles and when will Jinder Mahal officially use his entitled rematch for the championship? Whats next for The New Day? The only thing for sure about Smackdown is that nothing is for sure and you’ll never know how will or won’t be on the program so lets get to it.

Smackdown comes to us live from Toyota Centre in Houston, Texas.

–  Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton and Corey Graves are on commentary.

Shane McMahon confronts KO and Zayn
Shane McMahon starts the show talking about Smackdown coming up short at Survivor Series, and how Stephanie will try and spin it in her favour, but Smackdown proved they belonged. He praises the Smackdown roster for Survivor Series and their efforts every night, but calls out Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn for their actions and demands they come to the ring.
Owens says it must be hard for Shane to constantly come out and make excuses.  Sami wonders if it’s harder for Shane to make excuses or apologize for being failing. Owens says Shane should seek forgiveness for leaving them off of his team, and claims they can beat anyone RAW has to offer. They bring up The Shield and Brock Lesnar. Shane says Owens and Zayn don’t have any respect for anyone, but Shane says this will be easy… Owens cuts him off and says he can’t fire them because they are too valuable, and there isn’t anyone who doesn’t think they’re the best. Shane calls them delusional and says he will take pride in this, and the Smackdown locker room doesn’t respect egos like theirs. Shane goes to fire them but Daniel Bryan cuts him off, and he says there’s a more temporary solution they can use to deal with the duo. Bryan says they can prove they can beat anyone on any given night, and they will face The New Day… with the whole locker room surrounding the ring in a lumberjack match!
Opinion
I thought this was a solid opening segment. I liked the idea that Shane really dislikes both for these guys personally to the extent that he would look past their star value and talent to fire them. It also shows that there is tension building between Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon as they dont seem to be on the same page on decisions. Also the fact that Shane McMahon seems to just be making a lot of decisions without talking to Bryan. The only thing I found off was how positive Shane-O was after the blue brand lost the brand supremacy battle but I guess his promo explained he optimistic view.

Shelton Benjamin w/ Chad Gable def. Jey Uso w/ Jimmy Uso
In a back and forth competitive match Shelton Benjamin picked up the win over Jey Uso when Gable distracts Jey, but Jey takes him out which causes Jey to miss the top rope splash. Benjamin hits pay dirt and covers Jey for the win.
Opinion
This was a great match to further progress the rivalry between the two teams before it leads to another tag title match. It’s weird but in my brain when a tag team wrestler loses in a single match, I feel like it doesn’t hurt them at all. If the team loses, yeah sure it doesnt look good. However, if a single member loses in a singles match, whatever. It also helps build the rivalry between the two teams to have single matches like this. I would not be surprised to see Jimmy take on Gable next week.

– Kevin and Sami try to get Baron Corbin on their side, and he refuses.

– They now try to recruit Bobby Roode, and he also refuses. He also reminds them that he owes them for Survivor Series.

-Naomi gets her makeup done, but is upset Smackdown lost at Survivor Series. Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan arrive. They kick the shit out of Naomi, until Becky Lynch makes the save, but the numbers game gets to her and they beat her down. They trap her in a door and slam it on her repeatedly. Wow this was awesome but also very similar to what we saw on Raw the night earlier in so many ways. The fact that there is one punk/goth girl, a tough/scary brunette and a hot/agressive blonde on both of the female trios that made their debut on Raw and Smackdown this week makes you wonder if there is a connection or not.

– Shane meets with Bryan and is questioning the moves he’s making without consulting him. Shane has had time to cool down and is going back to the hotel to relax and watch the show.

The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper & Rowen) def. The Hype Bros
In a quick match to reintroduce Harper and Rowen the Bludgeon Brothers defeated the Hype Bros after a double team crucifix slam finishes Rawley.
Opinion
This served its purpose and the Bludgeon Brothers dominated the Hype Bros. Its great to see Rowen and Harper back and I always thought they made a badass team. It always blew my mind that they never won the tag titles on the main roster while they were a part of the Wyatt Family. This possibly might be their opportunity to do so. It’ll be interesting to see how their repackaged characters play out over the next month. I still just think they’re Luke Harper and Erick Rowen from the Wyatt Family cosplaying.

– Natalya is interviewed. Natalya says Charlotte got lucky, but she will win her title back tonight. Natalya made a funny comment about how 2Paws could beat Alexa Bliss and how she will prove that she will be the champion forever tonight.

