When You Piss Off Your Boss – Smackdown Live Recap and Reaction – 11/28/2017

Know this, I’d rather be fired than have my boss so pissed that he/she says, “nope, you aren’t fired, but as punishment you just have to get your ass kicked by Randy Orton.”  No way man.  I hear voices myself, but I’m not stupid.

Let’s get right into this…..

What’s up, Lexington?

The show kicks off with our Smackdown Commissioner, Shane O’ Mac, and one of his trademark cheap pops for the crowd in attendance in Lexington, Kentucky tonight.  They haven’t shown the arena just yet, but I am pretty sure it’s the KFC Yum! Center.  I could Google it, but that’s just extra work.

Shane isn’t happy, mostly because his orders to General Manager Daniel Bryan were to fire Sami and KO when they lost the lumberjack match last week.  That didn’t happen, so now he’s going to publicly question his GMs decision making skills.

Sorry you got a shitty crowd in Knoxville last night to report on Jeremy, because this crowd was hot tonight.  They were so into the Yes! chants that the camera was shaking.

Daniel Bryan gets it.  He knows that there are a number of people who want to see Kevin and Sami fired, but he doesn’t want the snap judgment of a heated moment to put two of their best talents on the market for Raw to potentially snatch.

Daniel Bryan will not be a yes man, contrary to his entire body of work, and Shane sort of sees the light, but he’s amping up the decision to put Randy Orton and Kevin Owens into a match together by banning Sami from ringside and giving Orton free reign with a No DQ Stipulation.

The Peanut Butter and Jelly

• The New Day (Woods and Kofi) vs Gable & Benjamin:  The Speed Team is in for New Day, and E is at ringside with the Usos eating pancakes (for inexplicable reasons).  The Usos and New Day have become best of friends under mutual respect and hatred for Gable and Benjamin.  Kofi Kingston kicks ass when he comes in on the hot tag from Woods.  Woods channeled his inner Dean Ambrose before diving over the top to both of their opponents on the outside, then the tag team tandem would land the Up, Up, Down, Down and pick up the pinfall over Shelton Benjamin.

• 6 Woman Tag Match – Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan vs Charlotte, Naomi & Natalya:  In case you missed it last night, the NXT Women’s Invasion on RAW is now going by Absolution (or as Jeremy has referred to it: The Even More Undisputed Era).  Smackdown’s trio is referring to themselves as The Riot Squad.  I just find it hard to believe it’s not all a part of some grander NXT Invasion as part of a lead to Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania.  Much like last night, the invaders have been placed into 6 woman tag action, only this time, there’s actually a match.  Both teams got backstage promo opportunities, with the NXT ladies showing they’re still a little green in those spots.  The Main Roster group got lengthy entrances, the newbies didn’t.
  • Natalya abandoned her team shortly after the bell rang, but if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t imagine The Queen and The Glow necessarily need her to get the win here anyway.  As Riott (has she always had two Ts?) was tangled in ring with Charlotte, Logan and Morgan used the steel stairs to absolutely destroy Naomi.  I don’t really know why the referee wouldn’t call this match on account of it, but these aren’t NFL officials and aren’t held to a standard of consistency (ha, like there’s consistency in NFL Officiating).  Charlotte would put up a fight, but the now 3-on-1 odds got the better of her, as The Riot Squad picked up the pinfall over the Women’s Champion.

• The Hype Bros vs The Bludgeon Brothers:  I don’t give two shits about this gimmick, but whatever I have to endure to get to see this much Luke Harper is fine by me.  He’s a phenomenal talent and there’s no reason why he hasn’t been given more opportunity.  The Bludgeon Brothers slaughtered Zack Ryder in about 45 seconds, picking up the victory via pinfall.  During a post match interview with Charlie, Mojo attacked Ryder from behind.  They sure took their sweet time in getting to this break-up.  As much as I like Mojo, I don’t see any reason he should go over Ryder in this feud.  I still Woo, Woo, Woo.  I think I just like that he’s a nerd.

