Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where Shinsuke Nakamura can come back wearing cool new facepaint and it's like the fourth or fifth most newsworthy event of the evening. Seriously, there was a lot going on this week, so if you need to catch up on where everything stands, be sure to check out our "SmackDown" results page. And once you've done that, come back here so you can read what the WINC staff thought of several matches and segments on the show though admittedly, we're leaving out the main event this week. Sorry, Naomi and Nia Jax, we thought the match was good, we didn't have much to say about it!
And now, the stuff wedidhave much to say about. Are we excited to see Bayley move on in the tournament to crown the inaugural Women's United States Champion? Did the potential break-up of DIY also break our rebel/black hearts? And in the biggest news of all, how are we feeling about Bronson Reed seemingly being added to WarGames? Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 11/15/24 episode of "WWE SmackDown."
I understand that Kevin Owens is a pretty dangerous person right now, after taking out Randy Orton with a piledriver and all last week, but this week's promo between Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Nick Aldis, about Kevin Owens being a pretty dangerous person, was something we've already heard before. To me, this sounded incredibly similar to Paul "Triple H" Levesque telling Randy Orton "you don't want to do this" when Orton called him out to ask for the match against Owens, the one that never happened, at Crown Jewel. It was so similar and pretty meaningless, with Owens nowhere near the show, so I really disliked this taking up time on "SmackDown." Thankfully, it was at the beginning and was pretty forgettable, but it was enough to be irksome to me and stick out in my brain. That could very well be in part because the champion hasn't really done anything the last two weeks on the blue brand. Last week, Rhodes simply rode in the ambulance with Orton and didn't appear on the show, and this week, he had a pretty darn meaningly chat with Aldis in the middle of the ring. The ONLY interesting thing to come from their talk was the fact Rhodes said Aldis is "still a wrestler."
While Owens has been absolutely fantastic on his own, on social media, he has an extremely valid point in these promos, especially his latest. The man is just trying to go to work and do his job. Yes, Owens used a banned move on Orton and laid him out with a (hopefully!) kayfabe injury after Orton was on the shelf for around a year, but, Owens is a wrestler...? I feel like using a banned move one that WWE has to know is so often used in AEW would just result in a fine, and maybe a suspension? There's been no real talk of Owens' being suspended, just straight up banned from the arena.
Maybe I'm being too picky, because this show was generally pretty awesome and I didn't have much I disliked on it at all. But, I need to see Rhodes back in action, or something a little more substantial. Thankfully, Rhodes and Owens are going face-to-face next week, and if Owens is as dangerous and everyone keeps saying, I'm going to need some action to get me interested in this story once again.
Written by DaisyRuth
Let's play a game. Say I'm WWE, and I introduce a midcard women's title. Who do you expect me to push for this title?
Midcard women? No!
Bayley took the win over B-Fab in a deflating way in the first round of the Women's United States Championship tournament. The match itself was nothing to write home about and far from Bayley's best. Sure, it was nice when B-Fab got some offense in, and that superplex spot was cool, but winning via roll-up is far from the result that I wanted to happen, and that I think should have happened. "The Poison Pixie" was right there for the victory, and what does she get? She gets pushed out of the ring, not involved in a decision that should have seen her get the pin.
I know it's idiotic to sit and fantasy book, and I'm sure there's a lot more that goes into the whole booking thing than I'm privy to, but come on. Who do you think needs a midcard title to their resume more: a multi-time women's world champion, a former Miss Money in the Bank, a Royal Rumble winner and one of the Four Horsewomen, or someone who literally has had no main roster gold to her very talented name, save for a 63-day "NXT" Women's Tag Team Championship run and a title that can allegedly only be worn on a social media-specific show? Candice LeRae is more than capable of carrying a midcard title. She has shown us that she has the in-ring chops to hang with some of the female locker room's finest, and she is decently popular. LeRae is a talented blank slate who can do anything at this point why is she not being utilized? There is no clear reason for it except for WWE's resistance (or outright refusal, if you're pessimistic) to fully commit to a push until it is too late. They nearly did it with LA Knight and Jey Uso. They're doing it to Candice LeRae.
