It’s hard not to continue to love this Anoa’i family storyline.
Roman Reigns is the greatest. Jey Uso is the greatest.
Jey’s passion in this story is incredible. He shouted at Reigns and said that he hates him. I felt this. What a segment.
Jey ripped the mic out of Heyman’s hands and argued that Reigns didn’t beat him because he used Jimmy and Reigns knew he was the only person he’d say “I Quit” for. Reigns totally ignored that though. Now Jey has to recognize Reigns as the leader or he’s out.
Jey in tears screamed at Reigns “I hate you!” and Reigns said “I’m sure you do right now, but I love you. I’ve always loved you.” Friggin awesome, man. He also assured Jey that by the end of the night, he’ll fall in line.
In the main event, Jey faced Daniel Bryan to qualify for the SmackDown men’s team at Survivor Series and beat him! Bryan brought the heat and Jey sold how badly he needed the win when Reigns suddenly walked out.
And then Jey fell in line. After the match, Reigns looked at Bryan on the mat and told Jey to show him how much he loves him. Jey took Bryan outside and pummeled him and sent Bryan through the announce table.
It was interesting to see that even after Reigns turned around, Jey didn’t show much remorse to Bryan for what he was doing. I didn’t originally take this as a heel turn, but now, I don’t know! Is Jey being genuine? If he is, I’ll be very interested to see what Jimmy has to say about this, since it’s his fault Jey lost at Hell in a Cell.
First title defense
Body suit Sasha came out with Bayley’s special chair and sat down in the ring.
Sasha said that Bayley ended an era when she attacked her with that chair.
Then Bayley came out, saying that Sasha can’t beat Asuka at Survivor Series without her. She said she’ll do her a favor, and next week she’ll take the title off of her and continue her predictable short title reign.
It was really great to see the continuity being brought up here with Bayley mentioning that Sasha can’t successfully defend a title on her own.
My biggest issue with all of this is that I cannot forget that Sasha was giving Bayley the evil stare behind her back, and was 100% going to turn on her if Bayley didn’t do it first. I actually side with Bayley, as much as I love Sasha in this role. So they’ll be fighting next week and let’s see if they actually have a real match, or if we get another bait and switch.
The Rest
Love birds - Murphy understands why Rey & Dom hate him. He asks for them to come out so he can apologize face to face, but Seth Rollins decides to come out instead.
Rollins told Murphy that the Mysterios will never accept him, but he is willing to forgive and accept him back as his Disciple. He’ll even accept Aalyah too, because there’s a place in the Greater Good for both of them. Dominik came out to attack Rollins and then Murphy pulled him off to attack Rollins himself. Bad idea because Dom then turned to attack him, and then papa Rey came out. Rey was about to do the 619 and Aalyah stepped in the way and said she loves Murphy. Rey and Dom left the ring as Rollins looked on and had a huge grin. And then Aalyah planted one on Murphy.
Y’all, I am so ready for this feud to be over because I don’t like what I foresee coming. They’re so doing either a marriage angle or a Murphy and Dom need to get along situation and I’m not really here for it anymore. This was cute a month ago but I’m tired of this feud.
Kevin Owens def. Dolph Ziggler - I wasn’t able to watch this match because Sling TV has decided that it doesn’t want to let me watch the recorded show tonight and I caught the last hour live. I’m very thankful that Owens got a big win here. He’s been floundering around since his win at WrestleMania and I want to see him in a title picture soon. I was hoping for the tags with Bryan but who knows if they’ll actually let that happen.
Street Profits def. The Artists - I don’t know if this is just me but I already feel like I’ve seen too much of these two teams in the ring together. Now Montez and Cesaro I could watch fight forever, because they have a lot of chemistry. Did you SEE the air Tez got when Cesaro threw him into the ThunderDome screens?!? My god! Street Profits got the victory but Tez came down on Nakamura after that frog splash awkwardly and I hope he’s okay because he looked like he was in rough shape.
Bianca Belair def. Natalya and Billie Kay - Poor Billie. She tried her hardest. I almost flipped out when Natalya and Billie had Bianca in a submission and I thought they were going to have her tap. This show was about ready to get an F, y’all. Thankfully that didn’t happen.
Lars Sullivan talked and I didn’t get to watch it live as I mentioned before Sling TV decided to not work properly for me this evening. It doesn’t matter though because the 40 second clip WWE posted on Twitter was awful.
Sami Zayn is awesome - Lastly, a shout out to Sami Zayn for being able to keep his composure while talking about the US champion Bobby Lashley, saying that he is the champion of all people on all continents, while Lashley is just the champion of the United States. “Lashley only represents one country, and let’s not even get into it.”
Yep.
SmackDown was a hit, which it mostly is week by week. Two of its three biggest storylines are ones I am intrigued to continue watching, while the other can go away. Seriously, Rollins/Murphy/Mysterio has been going on longer than any storyline I can remember in years. Am I missing one? It’s been 6 months straight. And there isn’t even a title involved! What was the last storyline that went on for 6 months? SIX MONTHS?!?
Grade: B
Happy Halloween, Cagesiders! What were your thoughts on the show?