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WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER 11/15: Top Guys Want to Revive Their Reign, Miz Welcomes an Old Friend, Ziggler & Roode Want on the Team, Nikki Wants to Play

By Frank Peteani, PWTorch contributor

November 15, 2019

SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER
NOVEMBER 15, 2019
PHILADELPHIA, PA. AT THE WELLS FARGO CENTER
AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves

Arena, Top 10 Moments of Last Week’s Show, and Items Advertised by WWE

WWE returns to a familiar spot in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. The building opened in 1996 and has hosted many WWE television and PPV events. This year’s Extreme Rules as well as the 2015 and 2018 Royal Rumbles took place in this building. The Rumble of 2015 was won by Roman Reigns, much to the dismay of the crowd. Daniel Bryan had just returned from injury and you could say many wanted him to win the match and go on to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania for the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It’s a moot point now, but WWE could have saved themselves so much aggravation with the negativity towards Reigns had they just had Bryan win that night. He could have faced Lesnar and Rollins would have cashed in the Money in the Bank contract. Reigns could have done something else and could have been built up as the top babyface over time without potentially facing the resent.

Here is the WWE YouTube clip of the top 10 moments of last week’s show:

Due to my work schedule I am submitting this prior to WWE actually posting their official preview. There have been enough items announced for the show, and here are some of them:

  • Ali G & Shorty G to take on Roode & Ziggler for spot on the Survivor Series Team
  • New Day to defend Smackdown Tag Team Championship against The Revival
  • Daniel Bryan to appear on MizTV
  • Bayley stands in the way of Nikki Cross being on Survivor Series team
  • Look for more matches to be announced on WWE.com or through their Twitter account as they typically like to do closer to showtime.

C.M. Punk’s Return to WWE

This is not essential to tonight’s show, but I couldn’t help but acknowledge one of my personal favorite talents making their way back to the WWE family.

At the end of Backstage, C.M. Punk made a surprise entrance and announced he would be on the show next week. Punk has not been with the WWE since he walked out after the Royal Rumble in 2014. He was infamous for his “pipe bomb promo” at the end of an episode of Raw where he called out WWE creative and the company as a whole. He won the WWE Championship at Survivor Series 2011 and would hold the title for 434 days which at the time was the longest reign in the “modern era” of WWE. He walked out on WWE citing frustration with the handling of his injuries, having to face Triple H at WrestleMania 30, and his overall creative direction.

He will be a special contributor and analyst for the show joining Renee Young, Booker T, Paige and Christian. Here’s his surprise appearance and reaction from other wrestlers:

 

Matches & Segments

Survivor Series Spots on the Line: Ali & Shorty G vs. Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode

The Smackdown men’s Survivor Series team was announced on Backstage this past Tuesday. Roman Reigns will be the team captain. He was to have Ali, Shorty G, King Corbin, and Braun Strowman as his teammates. They will take on the NXT team which has yet to be announced, and Raw team of Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, Ricochet, and Randy Orton in a triple threat Survivor Series match.

King Corbin took issue with Ali & Shorty G being named. He preferred Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode. Everybody chimed in:

 

 

Ali & Shorty G take on Roode & Ziggler for their Survivor Series spots tonight.

Frank’s Analysis: I’m just disappointed Ziggler didn’t tweet and/or post a video yelling IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ROODE AND I!! I expect Ali & Shorty G to win but going the other way wouldn’t totally surprise me. There’s going to be so many bodies flying around in the Survivor Series match it doesn’t even matter.

Smackdown Tag Team Championship: New Day (champs) vs. The Revival

Last week on Smackdown, New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) began their seventh overall tag team championship reign defeating the Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship. The Revival had defeated New Day for the titles just a few months earlier at Clash of Champions. Here’s New Day in a WWE exclusive:

New Day has now been slotted into the triple threat match at Survivor Series where they will take on the Raw champs Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) and the NXT champs Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly). This of course is provided they retain over the Revival tonight.

Frank’s Analysis: My guess is they put the titles on New Day because they wanted them in the triple threat instead of the Revival. If that’s the case, it’s silly. The Revival in that match would have been great. Anyway, I don’t see the Revival being part of Survivor Series considering the Smackdown team is all set.

