WWE SmackDown 11/14/17: Raw Ruins Everything
About Last Night is a quick reflection on the matches and segments, or random observations, from a wrestling show that sticks out to us the morning after we watch them. If you would like to get your comments featured, chime in below in our comments section or tweet us. You can also help support us on Patreon.
About The Opening Segment…
SmackDown opened this week with the entire roster in a pep rally backstage hosted by Shane McMahon, and I was grinning ear-to-ear. They established the reasons why they are all going to get along on Sunday, their motivation for why they hate Raw, and highlighted all the participants. Shane set up several people to cut quick promos on their opponents, getting over the feuds for the matches without their opposition being present.
It was brilliantly executed and made me proud to represent Team Blue. This is clearly the superior show from the superstars to the writers. They’ve given enough reasons to cheer and be loyal to them, unlike Raw, and I can’t wait for them to kick Team Red’s ass.
About AJ Styles’ Advocate…
I wrote in the About Last Night for Raw (Yes, I know. I don’t like it either.) how Paul Heyman was masterful with his promo to hype up Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles and even deflected that fan distraction like a boss. Well, Daniel Bryan became Style’s advocate for the night, and blew Heyman out of the water. He didn’t just talk in generalities about destruction of use catchphrases, Bryan went in on Lesnar’s shortcoming throughout his whole career of quitting when the going gets tough, including his submission loss in UFC. Bryan also brought up the stamina issues of bigger opponent when facing smaller competitors like him and AJ Styles, and combined with his intensity this may be one of my favorite promos of the year.
It’s been too long since we’ve gotten Daniel Bryan to cut an actual wrestling promo instead of running through a general manager script. He totally still has it, and I’d love for him to get back into the ring. Perhaps with Shane McMahon getting such a beating at the end of the show we’ll see him step in as the new Team SmackDown captain. It’s an extremely long shot, but it would be magical.
About Baron Corbin vs. Sin Cara…
Boy, if you really thought Baron Corbin was going to lose to Sin Cara after all the buzz from Corbin and The Miz duking it out on social media, I don’t know what to tell you. This match did nothing for me, as did none of there 20 previous ones, but at least this one had an actual ending. I don’t really have much all to say about this one, so I guess I can take this time to mention that The Bludgeon Brothers are debuting next week and I still love their gimmick of saying weird shit and hitting the camera with their hammers. It’ll be good to have Luke Harper and Erick Rowan back in the ring.
About Natalya vs. Charlotte Flair…
Tuesday afternoon WWE posted an article about how Charlotte was dedicating her title match to her father Ric Flair, and instantly I knew the result. Ric Flair recently had that health scare and just had his 30 for 30 documentary debut on ESPN, so of course this was a big opportunity to focus on him with his daughter winning a title. I was hoping this would occur at Starrcade and end with a Carmella cash-in while Ric was watching, but without it airing on the WWE Network those hopes were quickly dashed. While I was excited to see a fresh match of Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss, I guess it makes more sense to have it be a face against a heel, and I’m sure it will be a good match.
As for the match on SmackDown, it was another great match between these two talented superstars. They are very comfortable in the ring with each other and are able to explore more dangerous spots like the powerbomb on the outside from Charlotte being on the barrier. The visual with Ric embracing his daughter after the match was a great touch that will be used on all the sports sites. So even if I didn’t want the result, it’s still probably for the best overall.
About Raw…
Welp, the final SmackDown before Survivor Series ended the only way it could – Raw invaded in a terrible knock-off of #UnderSiege. During the main event of The New Day vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, The Shield showed up in terrible half-and-half shirts of the the Team Raw one and their own, because that’s some real good solidarity. Then it turned into a brawl of SmackDown superstars – including Shane McMahon – fighting off invading Raw superstars from the crowd.
One major problem with this is how disjointed it was. For some reason the Raw women were backstage and went into the lockroom to attack the SmackDown women. Similar to last year, seeing Bayley being one of them leading the charge is super jarring but I guess her character no longer matters so whatever. Asuka blending into the crowd was also a bummer there, but it’s to be expected from Raw. We also had Kurt Angle coming out from the stage instead of the crowd with zero explanation along with Braun Strowman. This felt a lot less well planned out than SmackDown’s destruction tour, and Raw came off as super heels with the decimation of SmackDown’s beloved commissioner as the final image going off the air.
I don’t understand how you can possibly support Raw after this sloppy, horrible attack. I want SmackDown to sweep them on Sunday.
What did you think of this week’s SmackDown? Let us know in the comments!
