5 Things We Learned From SmackDown Last Night

Following Hell In A Cell just over a week ago, WWE‘s Tuesday night brand appears to be in a holding pattern until Survivor Series next month.

With the RAW brand building up this Sunday’s TLC event, SmackDown can’t go too hard in transitioning toward Survivor Series until both brands are on the same page. That has certainly been evident the last two weeks as SmackDown has put forth what can only be seen as some uninspiring shows. Well, outside of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn that is.

Shinsuke Nakamura has been stuck in two throwaway tag team matches, Randy Orton is just there doing whatever it is he is doing, the women’s title has been lost in the shuffle, and Bobby Roode is still stuck in a program with Dolph Ziggler.

So what were the big takeaways from this week’s show? Well, we got the prelude to a potentially huge Survivor Series match, so there’s that.

Read on for five things we learned from this week’s broadcast.

1. These Guys Are Great

Sami Zayn gave the best promo of his WWE life this week. No question.

Though he did a great job last week in explaining his actions at Hell In A Cell, this week was even better. His entrance has become a thing of beauty, coming out with a big smile on his face and smirking as the fans boo. Bryan asked him why he was smiling, to which Zayn replied about how he is so much more happy now that he’s not trying to please the fans.

Zayn cut a promo filled with what was certainly a lot of his true feelings, speaking about how Bryan was the best wrestler of their generation and how he used to look up to him. But he turned that into Bryan-bashing, saying how he went too hard in the ring which resulted in his early retirement. He made everyone in the crowd feel bad for Bryan, which means he did his job.

In the end, Kevin Owens came out and joined him in the Daniel Bryan bashing. The segment resulted in Bryan making a tag match for later in the show against anyone in the back he could find to punish Zayn and Owens for their degrading comments. This ended up being Shinsuke Nakamura and Randy Orton….because we have to get those guys on this show somehow. 

2. Get On With It Already

In the women’s division, we seem to be in a holding pattern for Charlotte defeating Natalya for the title. So let’s just make it happen already.

I can’t count how many times now we’ve had a tag match where all the female wrestlers have just been thrown together for no rhyme or reason. Carmella has been completely left out after becoming one of the most refreshing faces in the women’s division just a couple of months ago. Naomi, likewise, is lacking any real direction or story.

I was a huge fan of Natalya getting her due and winning the title this summer, but it’s time to make the title change so we can get on with the division and get something fresh. These matches just haven’t been cutting it. 

3. The Fans Didn’t Care

Jinder Mahal challenged Brock Lesnar for Survivor Series. One would think that the SmackDown world champion challenging the RAW world champion would cause some excitement among the fans.

This did not.

In fact, there were audible laughs from the crowd when Mahal announced the challenge. 

The segment then transitioned into a back and forth with AJ Styles, who will quite clearly be the next challenger after Survivor Series (and probably the next champion too). The Mahal title reign has been interesting in the fact that it was something new and fresh, but it has worn out its welcome. It’s time to put the belt back on Styles and start the slow build to Styles/Nakamura at WrestleMania. 

4. Just Say No To 50/50 Booking

Dolph Ziggler got a clean victory over Bobby Roode this week, which is absolutely astounding. Under no circumstance should Roode be losing to Ziggler if they have any hope for him to be a main eventer on this brand (which is something they are in dire need of, take a look at ticket sales). There is simply no excuse for this decision other than WWE’s often talked about 50/50 booking, which has proven to be a losing proposition for years now.

Despite being a talented wrestler, Ziggler’s character is dead and extending a feud between he and Roode does nothing to help Roode’s position on the card moving forward. It also isn’t going to do anything for Ziggler who is firmly established as a mid-card talent in WWE forever more. A win by Ziggler on Tuesday night sets up yet another match between the two, which is one more too many. 

Roode should have went over strong in the first match and moved on to something fresh. Say, the U.S. title, which also appears to be a sinking ship after a Corbin wrestled Sin Cara this week in a match the crowd could have cared less about. 

5. A Decent Match Without Much Story

The final match of the night consisted of Nakamura and Orton teaming up to defend Daniel Bryan’s honor against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. According to Bryan, teams were lining up backstage to wrestle Owens and Zayn, and this is the group he went with.

Obviously, because two of SmackDown’s biggest stars have to get on the show, and this was another way to get them involved as we kill some more time before Survivor Series.

The match itself was pretty solid. Nakamura seems to have lost a ton of heat with the crowd, which shows that having him lose twice to Jinder Mahal may have not been the wisest decision if you’re looking to make a new star that the crowd is genuinely interested in. They’re going to have to book him really strongly to get him back to the point that he was at when he first came up to the main roster, and a feud with AJ Styles may do just that. The problem is, we’re a couple months away (at least) from that happening. What does Nakamura do in the mean time? They clearly don’t know and neither do I. 

Zayn pinned Orton clean after a Helluva Kick, proving that WWE has a new found interest in pushing him. And as mentioned earlier, Zayn has been great in this new heel role. He and Zayn celebrated on the ramp, with Owens uttering one of the saving graces of the show.

That was absolutely hilarious. 

Daniel Bryan also told Owens and Zayn backstage that next week Shane McMahon would return to decide what to do with the two of them. Here’s to hoping we get a little more long-term direction on next week’s broadcast (and more Zayn/Owens segments).