27th November Edition Of The

Friday Night Smackdown & Wrestling News

The 27th November Edition Of The Friday Night Smackdown show opened with Jey Uso hyping up Roman Reigns’ victory over Drew McIntyre at Survivor Series, with Roman even throwing to his own video package recap. But despite hugging Jey at Survivor Series, he took a different tact here, lambasting Jey for not going home when he told him to, and for losing control of the men’s Survivor Series team. After a scathing promo where he told Jey that he feels like a bitch begging for Thanksgiving leftovers from the table, and he doesn’t like the way he’s making him feel, the path for Jey was set: make everyone fear him. This was a great promo from Roman, and Jey’s selling of this family connection continues to be the absolute highlight. Brilliant psychological stuff from both of them here, and Heyman’s contribution, though minor, really adds to the entire presentation of Roman, hardly ever taking his eyes off him. Is he looking at him fearfully? With admiration? Awe? Inquisitively? It’s hard to tell, and that’s awesome.

This started immediately with Otis coming out for a match against King Corbin, before Jey runs back out and goes absolutely insane with a chair, assaulting Otis for an uncomfortable amount of time. Jey looked unhinged throughout, like he’d completely lost it, and it was great.

Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode came out next and called out the Street Profits, who had a decently fun non-title match. After Ford missed a Frog Splash early, the heels worked over his ribs, leading to a Dawkins hot tag. But after Ford hit another Frog Splash, he couldn’t capitalise due to his ribs, and Ziggler broke up the pin. Roode then rolled up Ford for the victory. It’s a bit of a shame that the Profits have the comedown from beating the New Day at Survivor Series to losing to Roode & Ziggler, but honestly they needed some sort of fire injected into a feud, and who else are they going to feud with? I don’t mind this because WWE really has limited options right now. Which is entirely their own doing, but still.

After a quick backstage promo with Kayla Braxton, Daniel Bryan faced Sami Zayn in a non-title match which was immensely fun, including a nutty looking brainbuster on the apron. After a fluid transition from an armbar into the Yes Lock, Sami ran away up the stage, and Bryan followed, but Sami ran back out, back into the ring before the 10 count, meaning he won by count out. But where was Bryan? The camera cut backstage and Jey Uso was attacking him, which is a brilliant way to excuse Bryan not running back out with Sami to the ring. Kevin Owens made the save for Bryan though, and after we later see Heyman talking to definitely not the GM Adam Pearce backstage, the main event is set: Jey Uso vs Kevin Owens.

Bianca Belair vs Natalya came next, but this was just a way to set up a Bayley vs Bianca feud, which I am all for. Bayley on commentary was saying how Bianca ruined it for the women’s team at Survivor Series, which is a lovely little bit of hypocrisy. After Bayley inadvertently got involved in the match, taking a punch from Bianca on the outside and failing to get involved afterwards, Bianca won with the rollup on Natalya, setting up their feud. This was simple, and effective.

After this was the most baffling segment on the show with Murphy taking on King Corbin. Corbin interrupted a backstage promo with the Mysterio family and said they shouldn’t be a happy family and that Murphy was just riding the coattails of the Mysterio name, which was kind of random but sure, go ahead. But in this match, with the consummate and prototypical heel King Corbin, somehow the Mysterio family out-heeled him. Rey, Dominik and Aalyah weren’t just WATCHING FROM RINGSIDE, they actively got involved in the match, with Rey and Dominik consistently climbing onto the apron and Aalyah even standing in Corbin’s way during an attempted round-the-turnbuckle clothesline. Murphy caught Corbin with a knee, to which Corbin put his foot on the bottom rope, before Dominik then took it off while the referee counted the pin for the Murphy win. Corbin then justly called out the unfairness of this and demanded a rematch next week, which is totally fair honestly. If this is supposed to be setting up a Mysterio heel family, I think there’s better people to be doing it against than King Corbin. And if it isn’t setting up a heel family, then what the hell was that? If they’re trying to capture some of the Eddie Guerrero babyface “he cheats but we love him for it” fire, it won’t work. Eddie was a once in a lifetime character that absolutely should not have worked, but somehow it did. Don’t try and replicate that, because it won’t work.

Backstage Apollo and Big E are just vibing in front of the interview set with Kayla Braxton in the background, before Sami Zayn joins them and says he has an interview with Kayla if they could get out of his way. In a nice bit of continuity, Sami references he also beat Apollo Crews by countout, so he should know how Daniel Bryan feels. But then Big E got himself involved and I got very excited. Big E told Zayn that his entire reign was built on a house of cards, all it takes is one blow and it would all come crumbling down. And then he shook Sami’s hand, crushing it in his for a 10 count before walking away. Kayla asked if Sami wanted to still do the interview, to which he screamed at her no. I loved all of this, and if Big E is getting inserted into the IC title picture, sign me up. Sami is pissing off a lot of people with the way he wins matches, and hopefully that means it’s setting up a nice multiman match at TLC or something. I’d like another Triple Threat Ladder match with Bryan and Big E as his challengers. Just throwing that out there.

