Featuring a public apology from Murphy to the Mysterios, and a few qualifying matches for SmackDown’s Survivor Series team, this October 30th edition of SmackDown features the aftermath of Hell in a Cell.
We start off the show with Roman Reigns again, and I find myself praying for a theme change. Jey Uso is waiting in the ring for him. Jey says Roman never beat him, and Roman simply reminds him that he quit. Roman asks him to take the oath to be his indentured servant, whatever that means. Jey asks him how he could use Jimmy to force Jey to quit at Hell in a Cell, and Roman asks him how he couldn’t, that being the face of the WWE means you do whatever it takes. He assures Jey that he understands his anger, and asks him if he’s going to do anything about it. Jey loudly proclaims that he hates Roman, and Roman assures him that he will fall in line by the end of the night. The Universal Champion departs with Paul Heyman, leaving Jey in a tornado of anger and a few tears in the ring.
Kevin Owens VS Dolph Ziggler (w/ Robert Roode) (Qualifying Match for Survivor Series)
The winner of this match will be a part of Team SmackDown at the upcoming Survivor Series. Dolph immediately goes for the leg of Owens, but Owens slips him into a headlock. Dolph sends Owens to the ropes and K.O folds him in half with a shoulder tackle. Dolph rolls out of the ring to regroup with Roode, and Owens goes out after him. Dolph gets back in the ring and catches Owens with a kick when he re-enters, and then delivers a neckbreaker for a 1 count.
Dolph beats Owens down in the corner, and then rakes K.O’s eyes across the ropes. Owens fights back with a big back elbow. He looks for more, but Ziggler goes after his left leg again. He goes for the Zig-Zag, but Owens hangs onto the ropes. Ziggler sends him to the outside, where Roode gets in a cheap shot on him. But when he sends him back into the ring, the ref catches him, and sends him to the back as we go to commercial.
When we come back, Owens is fighting out of a submission hold. When he gets out, Ziggler puts him right back down with a neckbreaker for 2. Ziggler looks for another neckbreaker, but Owens gets out of it and delivers some chops, an atomic drop, a clothesline and a senton. K.O sends him to the outside and looks for a suicide dive, but Ziggler gets back in the ring. Owens ducks his clothesline attempt and delivers a White Noise-esque slam for a close 2.
Owens looks for a Swanton but Ziggler gets his knees up, and pins him for a two count. Ziggler tunes up the band for Sweet Chin Music, but Owens answers with a Superkick of his own. Owens tries to deliver the Pop-Up Powerbomb, but Ziggler turns it into a Famouser for 2.
Owens ducks another Superkick from Ziggler and looks for a Stunner, but Ziggler reverses it into a Jumping DDT attempt. Owens slips out of it and rolls Ziggler up, but Ziggler reverses it into his own roll-up for 2. Owens avoids yet another Superkick and finally hits the Stunner for the win, securing his place on the Men’s SmackDown Survivor Series team.
Winner via pinfall: Kevin Owens
Match Rating: 3.5/5
Backstage, Natalya pleads her case to Adam Pearce, saying she should be the team captain for the Women’s SmackDown Survivor Series team. She’s interrupted by Billie Kay, who hands in her resume and makes her pitch. Bianca Belair also says she wants to captain the team, so Pearce schedules a match to determine which of the three competitors will be on the team.
Corey Graves catches up with the Genetic – sorry, the Generic Freak, Lars Sullivan. Lars shares a sad story of being bullied and called the Freak in grade school. Some bullies caused Lars to cry, and his whole class laughed at him. But according to Lars, “20 minutes later the laughing stopped. But the screaming, that went on for hours.” Edgy. Graves asks Lars what he wants to accomplish in the WWE, and Lars says he wants to unleash all his pain and suffering upon anyone who wants to get in his way.
