SmackDown on Fox Episode #62
SmackDown Episode # 1,111
Orlando, FL – The Thunderdome (Amway Center)
12/4/20
The show opens with the members of the SmackDown roster along with Vince McMahon, Gerald Brisco, Sgt Slaughter, & Bruce Prichard standing at the top of the stage as we get a 10 bell salute for the passing of Pat Patterson.
Pat Patterson’s in-ring career speaks for itself as he was one of the all-time greats and that is why he was chosen to become the first-ever Intercontinental Champion as he set the bar for what would be expected out of all future Intercontinental Champions. As great as Patterson was as an in-ring performer it was his mind that lead to him becoming a pivotal part of the WWE’s growth throughout the 80s and 90s, years before WWE decided to create a whole team of writers it would be Patterson who would serve as McMahon’s right-hand man when it came to the creative process as the two of them (Bruce Prichard would come along later to make it a trio) would sit at McMahon’s pool and would book where the company was headed a year in advance. In addition to booking the creative, he has also been praised as being one of the best finish men in the company as he could come up with many different creative ways for matches to end.
For me personally, the one thing I will always be thankful to Patterson for is the creation of my favorite match of the year which is the Royal Rumble, which almost didn’t happen as McMahon wasn’t a fan of the concept at first and those opinions were validated when a test run of the match at a house show in 1987 completely bombed, however, the key ingredient in making that match work was missing from the 1987 trial run as Pat Patterson wasn’t at the show and because of this nobody in production or even the talent knew how to properly execute the match to where it will grab the attention of the fans.
It wasn’t until January 1988 during a meeting with NBC Executive Dick Ebersol that the Royal Rumble really got a chance to shine, during the meeting they were discussing plans for a special on the USA Network and Ebersol was not a fan of the card that McMahon had planned for the show as he said that nothing really stood out so McMahon gave in and let Patterson pitch the Royal Rumble idea to Ebersol and he absolutely loved it and because McMahon thought so much of Ebersol he decided to give it another shot. On January 28, 1988 history was made as the first official Royal Rumble happened and was an instant hit and at that point, McMahon had no choice but to bring it back every year and now in 2020 it has become the second biggest PPV of the year and has just as much hype surrounding it as WrestleMania does and it all came from the mind of Pat Patterson.
Now that I have waxed poetic about Patterson and the Royal Rumble I should probably get into SmackDown proper.
We get our intro video and then we go into the Thunderdome and cut to the ring where Kayla Braxton is set to interview Roman Reigns, Reigns comes out along with Paul Heyman and Jey Uso. Reigns is not pleased with how Kayla introduced him and tells Heyman to show her how it’s done. We then cut to a video package covering everything that has happened between Reigns and Kevin Owens over the past couple of weeks. Kayla asks him about what was shown in the video and he starts mocking her and belittling her for asking him a stupid question and tells her that he could’ve got Michael Cole to do this interview but Heyman went to bat for her and wanted her to get some time to be relevant on the island of relevancy.
Kayla moves on and asks Reigns what he thinks about people saying he is manipulating Jey Uso and this leads to Reigns getting on Kayla’s case once again as he says he is not a manipulator he is a protector. Reigns finally gets tired of Kayla and gets Heyman to speak for him and Heyman starts talking about how the ratings started rising now that Jey Uso is in the main event every week and that Reigns is responsible for that happening, Heyman continues to talk but is cut off by Kevin Owens who comes to the ring.
KO says that it’s become pretty clear that he doesn’t fear Reigns and Reigns says he doesn’t fear him so why don’t they just fight it out right now instead of waiting for their tag match later in the night. Uso interrupts and accepts on Reigns’ behalf but KO tells him he was talking to the head of the table and not the busboy. KO says that if Reigns doesn’t want to do it tonight then he wants Reigns at TLC in a TLC match, Heyman grabs the mic from Uso before he can say anything else without Reigns’ permission. Reigns says that he has trained Uso well because they don’t back down from a fight so Uso was right when he said Reigns accepts. Reigns tells KO that he is lucky that he isn’t the same man he used to be as he would kick his ass right then, but he isn’t a savage, he is a gentleman and there is a lady in the ring and then he tells KO to grow up.
