Friday Night SmackDown Review - November 26, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Universal Champion Roman Reigns Addressed the Audience

This was essentially every Reigns promo we've heard after every pay-per-view for the last year where he'll boast about beating a certain opponent and put the rest of the locker room on notice. At this point, though, he's pretty spot-on when he says that he's defeated a majority of the roster. This was the usual quality promo for him that did a decent job of hyping up the number one contender's Battle Royal later on in the night. At least it looks like Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy and Brock Lesnar are lined up to challenge for the championship eventually.

Drew McIntyre and Jeff Hardy def. Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss

This was set up on last week's SmackDown. McIntyre and Hardy are clearly on track to be the top two babyfaces on the blue brand (aside from Brock Lesnar), so it was wise to have them win here. I've enjoyed the Corbin and Moss act, but they have to move past the laughing shtick at some point because it's already gotten old. All in all, this was a good match and the crowd being so strongly behind Hardy was a highlight.

Cesaro def. Ridge Holland

I'm a fan of Holland and his potential, but he's one of those guys that I think would have benefited from more time and seasoning in NXT before getting called up. Putting him with Sheamus is smart, though, as they already have nice chemistry together and he can only benefit from working alongside him. This was way too brief to be the hard-hitting affair I was hoping it would be. Cesaro winning was surprising, but I don't think it'll damage Holland as much as it did Karrion Kross when he lost in his debut over the summer. There's obviously more to this and it's not like Holland went undefeated in NXT at the end of his run there. Besides, Cesaro needs a win every now and then so it actually means something when he gets beaten.

Angel def. Rick Boogs in a Thanksgiving Leftovers Throwdown

We've seen Thanksgiving-themed matches before in WWE, but this was new. More accurately, it was basically every Thanksgiving-themed match we've ever seen with a different name. It didn't last long, so as the holiday filler, it was fine. I thought we'd get Los Lotharios against Boogs and Shinsuke Nakamura after what happened last week, but apparently not. Nakamura should probably drop the Intercontinental Championship if he's going to be more of a tag team player with Boogs than a singles star.

SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair Embarrassed Toni Storm

I like the idea of a Storm and Flair feud, but it's been oddly executed so far. First, Storm confronted Flair a few weeks ago in the ring and Flair denied her a title shot. She then said she'd entertain the idea a week ago, but not only did she turn her down again here, she left her with pie in her face. Storm stood there looking like a moron and didn't fight back. It was a weird segment. I'm happy Storm is back on TV, but from a storyline standpoint, she definitely does not deserve a shot at the strap considering she hasn't won a singles match on SmackDown since July (I'm not even kidding). WWE needs to fix that.

Naomi and Sasha Banks def. Natalya and Shayna Baszler

Sonya Deville is now making an enemy out of Banks and that actually makes sense since Banks calls herself "The Boss", so that's interesting. Before they can feud, we have to get to the next chapter of Naomi and Deville story, which has been treading water for a while. They have to be building toward a match between them at Day 1, right? The match itself was solid and I'm glad the women actually received an ample amount of time for a change. Then again, I guess I shouldn't be too shocked given that Banks was involved. Naomi needed this win, but again, we need to get her in the ring with Deville sooner rather than later.

Sami Zayn Won the Universal Championship No. 1 Contender's Black Friday Battle Royal

This was your standard WWE Battle Royal where the order of eliminations didn't matter much because a good chunk of these people were not going to win. It got better when it came down the final four of Sheamus, Hardy, Corbin and Ricochet, so that was fun. Hardy was the last man standing as I expected, only for him to be thrown out by Zayn who exited the ring earlier on and I totally forgot about him. Zayn hasn't won anything of importance in ages, so this was a cool twist. Of course, Kayla Braxton announced afterward that Lesnar's suspension has been lifted, so we'll see if Zayn actually gets his shot, if he'll have it taken from him by Lesnar, or if Lesnar will just be added to the match along with Hardy and possibly King Woods who has unfinished business with Reigns. They'll need to explain why McIntyre wasn't included in the Battle Royal, though.

Overall Show

For a holiday edition of SmackDown, this was a perfectly passable show. I appreciated the main event having actual stakes and the story they told throughout the night with whether Lesnar's suspension would be lifted or not. The filler was kept to a minimum and we got progression with several storylines along with some decent wrestling. There's a lot of directions they can go in with the Universal Championship picture, so that has me intrigued going into the end of the year.

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