Even if you don't think LeRae specifically should be the one holding the Women's United States Championship, it is so odd to push a bonafide main-eventer over a midcarder in a tournament for let me check my notes the midcard title. What is the point of making an entirely new belt just to give it to the same women? Bayley doesn't even need a title to be interesting; her work with Becky Lynch during her time as the leader of Damage CTRL proves that! This is not a hate piece on Bayley she has deserved every accolade she has but I am very frustrated with the hesitation to put new women at the forefront of their new title. What is the point of a title celebrating WWE's women if not all of WWE's women can have a shot at it?
At least LeRae kind of got revenge when she shoved Bayley into a pole in the main event. That is, however, simply not enough.
Written by Angeline Phu
"Why can't you say something cool?" Santos Escobar begged LA Knight on "SmackDown." "Something interesting? Something that has a ring to it?"
I don't know if I've ever agreed with a pro wrestler more. Why don't people ask LA Knight those questions every time he speaks into a microphone? Do they just not realize it's an option?
I know, I know, it's not impressive for me to talk negative about LA Knight, considering how many times I've done it in the past. Honestly, I've come around on his in-ring work way more than I ever expected to after his unexpected banger with AJ Styles at WrestleMania I think he's gotten his regular move set to the point where he can put on a really dynamic midcard title match, and he's been executing everything really well lately. I don't want him anywhere near a main event or world title program (thank you for turning Sami Zayn down, I appreciate that) but his matches have been consistently more additive than not.
On the mic, though ... yeah, no, I'm sorry, but if anything he's actively getting worse. I actually thought Escobar was pretty good as a talker this week, but when it came time for Knight to do his thing, it just fell apart in all the ways LA Knight promos usually fall apart.
"I appreciate your ambition, I hear everything you're saying, but I can feel this good staring a hole in me right now," Knight said, referring to Escobar's stablemate, Berto. "He's looking at me like my head's covered in barbeque sauce, maybe you're hungry, I'm not sure."
Like, what? What are you talking about? That complete non sequitur is followed by an awkward shoehorning in of the typical "babyface says nice things about local sports team" part of the promo, doused in casual sexism (because nothing pops Triple H these days like suggestive uses of the word "daddy") and capped off with Knight's aggressively stupid catchphrase, which is still stupid no matter what any of you say. Great stuff.
And of course, the subsequent match with Berto was perfectly fine! No complaints about that whatsoever, and I am actually very interested to see what Knight does with a returning Shinsuke Nakamura. I am so close to getting on board with you, LA Knight! Why can't you say something cool?
Written by Miles Schneiderman
I'm not sure who I expected to be the fifth man on the new Bloodline's WarGames team, if it wasn't a debuting family member or The Rock coming back, but it wasn't Bronson Reed, and I'm pretty sure I love his integration into all of this. Reed is the smartest choice for the heels in WWE right now, and if it ends up being Seth Rollins who joins the original Bloodline, that all makes a bit more sense now, too. I will admit, I did see the spoilers from last week that Reed would be revealed as the fifth guy for the team, but even though I knew, I thought the way it happened was pretty organic. There wasn't any talking in the segment, outside of Solo Sikoa trying to get the crowd to acknowledge him before Roman Reigns and the OG Bloodline interrupted, and that was really effective. This story, outside of the search for the fifth guy on Team Good Guy, needs to be told with fists and not words, at this point. I'd like to see just straight brawling up until WarGames. Reed coming up behind Reigns and taking him out was effective and great, thanks in part to the camera work. And the fact he even hit his Tsunami on Reigns? Perfection. WWE is doing such a great job of building up that move, it needed to be hit on the "Original Tribal Chief" to prove some kind of point.
I'm pretty invested in this in regards to Reed, now. Why did he decide to join the new Bloodline, especially since he's a "Raw" star? Does he think it'll be Rollins who joins the good guys, so he can do more damage to the former champion, even after their match on "Raw" on Monday? Is he just good friends with Sikoa and we don't know it? I'd love to hear him cut a promo about what his motivations were. We all just mentioned the other week, after Reed's in-ring promo, that he doesn't often do that, but it was great. Let's hear another one, because I'm honestly curious. In the grand scheme of the entire Bloodline versus Bloodline storyline going into WarGames, this is just another smaller, interesting piece that helps the story along, and even builds someone up from outside of the family. I loved this, and Reed in a WarGames match with all these guys is going to be straight fire.
Written by DaisyRuth
Just weeks ago, the dream match between #DIY and Motor City Machine Guns finally happened. It was shorter than many of us had hoped, but that ended up being because The Guns would almost immediately wrestle Guerillas of Destiny and defeat them to become the new tag team champions.
Tommaso Ciampa was already annoyed during their match because of Johnny Gargano's admiration of Alex Shelley. Shelley is one of his idols and became a friend to him. During their match, Gargano accidentally took out Ciampa while trying to take down Chris Sabin. This mishap played a role in them losing the match, thus missing out on becoming the No. 1 contenders. If we go back a week prior to the dream match, #DIY defeated Street Profits to advance to face MCMG. Due to what appeared to be a double pin, both teams thought they had won. It was Gargano who was the legal man, not Montez Ford. While they were celebrating their victory, Ciampa shoved Angelo Dawkins out of the way.
Since MCMG won the titles, Street Profits and Ciampa have been pissed off. Street Profits finally got their title shot and just when they had their momentum, Ciampa crashed the party. He pushed Ford off the top rope, forcing a DQ. He attacked Dawkins before turning his sights to Shelley after he pulled Ciampa off Ford. Gargano finally made his way to the ring to stop his partner from attacking his mentor. Shelley was raring to go, but Gargano stayed between them.
As Gargano tried to talk him down, Ciampa shoved his partner. As he was leaving, he shouted, "Since when are you the boss? We talked about this. We talked about the titles. I talked about the titles. I want the titles." What does Ciampa mean when he says they talked about this? Were they both supposed to interfere in the match? Were they both going to attack the champs and their opponents?
Ciampa has been teasing a return to the "Sicilian Psycho" that we saw in NXT ever since they lost their titles after 28 days (LESS THAN A MOON CYCLE). Gargano has been a heel when he was with The Way. While he did the best he could with what he was given, he's hard to take seriously as a heel due to its inauthenticity. Perhaps a heel Gargano alongside his heel partner would be more believable.
The tag title division has long suffered on both "Raw" and "SmackDown". Various members of The Bloodline have held the Blue brand's division hostage. It's nice to see the division moving in a different direction for the time being (I fully expect members of The Bloodline to be back in the title picture following Survivor Series). A heel #DIY is something that can spice up their storyline and keep all three teams in question from being babyfaces while feuding. If it gets to OG Bloodline tag champs, then heel #DIY would be a good foil besides the new Bloodline.
Written by Samantha Schipman
The latest installment of The Bloodline saga continued to err on the side of cinema during "SmackDown" this week, delivering a MCU-coded credit teaser with Roman Reigns lamenting the night's proceedings. The last Reigns had been seen it was recovering from a mid-show beating at the hands of The New Bloodline's new addition from the Pacific islands, Bronson Reed, mulling over Jey Uso's plea to "make the call." The question after that was of course to whom he should make the call; would it be Reigns' former Shield brethren, Seth Rollins? He declined invites to both the New and Original Bloodlines during "Raw," having spent the past three years trying to bring the "Tribal Chief" down, but maybe he could be swayed by an opportunity to stick it to Reed. Alas, regardless of who it was Jey intended for Reigns to make the call, a moment of contemplation saw him decide upon a much-more familiar crutch: His "Wise Man," Paul Heyman.
It was a moment of joy demonstrated by the pop the crowd in attendance gave to the mere mention of his name, and Reigns specifically smiled as he spoke his name into the phone. But it was swiftly followed by a gut-punch, as it was made clear that Heyman's number had been disconnected to leave Reigns in dismay as the show faded off air. It was just a brief moment and yet did so much to further the storyline, bringing another layer of uncertainty for Reigns to wrestle with as the landscape of his "Island of Relevancy" continues to shift. Heyman was last seen being driven through a table by the New Bloodline after refusing to acknowledge Solo Sikoa as "Tribal Chief," even after he was told by Sikoa that Reigns had told him he never planned on coming back. With that in mind, it's possible that a recuperating Heyman, blind to the current ongoings, believes that he was abandoned by Reigns. He may not even know of his return, but at the same time, this was the first segment in the months since returning that Reigns sought him out. There with that rolls in the possibility that his loyalties have changed in recent months, provoking just enough intrigue to keep the viewer locked in for the pay-off to yet another subplot within this story.
I mean, that's the entire point of a credit teaser, right? Tease another wrinkle in the narrative, building the tension that will be paid off when he returns (and/or turns). Either way, it was a really great tease for the next show while capping off its own really great show, what more could you want? (Don't say The Rock.)
Written by Max Everett
