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WWE NETWORK REVIEW: TALKING SMACK
OCTOBER 17, 2020
AIRED ON WWE NETWORK
REVIEW BY NICK MORGAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Hosts: Kayla Braxton, Sami Zayn
This week’s guests: Rey & Dominic Mysterio, Natalya, and Daniel Bryan
– Kayla Braxton started to welcome everyone to Talking Smack and began introducing Sami Zayn when Xavier Woods ran in and started hugging everyone while Sami yelled for someone to get Xavier off the set. Sami ran Xavier off while Kayla said “I love you” several times to Xavier as he was off stage. Kayla finally welcomed Sami and Sami did his thing asking/telling Kayla that she really enjoyed hosting with him last week and she did agree and noted that the audience liked their banter.
– Kayla did a quick recap of the Friday’s show while Sami continued to be “angry” that Xavier had run on the set. They then moved on to introduce their first guests, Rey & Dominic Mysterio! Interestingly, Sami seemed to have a relationship with both Rey and Dominic, which in the real world is probably true and it showed here. Kayla of course asked Rey how it felt to be back on the “blue brand” and Rey said it was really like coming home and Sami even noticed that he was wearing a blue mask in honor of the occasion.
– Rey noted how Smackdown was where he really made his name and mentioned several other WWE stars (no, I will not use the WWE-speak “superstars”), including Batista and Kurt Angle. Of course, they discussed that Seth Rollins and Murphy had both also been drafted to Smackdown, but quickly switched to the question of Aalyah and finally Dominic chimed in, but before he could really say anything, Sami jumped in moved the topic back to Seth in particular. Both Rey and Dominic mentioned that they are fine with Seth and Murphy also being on Smackdown as they have “unfinished business” with them. Ugh…this is the feud of the living dead; we just can’t kill it. Please WWE, move on already.
– Kayla asked Rey how it felt to be doing so well and to get praise from Vince and even to get hugged by him Dominic was appropriately humble and just said that he was glad that he was able to do a good job. Sami asked Rey about his eye and Rey said that it was doing really well about 90% and that he is good to go. Rey mentioned that he was confused by how Murphy has been acting and he is really not sure what is going on with him and his daughter, but that we will see. Dominic mentioned with some prodding by Kayla that he does look forward to having a match with his father at some point (Foreshadowing alert! Is there some kind of turn coming there?) and that both Rey and Dominic agree with Sami that it would be great to mix it up with Sami down the road.
– Up next was Natalya with some extreme build up by Kayla. One of the first topics Kayla brought up was the fact that they are just coming up on the one year anniversary (October 31) of hers and Lacy Evan’s match in Saudi Arabia (oh boy, let’s toot our own horn again WWE, please). It seems that in a recent match, Lacy actually knocked one of Natalya’s teeth out and Natty noted that she loves Lacy and that she will give Lacy a pass on that. Okay, whatever. Very strange here, they went from a relatively real moment about Lacy and then switched back to story line and started talking about the angle with Lana and here whole Best Of All Time (#BOAT) shtick. I know the point of Talking Smack is about promoting the brand, but this switch was a bit striking.
– Even though Natty was heeling on Lana, WWE did use this opportunity to have Natty build up Lana and say that she really, truly believed that Lana could beat Asuka for the championship, yeah, right. When I see a pig flying by in a frozen over hell, I will believe that. Natty said goodbye and we moved on.
– The final guest of the night is the leader of the yes movement, as Kayla said, Daniel Bryan. Daniel and Sami did a little shtick about how Sami has Daniel’s belt, and Daniel’s seat on the set of Talking Smack. After that, they moved to some real questions. Sami ragged on Daniel about how Daniel got all this build up around his return, while he (Sami) didn’t get much fanfare of all. Love you Sami, it’s all about you! Daniel took this proposition and turned it to build up other wrestlers on the Smackdown such as The Street Profits, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Big E, Otis and even Chad Cable (he actually said that, but quickly through in the Shorty G thing).
– Daniel started talking about what he wants to do, and his big thing seems to be that he wants the Intercontinental Championship and make it a weekly defended title and used the opportunity to mention even more of the roster. They obviously told him before he came on, just mention everyone you can.
– Rather than being an opportunity for the other wrestlers on the roster, Daniel looks at this as an opportunity to test himself and do matches that he really wants to do. Sami and Daniel had what seemed to be a real conversation about maturing in wrestling and while Sami kept up his heel persona, it did seem like a real discussion and gave some real insights into Daniel Bryan. Yes, of course, it could have been totally scripted but unless they had cue cards, I don’t think so as they actually talked over each other once in a while and seemed to be really talking with each other. Kayla was pretty much sidelined here, until the music broke in and she informed them that it was time to go and she addressed the audience and signed off for the week.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Another good outing for Talking Smack. Kayla and Sami continued to have good chemistry and Sami is doing a great job by still continuing to be heelish, but doing so in such a fun way that he is enjoyable to watch and you kind of end up liking him.
The guests this week were good, with Rey doing most of the talking for he and Dominic. Dominic is very soft-spoken, and he obviously needs to work on that, but it was fine as Rey is his dad and should be the spokesman. Natalya was a bit smarmy and over the top but was okay and it was a quick segment and Daniel Bryan and Sami Zayn just took the ball and ran with it and I really enjoyed watching their interaction.
A very watchable show. At only 25 minutes again this week Talking Smack continues to be an easy watch and well worth the relatively short time allotment to pick up some additional backstory on the goings on with Smackdown. Check it out.
Well, that is it for now, see you all next week. Until then, take care and stay safe.
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