State of Smackdown November 12th

Welcome to the State of Smackdown November 12th. Smackdown kicks off with a promo from the Wyatt Family. Bray issues a challenge to the Brothers of Destruction for a two on two tag match for Survivor Series. After watching the Brothers of Destruction wipe out the Wyatts on Raw why would I want to watch a regular tag and why would the Wyatts want it? I’m a little disappointed we’re not getting a traditional Survivor Series matches out of this feud.

The promo is followed by the Smackdown in-ring debut of Braun Strowman against Fandango. The best part of this match was my wife asking if Fandango is still relevant. Strowman disposes of Fandango in quick fashion to no surprise.

The first tournament match of the night was Neville and King Barrett. These two have wrestled several times and always have decent matches. The flow of this match highlighted the speed and agility of Neville. Neville advances to face Kevin Owens in the quarter-finals. I don’t expect Neville to get past Owens. I would like to see Neville being put over more. I think he can be a top mid-card guy.

Next we had another tournament match featuring Ryback against Kalisto. I love Kalisto, but I was surprised to see as a participant in this tournament. I was even more surprised when he picked up the win. This was a big upset and a pretty decent match. I think Kalisto has the potential the be the predecessor of Rey Mysterio. I’m glad they didn’t turn Ryback heel after this shocking loss.

Alberto Del Rio and Zeb Colter are out to talk about all the haters in England and MexAmerica. Their plans are to win the WWE World Heavyweight title and unify it with the United States title to form the MexAmerican Heavyweight Championship. I’ve always been a big fan of ADR, but I’m not sure the MexAmerica gimmick is connecting yet. I would have preferred they brought ADR back as a top babyface. Also, I find it very weird that ADR is not bragging about beating Cena.

The final tournament match of the night is Del Rio versus Stardust. This was an okay match. Del Rio continues to be very aggressive in the ring. I don’t think anyone believed that Stardust had a chance of winning. I really think ADR needs to abandon the double stomp and go back with his already over Cross Armbreaker. ADR advances to face Kalisto on Raw which should be a very good match.

Roman Reigns cuts a promo backstage and vows to defeat Cesaro on Raw. It will be very interesting to see how the crowd reacts. If Cesaro gets cheered over Roman, which he probably will, WWE should highly consider turning Reigns heel and making him the Corporate champion.

The main event of the night was the Usos taking on the duo of Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. I instantly had flashbacks to their epic match they had at Battleground last year. This was a solid match. The DQ finish was not a surprise because they need to try to keep the Wyatts strong going into Survivor Series and the Usos just returned and you don’t want to beat especially since it looks like they’ll be the number one contenders to the New Day. As the Wyatts are beating down the Usos, Taker’s music hits and he accepts the challenge for Survivor Series. I have a feeling Bray is going to weasel his way out of the match and it’ll be Harper and Rowan against Taker and Kane. Which means we’ll probably see Taker versus Wyatt at TLC. Ruff.

What were your thoughts of this episode of Smackdown?