Reigns, Uso, and Heyman leave the ring but when they start going up the ramp KO asks for the music to be cut as he tells Reigns that he will grow up when Reigns grows some balls because he may claim that he is a gentleman but right now he is acting like a bitch. Reigns continues to walk to the back and doesn’t even acknowledge what Uso said.
I am really enjoying this feud between Owens and Reigns as you have two heavyweights on the mic going back and forth at each other which leads to promo gold, KO is someone who can easily reach the level of greatness that Reigns’ has shown over the past few months on the mic as he is that damn good at promos and in a company full of scripted promos his always sound and feel genuine. As great as their promos have been I am sure the actual match will be just as great as these two have always worked well together and the fact that it’s a TLC match has me even more pumped for the match as they had a No DQ match at the 2017 Royal Rumble which was very good but always gets overshadowed by the Styles vs Cena match that happened later in the night. I loved the fact that the entire time Reigns was talking about Uso you could see Uso glaring at him from over Reigns’ shoulder as it still doesn’t sit well with him how Reigns is treating him, but he is just waiting on the right time before he goes off on him.
Bayley makes her way to the ring as she is in action after the commercial break.
We come back and cut to the back where Uso is fired up about what just happened and he also apologizes for overstepping and accepting the match on Reigns’ behalf, but Reigns calms him down and gives him a pep talk and then tells him that there are consequences for everything he does, but he loves him.
We go back to the ring for our first match of the night.
Match #1: Bayley vs Natalya
Bianca Belair is on commentary for this match.
We get a lockup and then Natalya takes Bayley over with a side headlock but Bayley scissors out of it and both women get back to their feet. Bayley kicks Natalya in the gut and then goes after her arm as she wraps it up in the ropes and then she drops Natalya across the middle rope with a stunner and then starts talking trash to Bianca Belair at ringside before rolling back into the ring to break the count. Bayley gets back out of the ring and hits Natalya with the baseball slide under the bottom rope in the corner of the ring and talks more trash to Bianca while taking her focus off of Natalya who sends her into the steel steps and this sends us to a commercial break.
We come back to Bayley ducking a discus clothesline from Natalya and hitting her with a back suplex for a 2 count. Bayley grabs the legs of Natalya and looks like she may want to apply a Sharpshooter, but Natalya kicks her off and then tries to put one on Bayley but she gets kicked off as well. Bayley runs off the ropes and connects with a knee to the side of Natalya’s head and then hits her own discus clothesline which leads to her mocking Natalya. Natalya dodges a clothesline in the corner and tries for an O’Connor roll but Bayley pushes her off sending Natalya head-first into the middle turnbuckle. Bayley charges in looking for a knee but Natalya moves and then takes Bayley down and locks in the Sharpshooter and for some unknown reason, Bayley taps out in a total shocker.
Winner: Natalya via Submission Match Rating: *½
After the match, Bianca claps at Bayley and we get some more trash talk between them.
WTF was this? Why is someone who was the longest-reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion just months ago and is now in an important feud with Bianca Belair (who is the next big female star) losing to Natalya clean as a sheet in less than five minutes? None of this makes any sense, why would you ever have someone who is in a storyline lose to someone who hasn’t done anything in months? This match left me with so many questions and not in the I can’t wait to see what happens next kind of way, it was more of the how can someone be so stupid kind of questions and that is not a good thing. They should have had my full attention on the Bianca vs Bayley feud by the end of the match and on why someone lost to someone else who has been irrelevant for the past six months.
We come back and see tweets from all of the top people in WWE about the passing of Pat Patterson, we then go to ringside where we see the original Intercontinental Championship which Patterson won “in a tournament in Rio de Janeiro” and that sends us to a fantastic video package highlighting the career and life of Patterson. The video package was done under the music of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” which was a go-to for Patterson whenever he did karaoke which was quite frequently and to make the video package even more emotional they spliced in clips of Patterson singing the song as if he and Sinatra were doing a duet together.
Daniel Bryan and Rey Mysterio make their way to the ring and then we hear some unknown music and it turns out to be Big E (who is returning to action after a couple of months of backstage segments with the Street Profits) who not only has new music but has gone back to his previous gimmick of covering his hands in powder and clapping them together during his entrance.
The three babyfaces will be in action after the break.
We come back and get the entrances of Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura, and current Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn.
Match #2: Rey Mysterio, Daniel Bryan, & Big E vs Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura, & Sami Zayn (Pat Patterson Memorial Match)
Nakamura and Mysterio start the match out with Nakamura kicking Mysterio in the gut and looking for a slam but Mysterio slides out the back and tries for a rear waistlock but Nakamura elbows out of it and takes Mysterio down with a shoulder block, Nakamura runs off the ropes but Mysterio catches him with a flying headscissors and then drags him over to the babyface corner where he tags in Big E, but Nakamura breaks Mysterio’s grip and runs over to the heel corner and makes a tag to Ziggler.
Ziggler tries to take Big E down with both a single leg and a rear waistlock but Big E blocks both attempts and then throws Ziggler over his shoulder. Big E wrenches the arm of Ziggler and drags him over to make a tag to Bryan who comes off the top with an ax handle onto the arm of Ziggler. Bryan hits a couple of uppercuts and then goes to work on the arm but Ziggler shoots him off into the ropes so Bryan takes him down with a shoulder block, it looks like we could be getting a drop-down and leapfrog spot but when Bryan runs to the ropes Zayn grabs his leg which allows Ziggler enough time to attack Bryan from behind. Ziggler sends Bryan into the corner but he backflips off the top turnbuckle and then runs off the ropes and takes Zayn out at ringside with a tope suicida which came out of nowhere. Bryan climbs up to the apron and blocks a punch from Ziggler and then goes up top but Ziggler recovers in time to dropkick Bryan off the top and to the floor and that sends us to a commercial break.
We come back to Ziggler working Bryan over in the heel corner until Bryan starts to fight back and takes down everyone, Ziggler stops his momentum with a kick to the gut and then he sends Bryan into the ropes and after a couple of misses both men crash to the mat when they both try to hit a crossbody, this leads to both men making a tag as Bryan tags in Big E and Ziggler tags in Nakamura. Big E hits Nakamura with the belly to belly trifecta and follows that up with the big splash but doesn’t go for the cover which ends up costing him momentarily as Nakamura counters an Irish whip attempt into a spinning wheel kick. Big E staggers over to the corner and Nakamura charges in but gets taken down with a uranage out of the corner by Big E which gets a 2 count when Ziggler breaks up the pin.
Big E throws Ziggler out to the apron and looks to hit the suicide spear but Ziggler catches him with a knee to the head. Nakamura charges at a dazed Big E but he is caught and scooped up for an attempted big Ending but Nakamura slides out the back and backs into a blind tag from Zayn who charges at Big E but gets passed into the corner, but when Big E charges at him in the corner he moves out of the way sending Big E shoulder first into the ring post, fortunately, this happens in the babyface corner which allows Mysterio to make a blind tag and he takes Zayn down with a springboard sunset flip for a 2 count. Mysterio takes Zayn down with a flying headscissors and attempts to hit the wheelbarrow bulldog, but Zayn counters it into a blue thunder bomb for a very close 2 count.
Zayn tags in Ziggler who tries to hit Mysterio with a splash in the corner but Mysterio moves out of the way and makes a hot tag to Bryan who hits Ziggler with the running dropkick in the corner and then fires away with the corner kicks. Bryan sits Ziggler up top and hits the top rope hurricanrana, but at the last second Ziggler rolls through into a sunset flip for a 2 count. Ziggler goes for a jackknife pin but Bryan bridges out and takes Ziggler over with a backslide for a 2 count. Bryan hits several kicks to the chest but Ziggler ducks the roundhouse and takes Bryan down with a Fameasser for a 2 count when Big E breaks up the pin.
Nakamura takes Big E down with a jumping kick and then he is taken down by a springboard seated senton by Mysterio who is then pulled out of the ring and sent into the barricade by Zayn. Zayn jumps up on the apron and makes a blind tag and then drops back down to the floor, meanwhile back in the ring Bryan ducks a superkick attempt from Ziggler and hits him with the running knee and this is when Zayn gets in the ring and tries to pick up a sneaky win with a schoolboy but Bryan counters it into the Yes Lock, but Zayn is able to get to the ropes.
Bryan grabs Zayn and sends him into the ropes but ducks his head too early which allows Zayn to land a kick and then he hits Bryan with a big brainbuster in the middle of the ring which somehow only gets a 2 count as Bryan counters into a pin of his own which also gets a 2 count. Zayn goes to grab Bryan but gets rolled up in an inside cradle and that is enough to keep Zayn’s shoulders down for the 3 count.
Winners: Rey Mysterio, Daniel Bryan, & Big E via Pinfall Match Rating; ***
After the match, the babyfaces face-off with the heels and they send Zayn and Nakamura retreating to the back leaving Ziggler in the ring by himself, Ziggler tries to beg off and make friends with the babyfaces but they aren’t having it as Bryan hits him with an atomic drop, Mysterio hits him with a 619, and Big E finishes things off with the Big Ending.
This was a really fun match as all 6 men put on a performance that Pat Patterson would be proud of. The match had a very entertaining and unpredictable finishing sequence which was so good that it could’ve come from Pat Patterson himself if he were still alive. I enjoyed the post-match stuff with Ziggler “stooging” around and getting beat down by the babyfaces much like Patterson and Brisco would do during their run during the Attitude Era.
We go to the back where we get an interview with Kevin Owens and he says the reason he has had such a problem with Reigns is that he used to respect him and look up to him as he used to just be one of the boys but he has changed and he can’t understand why. KO realizes that he has had his faults in the past but says he has tried to change and be more gracious around the boys and this leads to Kalisto opening a door and bumping into KO and instead of screaming at him as he would in the past he tells Kalisto that he has a nice fedora (which he is wearing on top of his match) and at first Kalisto gets offended until KO tells him fedora is the name of the hat he has on and then Kalisto walks off. KO calls Reigns a self-absorbed asshole but doesn’t say the world asshole because he doesn’t want to offend their friends at Fox.
Otis walks up and talks about how he and KO are just two blue-collar boys working together and then agrees with what KO said about Reigns. Otis then talks about how he is going to bulldoze straight through Reigns and Uso and then we get a fist bump between Otis and KO to end this segment and send us to a commercial break.
We get another video of more tweets about the passing of Pat Patterson.
We go to a recap video of everything that has gone on between Carmella and Sasha Banks over the past few weeks.
We go to an interview with Carmella and Sasha Banks who are both appearing via satellite.
Michael Cole goes to speak to Carmella first but Sasa cuts him off and says that Carmella got to run her mouth last week so she is going to talk first and this leads to Carmella speaking up and saying that she can already guess what Sasha is going to say which is that she is the boss, the blueprint, the standard, etc. Sasha says she is right and she is also the SmackDown Women’s Champion and that Carmella is the one that attacks her from behind every week because she doesn’t have the guts to do it to her face, but now Carmella has her attention and she is ready to settle whatever problem Carmella has with her.