So what you’re telling me is that people were mean to him as a kid, so now he wants to be mean to other people in return. So he’s a bully. His entire gimmick is that he’s a very muscly bully. Honestly WWE Creative, when is someone going to give you all an award for such incredible character development? The absolute depth of this man’s character is astounding to say the least. In all seriousness, the line about the laughing and the screaming sounds like something a 10-year-old would post on Instagram accompanied by a picture of Jared Leto’s Joker. All in all, I’m just as unenthused about Lars Sullivan as the last time he shoved around unappreciated Superstars with 100% more talent than him.
Bianca Belair VS Billie Kay VS Natalya (Qualifying Match for Survivor Series)
Kay starts off the match in a rather unwise fashion, trash talking her two opponents. Natalya tries to slap Kay, but she ducks it and Belair gets hit instead. The Est of WWE goes off on Natalya, taking her down with a hard tackle, and Kay rolls Belair up from behind for 2. Kay runs out of the ring again and Natalya drops Belair with a discus clothesline. Kay runs back in, tosses Natalya out and pins Belair for 2.
Natalya picks up Kay for a suplex, but Kay reverses into a hurricanrana on Belair. Natalya delivers a suplex to Kay, and Belair takes out Natalya with a dropkick. She delivers a beautiful springboard moonsault to Kay, but the pin is broken up by Natalya, who slams Belair down and delivers a stomp-dropkick combo.
Natalya locks in the Sharpshooter, and Kay comes in and locks in a submission of her own on Belair as well. Natalya lets go of the Sharpshooter to grab Kay, who throws Natalya into Belair. She delivers Shades of Kay to Belair, causing Belair to fall back and DDT Natalya. She attempts pins on both superstars multiple times and gets only 2 counts, causing her to yell at the ref in high-pitched Australian-flavored gibberish.
She picks up Natalya, but Natalya locks in the Sharpshooter on Kay. Belair comes in and throws Natalya into the ringpost. She reverses a Shades of Kay attempt from Kay into the K.O.D for the 1-2-3. This match was cool because I would’ve been stoked if any of the competitors won. Belair makes sense from a push progression standpoint, and Natalya is always cool, but Kay winning would’ve been awesome. I hope she doesn’t get left behind, she’s so talented and fun to watch. Again, happy either way.
Winner via pinfall: Bianca Belair
Match Rating: 3.5/5
Backstage, Carmella sips on a little bit of the bubbly and announces that she’ll return to action next week on SmackDown. It’s almost impressive how little I cared.
Murphy comes out to the ring with Aaliyah Mysterio with plans to make a public apology to the Mysterios for the anguish he caused them while a Disciple of Seth Rollins. He says he understands why Rey and Dominik hate him, but he says he’s changed. He calls out Ray and Dominik so he can apologize to them face to face, but Seth Rollins comes out instead. He says that the Mysterios will never forgive him. The Messiah says that he will forgive Murphy, saying there’s a place for everyone in the Greater Good. He says he’d accept Aaliyah as well, despite how her father has acted.
Dominik comes out and attacks Rollins, and Murphy pulls Dominik off and attacks Rollins himself. Rollins gets out of there, but Dominik gets in Murphy’s face, and they get into a brawl. Rey comes out and looks to hit Murphy with a 619, but Aaliyah stops him, saying she loves Murphy. Rey begins to leave, and asks Aaliyah to leave with him. She responds by kissing Murphy. I swear, I had to Google it again just to get it through my skull that this is real and yep, the 13 year age gap is still there. Wow, would you look at the time, it’s “Please erase this entire storyline from my brain” o’ clock.
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits VS Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura
Cesaro starts off against Angelo Dawkins, and the Swiss Cyborg starts off aggressively with an uppercut, but Angelo takes him out with a shoulder tackle, and then tags in Ford to deliver an assisted moonsault, but the pin is broken up by Nakamura. The King of Strong Style delivers a kick to Angelo so hard that it knocks his headband off, but Ford takes him out with a dropkick. He hits Cesaro with a standing Blockbuster and then takes out Nakamura on the outside with a swanton, but Cesaro takes him out by simply picking him up and tossing him over the barricade as we go to commercial.
