Friday Night SmackDown Review - November 19, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Bloodline Attacked King Woods

I loved when The Usos attempted to present Roman Reigns with the king stuff and Reigns rejected it because he thought it was stupid. It's one thing for Woods to parade away with the crown and cape because he's wanted to do that since he was a kid (plus he can be a comedy character at times), but for everyone else, it looks ridiculous and I'm happy Reigns pointed that out. Him destroying all the king regalia makes me hopeful it won't be brought back. This was a solid segment to set up what we'd see at the end of the evening.

Sheamus def. Cesaro, Ricochet and Jinder Mahal in a Fatal 4-Way Match to Qualify for SmackDown's Men's Survivor Series Team

So, let me get this straight. WWE announced the Survivor Series teams for Raw and SmackDown on Twitter two weeks ago. Both brands then spent the next two weeks removing certain members of teams and replacing them with people without any explanation. Toni Storm was just given the last spot on SmackDown's women's team, so why did any of these men have to earn it? The booking is just nonsensical. On the bright side, this was a blast and all four men worked well together. Sheamus winning with help from Ridge Holland was interesting and leaves me wondering if that's the newest tag team or if Holland will turn on him soon enough.

Shayna Baszler and Natalya def. Naomi and Aliyah

Man, what a waste of time this was. It ended before it had a chance to get going. I realize the intent was to further the feud between Naomi and Sonya Deville with the idea being that Deville paid off the referee to screw Naomi, but as a match, this was a joke and made the heels look like complete afterthoughts. If nothing else, I was spared from seeing Aliyah wrestle for very long, so there was that.

Jeff Hardy def. Madcap Moss

I was worried we'd get Hardy vs. Happy Corbin for what would've felt like the millionth time (I know they haven't been on the same show for a year but we saw it a bunch before that), so I guess Moss being in there instead made this slightly better. At just under two minutes, this was total throwaway and didn't seem to serve much of a purpose aside from possibly setting up Hardy and Drew McIntyre against Corbin and Moss next week. By the way, didn't Corbin pin Shinsuke Nakamura last month? I'm not clamoring for a rematch, but it would make sense if he got an Intercontinental Championship shot.

Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura def. Angel in a Championship Contender's Match

Angel dropping his last name of Garza just sounds silly. Some of WWE's name changes work, but this is one of the worst ones yet. I'm glad WWE didn't forget about Angel beating Nakamura last week like they did with Corbin. Angel should have automatically earned a title shot for pinning Nakamura, but oh well. I was actually looking forward to this because both guys are talented, but it ended in a a matter of minutes, so that was disappointing. A tag team rematch is probably coming based on what happened afterward.

Sasha Banks def. Shotzi

While I would have saved their first encounter for after Survivor Series, I appreciated that they were given an ample amount of time here. It was a well-wrestled match and Shotzi gained something in defeat, but I was not a fan of Banks winning so decisively. Yes, they can always continue feuding and I expect them to, but Shotzi needed this more, and Deville making them shake hands afterward was silly. Why book this matchup in the first place if you wanted them to get along?

The New Day Attacked The Bloodline

After Woods got his ass kicked by The Bloodline at the start of the show, you had to know where this was going, especially when Woods was in the ring all by himself. I expected both Big E and Kofi Kingston to make the save, but only Big E came out, so either Kingston is still selling the storyline injury or he's legitimately injured or out for another reason. At any rate, this was well done and it left me looking forward to Big E vs. Reigns at Survivor Series.

Overall Show

I enjoyed my experience watching this episode from the arena, but I likely would've enjoyed it a lot less had I watched it from home. It was pretty lame as far as go-home shows go and just lame in general, but the main story that was told throughout the night with The Bloodline and New Day was well done and Banks vs. Shotzi and the Fatal 4-Way had some entertaining action. I'm very curious to see what SmackDown will look like coming out of Survivor Series following the latest round of releases. I mean, Hit Row? Seriously?

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews