He said Heyman goes way back with his family, so he wanted to thank him to his face, because now he gets to compete against his blood cousin one on one for the first time. Heyman said he doesn’t owe him any thanks and the appreciation should actually go to Roman. When Big E got taken out, it was his idea for Jey to replace him in the fatal four way
Reigns says he doesn’t have to thank him, they’re blood and they’ve thought about this for years. He’s proud of Jey and the whole family is proud. He’s about to be in the main event of Clash of Champions and take a huge payday home to his family. I LOVED that money was mentioned here as motivation for all of this. But at Clash, he’s gonna whoop his ass just like when they were kids.
King Corbin and Sheamus came out to say this was a setup and nepotism between them, but Jey sent them both running while Roman just walked off with an “attaboy cuz” and that looked great. Also, Jey called them butt mud. Alrighty.
To be totally honest, at first I audibly groaned when Corbin came out and then Sheamus because as much as they haven’t been as offensive to me recently, it’ll only take one quick segment to change that opinion. But once I saw where it was going, I realized that this is pretty genius. Jey still doesn’t get that Roman is only out for himself now. He thinks that the bloodline still matters to him. So of course Roman would have his back as much as he does for him, right?
So when Jey came out for the tag match and Roman never showed up… it clicked! I quickly forgot about “show up and win” and it has become Roman’s new mantra, and he’s really smart for it. Of course, Jey could have used some help, but Roman doesn’t care about that.
Sadly, Jey hasn’t figured that out yet.
So Roman finally showed up, and tagged himself in after Jey took advantage of the distraction of his music. The way he just was like “get out, bro I got this” and speared Sheamus for the win, was masterful. Let Jey do all the work, just like he let Braun do all the work at Payback, and show up in the final stretch when everyone is exhausted and win.
I thought that Roman was going to cement his heel turn tonight, but I like what they did better. Jey doesn’t know what’s coming. He’s in for a rude awakening.
One step ahead
Bayley explained her reasoning behind turning on her former best friend, and I loved this as well.
Bayley explained exactly why – because Sasha was going to do it to her and she had to get to it first. Masterful. Showing that Bayley was aware of the side eyeing and all of Sasha’s antics was fantastic.
What this did was prove everything I had been saying since they lost the tag titles – Bayley knows that Sasha is her biggest threat to losing the SmackDown women’s championship. So she used Sasha the whole time, to stay champion, and threw her out when she wasn’t needed anymore.
I wish so badly there was a live crowd for all of this, because the merciless booing would have been incredible. Also got a bit of an Eddie Guerrero vibe from this, which I saw someone post a tweet showing both Bayley and Eddie side by side and I mean, Sasha has said that Eddie is pretty much her idol and it makes sense for it to go in that direction.
Now, when does Sasha return? If I’m booking, I wait until the Royal Rumble. Hopefully we can have about 50% attendance and get a great pop for her music. The beatdown last week was severe looking enough to warrant a 4 month break, and to be honest I think Sasha deserves it. We know her bump card is fuller than a lot of people on the roster and she could use the break to rest and get healthier.
The Rest
Wobbly Walrus – Well we all got swerved. The obvious pick of “new Firefly Funhouse member” was the Alexa Bliss that had just turned on Nikki Cross in their fatal four way match. However, it was Pasquale the Parrot!
Or at least… it was supposed to be Pasquale but sadly, he died. So puppet Vince showed up and said that he has chosen a special advisor to the Funhouse – Wobbly Walrus. And Wobbly Walrus is exactly who you think it is when you see him. This was incredibly meta and I laughed out loud, but I get that some may not like it.
Alexa Bliss did a Sister Abigail – Nikki Cross won the fatal four way I just mentioned by pinning Tamina. Lacey Evans was also in this. It was not good. But Alexa’s part was the best! Michael Cole said that Alexa wasn’t reminding him of the Fiend, and immediately, Alexa went into a trance. Cross was on the floor and Alexa helped her up, and then gave her a Sister Abigail! It was so well done, and it was what made me think that she was going to be in the Firefly Funhouse.
Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles ends in no contest – Sami Zayn continuing to hilariously claim that he is still IC champion and claim that Jeff is a SHAMpion is true to his character. Loved that Adam Pearce made him leave with a security escort, but as we saw on Raw this past week, Adam isn’t trustworthy enough to make sure that people aren’t where they should be.
Styles was smart to attack Hardy as the bell rang but that didn’t do the job. He and Hardy fought more, but that darn Sami came back and caused a no contest by attacking both men and scurrying away. Jeff collapsed on the stage after the match, and when we returned from commercial, medical staff said Jeff was dehydrated.
Styles came up and said he can beat Sami or Jeff and doesn’t care when it happens because he’ll prove that he’s the real IC champion. Later, Sami went into the room and he and Jeff brawled. Triple threat incoming.
Lucha House Party def. The Artists – Kalisto cut a promo with Lince and Metalik saying he was the leader of LHP and was bringing the tag titles to their team. Both Lince and Metalik were not in agreement there. Cesaro and Nakamura worked over Kalisto in their corner for a decent portion of the match.
And then it got stupid. Street Profits came to SmackDown and Cesaro and Nakamura told them specifically to not trash and not touch anything in their champions lounge. So how did Cesaro get pinned? By the tron showing Tez and Dawkins trashing and touching everything in the champions lounge and Kalisto rolled him up. There was no reason for this.
Otis def. John Morrison – I’m very sad that I now do not care what is happening with Otis. And this is mainly because they’re really leaning into the dumb stuff now. The Mandy and Otis stuff was fun on television and I was hoping that was what his run as MITB holder was going to be, but then they just had to add the silliness of Miz and Morrison and now he’s a complete joke. Making all four of these men turn into middle schoolers fighting on a playground has hurt them.
SmackDown was mostly great, but a few matches being bad could not be overlooked this week. Roman and Bayley are dominating this show and in a great way. I’m so incredibly pleased with this Roman turn and SmackDown looks so much better than Raw right now. Drew Mac and Asuka are trying really hard, but the blue brand is the show to watch.
Until it won’t, because that’s what happens.
Grade: B+
What were your thoughts, Cagesiders?