When we come back, Cesaro has a deep arm lock on Ford. Ford fights out, but Cesaro tags in Nakamura for a kick-suplex combo for 2. Nakamura looks for his inverse exploder, but Ford escapes it. He ducks both the right and left kicks of Nakamura (which NEVER happens) and delivers an enziguri. They both tag their partners in and Angelo comes in hot, taking out both Cesaro and Nakamura with spinning stinger splashes. He delivers a bulldog to Cesaro for 2, and the Swiss Cyborg fights back with an uppercut.
Cesaro tags in Nakamura and they look for a double clothesline, but Angelo takes out Nakamura with a forearm and Cesaro with an exploder suplex. Nakamura catches him with a kick and looks for a German suplex, but Angelo escapes and looks for a splash, which Nakamura avoids. He stacks Angelo on the top rope and delivers a knee strike for 2, and then tags in Cesaro for a knee-powerbomb combo, with Ford breaking up the pinfall attempt off the move.
Angelo rolls up Cesaro for 2, and Cesaro answers with a discus clothesline for 2. Nakamura looks for a move off the top rope, but Angelo sends Cesaro into the rope to stun Nakamura. He delivers a spinebuster to Cesaro, tags in Ford, and then climbs the ropes to deliver a superplex to Nakamura, which Ford follows up with another amazing Frog Splash for the win.
Winners via pinfall: Street Profits
Match Rating: 3.5/5
Backstage, Sami Zayn takes a shot at Bobby Lashley, saying that he’s bigger and better than Lashley, since Sami represents every country as the Intercontinental Champion, whereas Lashley only represents the U.S as the United States Champion. It’s hard to argue with his math, but Lashley has almost double Sami’s muscle mass and three well-dressed wrestlers in his corner, so we’ll see how that plays out for Sami.
The newly appointed SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks comes out to the ring with Bayley’s spray painted chair. She says that she told Bayley that she’d take the title, and she did. She’s still upset about Bayley’s betrayal, saying it wasn’t their former friendship that’s unstoppable, it’s her. She says that she’ll beat Asuka at Survivor Series, calmly sweeping her very recent loss to Asuka under the rug. Bayley comes out, saying that the SmackDown Women’s Championship is still her title. She challenges her to a match next week on SmackDown, and Banks accepts.
Jey Uso VS Daniel Bryan (Qualifying Match for Survivor Series)
Jey starts out unusually aggressive, taking out Bryan with a headbutt and a scoop slam. Bryan fights back with an uppercut and a knee to the gut. Bryan focuses on the left arm of Jey with an arm wringer, but Jey fights out of it with a Samoan Drop. He stomps Bryan down in the corner and looks to whip him into the opposite corner, but Bryan backflips over him and delivers a flying clothesline. He delivers the Yes Kicks, but Jey rolls out of the ring before he can deliver the final one. Suddenly, Roman Reigns, the last person I want to see, comes out to stare down Jey as we go to commercial.
When we come back, Jey is looking for a superplex on Daniel Bryan, but Bryan slips under him and hangs him in the Tree of Woe. He then delivers a dropkick and looks for a superplex, but Jey turns it into a pin for 2. Bryan delivers some kicks to Jey, but Jey counters with an enziguri. Bryan sends Jey to the outside and looks for a suicide dive, but Jey catches him with a superkick. He climbs to the top rope and looks for the Uso Splash, but Bryan gets his knees up and transitions into the LeBell Lock.
Jey manages to get to the ropes, and Bryan delivers his dropkick in the corner. He goes for another and gets caught with a superkick. Jey delivers another kick and then hits the Uso Splash for the win.
Winner via pinfall: Jey Uso
Match Rating: 3/5
After the match, Jey finally acknowledges Roman as the head of the table. Roman looks over at Bryan, and Jey delivers another and superkick-Uso Splash to him, saying he understandsRoman now. Roman tells him to show Bryan how much he understands. Jey takes Bryan outside and slams him into the steel steps. He then sets up Bryan onto the announce table and then delivers an Uso Splash onto Bryan on the table. The show ends with the Head of the Table, the Universal Champion Roman Reigns, standing tall.