• Bobby Roode is Glorious, and he wants a piece of the United States Champion Baron Corbin and a shot at his title.  Put gold on this man immediately.  Corbin interrupts his promo with his trademark lackluster mic skills, and declines Roode’s challenge for the belt.
• The Singh Brothers 2-on-1 against WWE Champion AJ Styles:  Even though the Singh Brothers are the ones in this match, they still serve as hype men for Jinder Mahal.  Jinder was rocking a sweet ass suit though, so it’s cool he’s coming to the ring.  Jinder jumped AJ during his entrance, and then we got a commercial break….ugh, frustrated emoji.

• and we’re back…..Mind blown emoji!!!!!  After making his way back into the ring, The Phenomenal One valiantly battled The Singh Brothers, eventually hitting a Styles Clash off the second rope, putting one Singh Brother through the other laying prone in the ring.  It was bad ass, and may have killed them both.  At the very least it had to have cracked some ribs.  AJ Styles picks up the pinfall.  A pissed off Jinder Mahal attacked his advocates for their failures, laying further waste to the already destroyed tandem.  I like when Jinder gets pissed off, his afro goes all crazy and he looks like a Middle Eastern Dr. Wily from Mega Man.

• The Fashion Files go full Saw, equipped with crappy Jigsaw knockoff.  Breezango and The Ascension wake up chained in a bathroom, where they are forced to further desecrate the corpse of Dango’s toy horse head to get the key to their cuffs.  Breezango escapes, but leaves The Ascension behind.  This was probably the weakest episode of The Fashion Files to day.

KO Walks Into The Viper’s Pit

For those of you who didn’t see Randy Orton’s adorable Dad Post on Instagram today, do yourself a favor and go remind yourself that kayfabe is completely dead, so calm the hell down and quit trying to hit dudes with Money in the Bank Briefcases on their way through the crowd.

I kind of wish this wasn’t the main event, because for the majority of it it was exactly what you imagine.  Orton hit his trademark spots, with the draping DDT off the ropes, the Superplex so they can reference Cowboy Bob, and the snap powerslam.  The crowd desperately wanted the RKO, and Tables but they always want tables.  As they fought up the ramp, Sami Zayn came to KO’s aid, attacking Orton with a steel chair.  He’ll pay for it next week.  Orton still got the upper hand as they made their way back into the ring, but Kevin Owens would take out Orton’s leg as he attempted the RKO, then landed the Frog Splash as Kevin Owens picked up the win over the Viper for the victory.

Reaction:

For all the things that Smackdown does right, and they are numerous, I still don’t like that there are commercial breaks in damn near every match.  I think it bothers me more that they occasionally do the split screen thing, so I know they could do it during all the matches but they don’t.  I don’t know, it frustrates me, but not nearly as much as the excess of Truth commercials during everything I watch here lately.  They’re so annoying, and their “facts” are such crap and don’t take a million additional aspects into account.

Anyway, small gripes and Truth rants aside, Smackdown is clearly on the road to Clash of Champions, and steadily getting us towards a well rounded card that will feature that AJ Styles vs Jinder Mahal Championship match, most likely a Natalya vs Charlotte rematch (yet again), and maybe The Usos defending against The Bludgeon Brothers?  They’re not going to go right back to The Usos vs The New Day right?  We’ll get a kickoff show match of Zack Ryder vs Mojo Rawley, and probably the rest of the women’s division in 6-woman tag action.  I don’t know where we’re going with the Shane and DB situation, nor do I know if Shane is in a condition where he needs to be wrestling matches more often than he already is, so I don’t know what is going to come of the Kevin Owens-Sami Zayn pair at Clash of Champions, but it’ll round itself out by the end of the month.  We also got a tease that THE GLORIOUS BOBBY ROODE will challenge for the United States Championship.  So, as we stand right now, Smackdown is putting together a fantastic card for our upcoming PPV.  B-Show my ass.  Smackdown’s writing has been the most consistent since the brand split, although Raw’s writing team plays the really, really, really long game with storylines sometimes so maybe this Triple H situation is going to be awesome like the Rollins vs H build from last year.  Who knows?  Anyway, watch 205 Live!  It has flippy moves, Drew Gulak and all 8 of Tony Nese’s reasons for you to tune in.