Billie Kay continues to be hilarious by joining Cole and Graves on commentary, pointing out on her resume that she has an extensive background in talking, and in a rare brilliant moment from Cole, he signalled for the cameras to cut to the next segment. This genuinely made me laugh out loud.

Carmella cut a classic heel turn promo next, saying that she started doing things for the fans and lost herself along the way, now she’s doing everything for her. But as she tried to snap the end of the promo, instead a hand appeared bearing a glass of champagne before the hand turned to reveal the Boss knuckles. Banks then beat up Carmella which is a nice bit of progression in their feud. I’m still not super into it, but at least this wasn’t Carmella just beating her up again.

Finally was the main event of Jey Uso vs Kevin Owens which was really, really good. Reigns was watching on from backstage, again with Heyman never looking away from him, and this was one hell of a match. There was some great physical spots, a bonkers looking brainbuster from Owens, and even though the finish was a DQ, it worked perfectly for the story they’re trying to tell. Jey eventually grabbed a chair and DQ’d himself by smashing it over Owens’ back and going ham once again, but eventually Owens came back, hitting a Stunner on Jey, and returning the chair shots in kind. He spoke directly down the camera lens, calling out Roman while continuing to beat up Jey. He then sat himself at the head of the commentary table and said he’ll be waiting. I loved all of this. The match itself never really felt like a match anyway, it felt like two guys beating the hell out of each other, so I don’t mind the DQ finish, and the post-match angle was brilliant, really unlocking the more savage side of Owens we know exists. And I’m all for an Owens/Reigns feud for the top title.

So that was the 27th November Edition Of The Friday Night Smackdown show, let us know what you thought of it in the comments about 27th November Edition Of The Friday Night Smackdown show. While I wouldn’t go quite that far, this was a very good show, with the show-long story of Jey Uso’s descent into madness carrying the programme. The in-ring quality was pretty high, and several feuds were kickstarted or furthered upon here, with some quite exciting prospects.

Wrestling News

Chris Jericho Shoots On AEW

AEW has been running weekly shows for just over a year at this point, and while not everything has been perfect, the majority of the stories and matches we have witnessed have been fantastic. However, on a recent appearance on Konnan’s Keepin’ it 100 podcast, former AEW le Champion Chris Jericho revealed he was angry about some recent booking on an episode of Dynamite. During the show, there was a segment which concentrated on whether MJF would join the Inner Circle, which was immediately followed by a segment which concentrated on whether Will Hobbs would join Team Taz. Notice a similarity? Well it appears Jericho did too, as he admitted he wasn’t best pleased with the production team. “I was like, ‘Guys, how can that happen? How can that even be?’ Like, it’s the exact same thing, and nobody even noticed that…‘Will MJF join the Inner Circle’ was the tagline for our pay-per-view match! Therefore, any other joinings should be suspended for this duration. And that’s just common sense, but sometimes those things just fall through the cracks. I’d like to see a little bit more attention to those kind of details.” He went on to suggest that perhaps AEW could do with a creative “organiser” so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again in future.

Huge Jey Uso Plans

A storyline that WWE have definitely organised well though is the continued excellence of Roman Reigns and his family issues. According to Wrestling News, Jey Uso’s brother Jimmy will be returning to the ring very soon, which will coincide with the brothers getting a new entrance theme. A Wrestling News source claims the current Roman “Head of the Table” storyline is being used to not only push Roman as the biggest star in the company, but also to bring Jey and Jimmy “to the next level” in WWE. There were even hints of this on SmackDown with Michael Cole calling Jey “Main Event Uso” with him headlining the last four SmackDown episodes. But amongst the release of Zelina Vega and the increased scrutiny of WWE’s treatment of its talent, there’s another worrying story to add to the increasing pile.

WWE Refuse To Help NXT Talent

Brazilian wrestler Cezar Bononi was a regular on NXT’s Live Show circuit for a number of years before he was released in April 2020. Appearing on Dan Matha’s podcast, Bononi revealed that WWE refused to help him apply for a Green Card, meaning his wife was unable to work in America, and a release would mean being forced to return to Brazil. He also revealed that for the majority of his NXT career, he was being paid $600 a week, which with WWE stars having to pay for their own travel and accommodation when on the road, meant he really struggled financially. Since leaving WWE, he was able to apply for a B2 visa and has made several appearances on AEW Dark. But it’s a damning indictment of WWE’s inability to help its own talent.