Michael Cole asks Sasha about what Carmella said last week in that she used to be just like Sasha as she looked for approval from the fans and then Cole asks Sasha if there is a chance that they are more alike than she thinks, Sasha laughs and says that Carmella wishes she could be like her which leads to Carmella calling Sasha a Nicki Minaj wannabe. Sasha says she has known Carmella since the days when they were training at the PC and they used to train every day together and that’s why she can give Carmella props as she runs down Carmella’s accolades but when she mentions that she won the first-ever Women’s Money in the Bank match she is corrected by Carmella who reminds her she won the first two Women’s Money in the Bank matches and Sasha tells her she has needed help every step of the way whether it was James Ellsworth or R-Truth. Carmella says she can’t help that men are obsessed with her which Sasha says she can call it whatever she wants the point still remains the same.
Sasha says that Carmella is out of her league and that is why they have never faced each other one on one and no matter how hard Carmella tries she will never be in her league. Carmella claims that Sasha is jealous of her because Sasha had to work her ass off to get where she is at now whereas Carmella walked into the PC on a whim and became an instant star who is better than Sasha as she held onto the SmackDown Women’s Championship longer than all of Sasha’s title reigns combined and Sasha can’t handle that she is superior to her in every single way.
Carmella says that when Sasha looks at her all she sees is the hot chick that all the guys want and not the fierce competitor like she is, but when they face each other she is going to be the hot chick that embarrasses Sasha and takes her title. Sasha grants her a championship match at TLC but informs Carmella that she has never been in the ring with a badder bitch than her. Carmella tells Sasha bye and snaps her fingers as her feed goes to black and the interview comes to an end.
I thought this segment was really good overall as it did a good job of making me interested in watching the match. The only problem I had with it was that at times during the beginning of the segment it felt like Sasha was teetering on the line of going into the heel Sasha character but she pulled it together and by the end, I was fully invested in what she was saying. I liked the part where Carmella said Sasha was jealous because she became a star overnight while Sasha worked her butt off for years. Hopefully, the match between these two will deliver as Carmella matches can either be surprisingly good or really bad.
Buddy Murphy and the Mysterio family come to the ring as we go to commercial.
We come back and King Corbin makes his way to the ring and this week he is prepared for the Mysterios (who continued to interfere last week in his match against Murphy) as he is joined by two guys in hoodies, while it is never mentioned throughout the match those two men are a clean-shaven Steve Cutler and (Murphy’s old tag partner) Wesley Blake or as I like to refer to them the talented ⅔ of the Forgotten Sons.
Match #3: Buddy Murphy w/ Mysterio Family vs King Corbin w/ Steven Cutler & Wesley Blake
We get a lockup and Corbin pushes Murphy into the corner where he drives his shoulder into the midsection of Murphy until he is forced to back away by the referee, Corbin goes back over to Murphy but eats a back elbow and Murphy looks to come out of the corner on fire but he gets caught by Corbin immediately and is driven back into the corner for some more shoulders to the gut and then Corbin biels Murphy across the ring. Murphy rolls out to the apron but Corbin grabs him and throws him right back into the ring.
Murphy is able to land a kick on Corbin while he is on his back and then he moves out of the way from a big stomp and gets back to his feet where he hits Corbin with a chin breaker but is backdropped out to the apron when he charges at Corbin but Murphy fights him off and goes up top where Corbin grabs him by the throat and attempts to chokeslam him off the top, but Murphy breaks his grip and tries for a sunset flip off the ropes but Corbin doesn’t go down and then he uses his power to pull Murphy off the mat and hit him with several knees to the gut.
Corbin sends Murphy into the ropes and tries for a clothesline but Murphy ducks and hits Corbin with a hurricanrana which sends Corbin to the outside. Murphy hits Corbin with a dropkick through the ropes and then goes out to the apron where Corbin tries to sweep his legs, but Murphy jumps over him and then hits Corbin with a PK. Blake and Cutler move closer to Murphy which serves as enough of a distraction for Corbin to drive him into the apron and then he hits him with a big biel into the timekeeper’s area which ends up knocking the cameraman down and sends us to a commercial break.
