Friday Night SmackDown Review - November 8, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sami Zayn Walked Out on Roman Reigns and The Usos

I love that Zayn addressed the elephant in the room: Despite Reigns putting his differences aside with Jey Uso, he has yet to apologize to him for all the abuse and mental turmoil he put him through for three years. Reigns refused and Zayn logically walked off. It was simple storytelling, and for as strong of a segment as this was, it would've been even better if they didn't rush into the next chapter at the end of the night.

Bayley def. Candice LeRae

This wasn't advertised in advance, so I was surprised to see it given away without much fanfare and for it to get a decisive finish. I'm not saying it needed to be saved for Survivor Series or whatever, but a bit more buildup would've been nice. They the well-wrestled match you'd expect from them and I liked the commentary team playing up LeRae's influence on Bayley from before they both signed with WWE. Unfortunately, LeRae losing decisively isn't an encouraging sign that this feud will continue.

Kevin Owens Attacked Randy Orton

I thought the brawl between Owens and Orton at Crown Jewel would set up an official match between them for Survivor Series, but this segment seemed to suggest we won't be getting it until after the pay-per-view at the earliest, possibly at Saturday Night's Main Event. The execution of this angle was excellent, and yes, a basic piledriver isn't all that devastating considering how often we see it in AEW and even the Canadian Piledriver in WWE, but Orton sold it exceptionally well and Owens comes off as more dangerous than he was before.

#DIY def. Pretty Deadly

This was total destruction from #DIY, or specifically Tommaso Ciampa. He destroyed Pretty Deadly in under two minutes without tagging in Johnny Gargano once. He was also aggressive during the backstage segments that aired beforehand and afterward, including when they found out The Street Profits are getting the next shot at the WWE Tag Team Championship. I don't think this is leading to a #DIY split, but I am intrigued to see where this goes for them.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill def. Tiffany Stratton and WWE Women's Champion Nia Jax (Non-Title)

I thought we might see this as a feud over the tag titles at some point, but it's possible we got it here in case Cargill and Belair drop the belts to Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez on Monday's Raw. It was a solid match with the usual miscommunication between Jax and Stratton. The Money in the Bank cash-in, whether it's successful or not, has to be coming soon, right? The teases are going to get old eventually if they haven't already.

WWE Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns def. A-Town Down Under (Non-Title)

Well, so much for the Guns appearing on The Grayson Waller Effect. I guess it was changed to a match in a WWE.com/social media exclusive video that went up prior to the show. I would've liked to hear from the Guns in front of the crowd so the audience could get to know them better, but there's nothing wrong with them showing off their skills in the ring. This was a good match and I appreciated that it got some time, but the crowd was quiet for a majority of it.

Roman Reigns, The Usos and Sami Zayn Attacked The Bloodline

Much like the opening segment, this came out extremely well and the crowd was hot for it, but this really should've been saved until after Reigns cleared the air with Zayn. Zayn went from walking out Reigns at the beginning of the night to willingly reuniting with him here, but to my knowledge, nothing changed in those two hours. It's another example of this storyline being rushed. At least we now know for sure that we're getting a WarGames match between The Bloodline and O.G. Bloodline at Survivor Series, even though it was announced in anticlimactic fashion.

Overall Show

In addition to everything above, Nick Aldis also introduced the Women's United States Championship via a vignette. Yes, the name and design are both unoriginal, but it's awesome the women are finally getting a midcard title to fight for. Here's hoping it's co-branded and not just exclusive to SmackDown, at least to start. This edition of SmackDown gets a thumbs-up from me, albeit not an overly enthusiastic one. There's some stuff I still have an issue with, but several storylines have my interest at the moment. Jax vs. Naomi for the WWE Women's Championship and the Guns vs. the Profits for the WWE Tag Team Championship were confirmed for next week.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews