SmackDown are pulling no punches and neither am I which is why this introduction is shorter than your parents marriage. Welcome to the most must-see Vulture Hound weekly review in history; welcome to… The SmackDown Review.
Stealing the limelight as usual, Shane McMahon opened the show. Continuing on from last week Shane explained why Smackdown invaded Raw two weeks ago. He said there would be hell to pay for Kurt Angle after Kane attacked Daniel Bryan last night. In retaliation, and not surprisingly, Shane O’Mac announced himself as Smackdown team captain for Survivor Series because this is his Dad’s wrestling company and he can do what he wants.
The in-between:
– Bobby Roode defeated Dolph Ziggler in a 2 out of 3 falls match. Ziggler won the first fall after a superkick. Roode took the second fall after launching Ziggler into the ringpost and rolling him up. The third fall also went Roode’s way, after he hit a Glorious DDT. As a result, Bobby Roode is now the third member of Smackdown’s Survivor Series team.
– Big E had his jimmies well and truly Ruseved backstage when the Bulgarian tipped out all of the New Day’s Halloween candy. Yep, shocking! The resulting match was won by Rusev who smashed Big E (dressed as Akeem) right in the mush with a big kick. After the match, Rusev and English went to Shane McMahon and lobbied for Rusev to get on Smackdown’s Survivor Series team. McMahon said whoever wins next week’s match between Rusev and AJ Styles will get the final spot on the team. As if neither of them haven’t already proved themselves! Sidebar: Xavier Woods was dressed as Jimmy Hart and Kofi Kingston as Brother Love and it was fantastic.
– In an inspirational backstage moment, Becky Lynch gave a speech to her fellow female superstars to get them ready for Survivor Series. She was interrupted by Natalya, who warned her to watch out for her team’s weak link.
– In a backstage interview, the Usos said Smackdown Live is the A show, and they are the A team. They were interrupted by Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable who told them they would be challenging for the Smackdown tag titles next week. Which means they won’t win as the Usos are already scheduled to face Ambrose and Rollins in a tag team champions match at Survivor Series.
– Sin Cara somehow dominated Baron Corbin which resulted in a no contest after the two ended up brawling outside the ring for an extended amount of time. Sin Cara threw an announce chair at Corbin, who fled into the crowd. Backstage, in response to Corbin repeatedly trying to pull Sin Cara’s mask off throughout the match, the faceless one told Renee Young that he went through hell to get his luchador mask, and he will go through hell to keep it.
– AJ Styles defeated Samir Singh in yet another squash match. This was after Jinder cut a promo on Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman, saying that when he defeats Lesnar at Survivor Series, he will be known as the Beastmaster. Cue the Shockmaster memes.
– There was yet another Bludgeon Brothers vignette.
– The latest episode of the Fashion Files witnessed Breezango take on ‘Strangerer Things’. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the Bludgeon Brothers, Vince McMahon’s greatest creation, will bury Breezango on their debut.
The So Called Land of Opportunity:
Earlier in the show, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn talked backstage about how Shane McMahon was taking away opportunities for other Smackdown wrestlers by including himself on the Survivor Series team – very accurate. At the main event, Owens faced Shinsuke Nakamura for a chance to be on the Survivor Series team. During the match, Sami Zayn came down to distract Nakamura, which temporarily gave Owens the advantage yet, Randy Orton came out to even the numbers and hit an RKO slammed Zayn off a table outta nowhere. Nakamura eventually hit a Kinshasa on Owens for the victory… and scene.