AJ Styles Speaks
AJ Styles comes to the ring and the fans are hot for him. Styles says that he wishes he could come out and celebrate slaying the beast, but he came up just a bit short at Survivor Series. AJ says he got a lot of praise from people including Paul Heyman, and he will point out that Brock Lesnar was the one limping to the back at the end of the match. He does mention that he said it himself before that, there are no second place trophies in the WWE. He says anytime Brock wants to go again he’s game, and notes Rocky Balboa won the fight in the second movie too.
AJ moves on to Jinder Mahal who threatened to take his title on Smackdown Live and says if Jinder wants to take his title he came come try, and dares him to fight on the spot. Jinder appears on the Titantron and says he’s too busy watching AJ Styles lose to Brock Lesnar on the WWE Network and that he comes to the ring when he wants. Jinder continues by saying he would have beaten Brock, and AJ took advantage of him when they fought because he wasn’t ready because he was training for Lesnar and in midst of the European tour. Jinder says they will fight when he sees fit, and he’s officially invoking his rematch clause at WWE Clash of Champions. Jinder laughs maniacally as the Singh Brothers attack Styles from behind, but AJ gains the upper hand and takes them both out. He even hit one with a Styles Clash as Jinder watches from the screen.
Opinion
AJ Styles is over as fuck. I loved how over he was with the fans and how they chanted with his “Smackdown Live is the house AJ Styles built” catchphrase. I honestly feel like Styles is the face of SD Live being there since the brand extension took effect and featured regularly whereas others either jumped to Raw, came from Raw or are missing a lot of weeks such as Orton and Cena.  I know I’ve been tuning into Smackdown Live every week to see what Styles was up to. Styles was really good at addressing his match with Lesnar and I really liked the way he left an open challenge to Lesnar for a rematch which would be amazing. He was also good with moving forward by focusing on Mahal. I’m glad AJ is back on the top position and this time he’s the champion as a babyface which is different from the last time he was champion. He’ll get to work with a heel that the fans legitimately hate in Jinder Mahal. Jinder did good with his promo tonight and his facial expressions were on point. I was kind of hoping he would have come out after Styles destroyed the Singh Brothers but I understand waiting. The Singh Brothers can never catch a break.

– Sami and Kevin meet with Rusev and English. They praise English’s singing and mention the injustice Rusev has been facing in the past few weeks due to the authority on Smackdown Live as they ask for help tonight. Rusev deserves more!

Womens Championship
Charlotte Flair (C) vs. Natalya Neidhart 
This was a competitive match that ended in a no contest due to the interference of Ruby Riot, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan. The three girls beat down both Natalya and Charlotte and are left standing tall.
Opinion
The match was going really well. It felt like they were just picking up pace for the finish when Ruby Riot, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan appeared. Once again this was very similar to what happened on Raw the night before with Paige, Sonya and Mandy but in the opposite order. It was a mid match attack and then backstage attack on Raw whereas on Smackdown it was a backstage attack and then a mid match attack. I did enjoy it. I think its fresh and intriguing. I just have a few concerns and questions. Why is there so many women on the main roster when they struggle using the ones they already have? Is this leading to a womens Royal Rumble? Womens tag titles? There are a ton of women on the main roster and only two major titles in their division. I’m going to give the WWE the benefit of the doubt about this working out but hopefully these huge debuts will lead to big changes for 2018 in the women’s division.

– Daniel Bryan is questioned about the new NXT ladies, but has no comment. Interesting. Kevin and Sami arrive. They know they will get ripped limb from limb. They try to remind him how valuable they are. Bryan wishes them good luck.

Lumberjack Match
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn  def. The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E w/ Xavier Woods)
In a entertaining main event where the lumberjacks played a biased role by only attacking Zayn and Owens for most of the match until breaking down and fighting each other, Zayn stole the victory after a scramble by pinning Kingston with a roll-up.
Opinion
This was a fun match. The lumberjacks not attacking The New Day members but stampeding and pummelling Zayn and Owens anytime they were outside of the ring was entertaining. Of course it ended in the typical lumberjack match finish, where the lumberjacks start brawling amongst each other. This allowed the match to break down even more which allowed Zayn to sneak the victory. I enjoyed this. It showed in this match that when your superstars have character it can make even the most basic match feel entertaining.

Owens bails and that leave Sami behind to get his ass beat by the New Day. Owens escaped and met with Bryan backstage. Owens asks if they will be fired, and begs him not to fire them. Bryan says he was never going to fire them, he recognizes their talent and value. However, next week KO faces Randy Orton. Owens thanks Bryan even thought his not too happy to have to face Randal.

Final Thoughts
This was a great show to follow Survivor Series. There was a lot storyline stuff during this show which I enjoyed. New women were introduced, tensions between Shane and Bryan become more evident and matches for the upcoming PPV are beginning to be built. Next week we get KO vs Orton, Styles vs. The Singh Brothers and a new episode on the Fashion Files which I’m sure will help build to the next PPV. There was tension between Roode and Corbin during the main event which makes me ponder is Roode will be going for the US Championship next. Also Smackdown introduced three new women and about 3 others were left off TV. It really makes me concerned that some of the women are just going to be forgotten with this stacked womens roster.  Overall, this was an entertaining episode of Smackdown Live and it got me looking forward to next week.
Rating – 7/10

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