Miz TV: Guest Daniel Bryan

Last week, Sami Zayn doubled down on his proposition to Daniel Bryan to go under his wing. He claimed Bryan would have been NXT Champion at this point had he just joined him. He talked about doing wonders for Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro, who went on to defeat Ali & Shorty G.

Later on, Sami followed up with Bryan, saying he really doesn’t want to rekindle the Yes! Movement. Out of nowhere, Universal Champion Bray Wyatt appeared and gave Bryan the mandible claw.

Tonight, Bryan join the Miz for an episode of Miz TV. Those of us who have been watching for a long time know the volatility of Bryan and Miz in the same building. After a long build, the two faced each other at SummerSlam last year and throughout the subsequent fall. As far as Bryan and Bray are concerned, Bray once coerced Bryan into joining the Wyatt Family briefly at the end of 2013. That was during the original Yes! Movement. They then faced each other at the Royal Rumble, a match which saw Bray come out on top. Needless to say, a lot has happened since. Bray put out a tweet with a photo of he and Bryan. Also, Miz signed a new contract and announced it via Twitter.

 

There were commercials during Raw that Bray Wyatt would appear tonight. We’ll see it what capacity. It’s hard not to think something will happen during this segment.

Frank’s Analysis: I think Bryan vs. Bray is a logical direction for Survivor Series if they decide to go that way. I’m also thankful we’re not getting a triple threat between Bray, Brock, and Adam Cole! I don’t suspect Bryan wins the title, nor can I rule it out? Logically I would think Bray holds the title for a while. I’d have to see more to fairly judge the potential direction of all of this. Bryan and Miz should be fun to watch tonight. Since they’re both babyfaces now, I’d be interested to see their dynamic. I could almost guarantee a tag match happens between them and Nakamura & Cesaro.

Non-Title Match: Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Nikki Cross for Nikki’s place on Women’s Survivor Series Team

Last week, Carmella and Dana Brooke joined team Smackdown for the women’s triple threat Survivor Series match. They defeated Fire & Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville) to earn that right. This week, WWE announced on their website that Lacey Evans would be joining the team. One spot remains. Lacey mentioned Sasha Banks in this tweet:

https://twitter.com/LaceyEvansWWE/status/1195032964314349569?s=20

WWE announced that Nikki Cross would take on Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley tonight for that final spot. Nikki has lost to both Bayley and Sasha recently, but there was interference on both occasions. Everybody seems to be taking to Twitter this week:

 

Frank’s Analysis: It’s not a big deal, but why does Lacey Evans just get slotted on the team? Carmella, Dana Brooke, and Nikki had to earn their spots, but Lacey just gets picked. It’s not like Sasha picked her to be on the team. Anyway, it’s just a small annoyance. I don’t see Nikki not being on the Survivor Series team, so she likely wins tonight.

Other Match Results and Segments from Last Week

King Corbin opened the show with a promo cutting down Roman Reigns and later went on to beat him when Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler got involved. He had something to say in a WWE.com exclusive:

  • Heavy Machinery (Otis & Tucker) were to have a match against who knows but were attacked by the Imperium from NXT UK.
  • Sasha Banks beat Nikki Cross with the help of Bayley. After the match, NXT Champion Shayna Baszler attacked Bayley.
  • Braun Strowman and Tyson Fury buried the hatchet and said they should be a team the next time they were in the ring. The B-Team came out and were, well you can figure it out.

Summary and Closing Thoughts

There are a lot of implications to tonight’s show. The picture for Survivor Series should start to become clearer. It’ll be interesting to see how the NXT teams shake out, considering how they are building towards Takeover on their weekly show. By the way if you haven’t checked it out, I was thrilled to be a guest host on “PWT Talks NXT” this week with the stellar crew from PWTorch of Kelly Wells and Tom Stoup. We went nearly two hours and had a lot to say about the show as well as ACH’s (Jordan Myles) video where he quits WWE. You can find the link to the show here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome. Thank you for reading!

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2 Comments on WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER 11/15: Top Guys Want to Revive Their Reign, Miz Welcomes an Old Friend, Ziggler & Roode Want on the Team, Nikki Wants to Play

  1. If I have to see the New Day on The Revival one more time I’m going to start swinging on someone. ENOUGH with the New Day. It’s old, it’s stale, it’s boring. Break them up. Do something, anything.

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