The WWE Smackdown Reaction for 9/10/21
Welcome to The Smackdown Reaction, where I offer my take on this week’s show at Madison Square Garden. As always, you can check out John’s full in-depth review here.
We open the show with a 9/11 tribute saying that we will never forget. It was your typical awesome WWE video package and I will check out the 9/11 documentary on Peacock this weekend. I’ve heard that it was really good and I remember that Smackdown very well.
Live action starts with Promo Time with The Bloodline. The Usos figured out how to do their badass entrance without being hidden by Heyman. Reigns talked for a minute or so before Brock Lesnar joined the party. Lesnar asked Heyman why he didn’t tell Reigns he was there at SummerSlam. Oh the intrigue. Bloodline bails so Heyman can do his usual spiel to introduce Lesnar. Lesnar told Heyman to accept his challenge before Reigns fires him. Lesnar went to F5 Heyman when Reigns came back with a Superman Punch. The Usos pounced but Lesnar flung them around like they were the Singh Brothers to end the segment. MSG loves face Lesnar and this angle has some good steam behind it. It’ll be interesting to see where Heyman’s allegiance truly lies when these two square off.
Our opening contest is a ten-man tag with the team of Big E, The Mysterios, King Nakamura, and Rick Boogs taking on the team of Apollo Crews, Otis, Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode, and Sami Zayn. Zayn is wrestling in pajama pants for some reason. Zayn also brought out Trae Young to be in the heel corner. The tag match was pretty fun for the time allotted. Some Smackdown matches suffer with time restrictions because of the Fox hard stop. We get the “everyone hits their spot to get knocked out of the ring” spot as you would expect in these matches. Young decides to interfere in the match and the ref tosses him from ringside instead of calling for the DQ. Zayn eats a couple of finishers to pick up the loss for his team. After the match, Big E said he was coming for either champion with his briefcase. I would expect him to be successful on his cash-in when he does it, likely on Bobby Lashley.
Up next is the contract signing between Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair for the Smackdown Women’s Championship at Extreme Rules. Belair comes out first and immediately sings the contract. Lynch is out next and stalls a little to get her new heel character over before signing the contract. I haven’t decided which way I’m going for this match yet. It’s still a toss up in my mind.
Kayla Braxton cornered Paul Heyman backstage about Roman accepting Brock’s challenge before Big E shows up to laugh at Heyman with the briefcase. I really like these Big E skits. I think they are really helping build his character up.
Up next is Edge/Rollins II. We get another fantastic match from these two, as expected. The story told in the ring was great, with them trying to end the match with each other’s moves. Rollins didn’t immediately attack the neck but eventually moved to it. Edge showed his never-give-up attitude. Rollins even tried to end the match with a Glam Slam. They botched the first one so they were successful the second time. The end came with Rollins superkicking Edge multiple times to get him to finally stay down for the Stomp to end the match. After the match, Edge does the stretcher job. After all of that, I only wonder how long do we have to wait for TLC for the rubber match? It was just as good as their SummerSlam match.
Main event time with The Usos defending the Smackdown Tag Team Titles against The Street Profits. The Street Profits picked up a DQ win last week in the Championship Contenders Match last week. We are treated to another really good match from the two teams. They gel well together, but I think that is just how good The Usos are there. Roman Reigns eventually came to ringside when the Usos were at the disadvantage. Stop me if I’ve told you this booking sequence before. Dawkins kicked out of the Uso Splash and tagged out without Jimmy realizing it. Jimmy tried another Uso Splash, that Dawkins counted and Ford comes with the twisting frog splash to have Reigns interfere for the DQ ending (again).
Reigns put Ford to sleep with the Guillotine before saying he’ll deal with Lesnar after he smashes Balor at Extreme Rules. Weird lighting starts up and The Demon appears and faces off with Roman to close the show out.
Let’s look at tonight’s highs and lows.
The Highs
Edge/Rollins II was simply excellent. It was likely the best match on Smackdown so far in 2021. They told an amazing story and I can’t wait for the rubber match. Hopefully, they place a stipulation on it.
Both tag team matches were really good. The ten-man tag was really fun and the tag title match was really good. Smackdown was really good from start to finish this week.
The Lows
Can we please get an Usos/Street Profits match that does not end with the Usos getting DQed? The matches have been good but the finishes have hurt a little.
Did we really need to break out The Demon for Extreme Rules? We all know Balor is not going to win the title and The Demon is one of the few characters left that have the credibility to take the title off of Roman. As much as I’ll hate it, I’m hoping for a DQ ending so The Demon doesn’t suffer a loss but I think WWE booked themselves into a corner here. We’ll see how it goes, I guess.
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That’s all I’ve got, until next time.