We come back to Corbin in control as he is driving he elbows into the neck region of Murphy and then he sends Murphy into the corner and charges toward him but Murphy moves out of the way which leads Corbin to do his slide out and back in spot and hits Murphy with a cobra clutch slam for a 2 count. Cutler and Blake walk closer to the Mysterio family while Corbin reigns down with mounted punches onto Murphy back in the ring. Corbin pulls Murphy up to his knees and runs off the ropes where he lands a big right hand to the jaw of Murphy, he would do this a second time, and then on the third time Murphy ducks under and kicks Murphy in the back of the leg and then locks in a chinlock but Corbin breaks that very quickly by backing Murphy into the corner.
Murphy doesn’t let that stop him as he leaps on Corbin’s back and locks in the chin lock once again so Corbin backs him up again trying to break the hold but Murphy ends up sitting on the top turnbuckle and chokes Corbin until he is forced to break the hold. Murphy takes Corbin down with a missile dropkick off the middle rope. Murphy lands some forearms and then hits a kick combination on Corbin and then goes for a knee strike but Corbin dodges it and grabs Murphy by the throat and shoves him into the corner and charges toward him but Murphy gets a boot up and then we get another slide out and right back in spot from Corbin but this time Murphy catches Corbin with a jumping knee strike which sends Corbin out of the ring.
Murphy goes out and throws Corbin back into the ring and then stares down Cutler and Blake before he gets on the apron and catches Corbin with a kick and then Murphy goes up top, but Corbin signals to Cutler and Blake and they attack the Mysterios which causes Murphy to get down and go back outside to help run them off but this ends up being a mistake as he slides back into the ring and is caught by Corbin with the End of Days for the win.
Winner: King Corbin via Pinfall Match Rating: **½
This was a fine match but nothing too out of the ordinary outside of the fact that the Mysterios decided to go back to being babyfaces this week as they stayed out of the match unlike last week when they constantly kept interfering. I’m glad to see that they found something for Blake and Cutler to do as they didn’t deserve to be punished for Ryker’s stupidity and they deserved a proper chance to have a run as a team as they were really starting to work well together when they were taken off tv. I like that they were put with Corbin as he needs something to make him feel refreshed as the whole King gimmick has gotten really stale. I hope everyone is ready for a lot of tag matches involving Corbin, Blake, and Cutler against the Mysterios and Murphy because we will be seeing a lot of them over the next couple of months.
We go to the back where the Street Profits are hyping up the main event until Bobby Roode and Cesaro walk up and talk about why their respective teams deserve to be the next challengers for the tag titles and the segment ends with all four men arguing.
We then get the entrances of Otis and Kevin Owens for our main event as we go to commercial.
We come back and get one final video featuring tweets about the passing of Pat Patterson.
Jey Uso comes to the ring and waits on Roman Reigns to make his entrance but he never comes out and Uso realizes these are the consequences that Reigns was talking about earlier in the night.
Match #4: Otis & Kevin Owens vs Roman Reigns & Jey Uso
Otis and Uso lockup and Otis powers Uso down to the mat and then he hits Uso with some clubbing strikes and then he biels Uso out of the corner. Uso tries to fight back but Otis takes him back down with a discus clothesline. Otis sends Uso into the corner and charges in but ends up going shoulder-first into the ring post after Uso moves out of the way. Otis is able to tag in KO who beats Uso down in the corner but Uso then counters an Irish whip into the opposite corner and then hits him with a Samoan drop.
Roman Reigns decides to finally make his way to the ring and this distracts Uso long enough for KO to get to his feet and take Uso down with an enziguri. Uso crawls over to make the tag to Reigns, but is taking too long so Reigns gets in and runs across the ring to hit Otis with a Superman Punch so that KO can’t make a tag. Reigns continues his attack on Otis on the outside as he sends him into the ring post and the steel steps. Reigns grabs the top part of the steps and starts bashing Otis with them repeatedly until KO comes out to make the save but he is taken down by Uso who dives off the apron onto him and that sends us to commercial.
We come back and Otis has been taken to the back. KO and Reigns in the ring and Reigns reverses a whip into the ropes and takes KO down with a leaping clothesline and then he tags in Uso. Uso talks trash to KO and then beats him down in the corner before going for the running hip attack but he takes way too long before he goes for it and that allows KO enough time to move out of the way and then he hits Uso with a cannonball and Reigns looks very unimpressed as he watches on from the corner. KO hits Uso with some strikes and then Uso reverses a whip into the ropes but ducks his head too early and gets kicked but is still able to hit KO with a big right hand only for KO to rebound off the ropes and hit Uso with a big clothesline followed by a senton splash. KO catches the arm of Uso off a clothesline attempt and uses it to hit him with a DDT for a 2 count.
Reigns is getting pissy on the apron as he tells Uso to get up but KO catches him talking and starts taunting him wanting Reigns to get into the ring but Reigns shoos him away, KO charges at Uso who has gotten to his feet but gets hit with a back elbow and then Uso charges at him but KO hits him with a Samoan drop of his own. We get some more back and forth trash-talking between Reigns and KO and then Reigns gets into the ring and after a distraction by Uso he hits KO with a big right hand and then he turns around into a superkick from Uso.
Uso goes up top looking for the Uso Splash, but Reigns walks over and demands that Uso get down because SmackDown is his show and he finishes the show. Uso climbs down and drags KO over to the corner so he can make a tag but KO starts to fight back as he knocks Reigns off the apron and then hits Uso with the Stunner. Reigns slides back in to break up the pin and then he locks KO in the guillotine and for some reason, the referee calls for the bell out of nowhere as it seems like Reigns and Uso have been disqualified.
Winners: Kevin Owens & Otis by DQ Match Rating: **¾
After the match, Uso goes out and grabs a couple of chairs which he and Reigns use to beat down KO and then Uso places a chair onto the gut of KO and hits him with an Uso Splash onto the chair. Reigns stares at KO and then he hits Uso with the chair and drives it into Usos’s midsection. Reigns grabs his title and lays it on KO and tells him that if he wanted his attention then he has got it and at TLC he is going to take KO’s manhood, livelihood, and everything he loves. The show comes to an end with Reigns standing tall over KO and Uso as he raises the title into the air.
This was one crazy match in the best of ways as I enjoyed how the match started as a handicap match favoring the babyfaces due to Reigns not showing up at the beginning of the match but eventually turning into a handicap match favoring the heels when Reigns took out Otis so the entire narrative of the match was controlled by Reigns and what he did in the match mattered more than what anyone else in the match did, that was a nice little touch to further add to the story of Reigns being the one who controls everything on SmackDown.
While Reigns told Uso earlier that everyone must face consequences I still didn’t expect Reigns to attack Uso like he did after the match as I thought the days of him punishing Uso this severely were behind us once Uso joined up with him, but Reigns is willing to do whatever it takes to get his message across to his younger cousin and when talking to him didn’t work he had no choice but to resort to violence.
The only complaint I had about this match was the fact that the referee called for the bell without giving Reigns the five-count to get out of the ring as he immediately called for the bell, but when Reigns was repeatedly hitting Otis with the steps earlier in the match he was completely fine with it this was some really bad logic and made the referee look really inept.
Outside of everything involving Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, and Kevin Owens I thought this episode of SmackDown was pretty mundane for the most part although I did think the tributes to Pat Patterson were nicely done. While this wasn’t the worst episode of SmackDown it wasn’t the best either as I still can’t get over why they would have Bayley lose cleanly to Natalya when she is in a program with the next biggest female star in WWE, that booking decision alone brought down my enjoyment of this show quite a bit.
This was the last night of the Thunderdome being at the Amway Center as next week the Thunderdome will be moving to a new home as it will now be located at Tropicana Field and it will be interesting to see how WWE fills up all of the space that comes with being at a baseball field.
That’s if for me this week I’ll be back next week for more action from the blue brand but until then I will be playing my brand spanking new Playstation 5.
