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My name is Uncle Leo and I'm here to deliver you your Smackdown report each and every week here on Lords of Pain! First and foremost, HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone celebrating!! I hope that, like me, y’all are in a food coma after eating a lot of turkey and stuffing on this holiday of thanks. I’m thankful for my family, friends, and the opportunity to do all that I do, including writing for Lords of Pain. Speaking of which, it’s Thursday night, which means it’s time for some Smackdown action! Let’s start smacking… The Smackdown Report! November 26th, 2015 Reigns & Sheamus Roman Reigns kicks things off on Smackdown. Reigns cuts a weird promo about how he and the Usos would wrestle all over the house on Thanksgiving and then Sheamus comes out. Sheamus jokes about how short Reigns’ title reign was. The editing machine went ham with the boos, even though the fans aren’t doing anything. Sheamus keeps going on and on about what happened at Survivor Series. Reigns challenges Sheamus, but Sheamus says not a chance. Sheamus says that while he has the WWE Title, Reigns has broken dreams. Reigns brings up TLC and says that he’s going to break his jaw with a Superman Punch. Reigns promises to win at TLC. Thoughts: I hate how edited Smackdown is. I was immediately taken out of this segment because of how poorly this segment was edited. Sorry. I’m not invested in this storyline enough to care. Dudley Boyz vs. Erick Rowan & Braun Strowman The match ended with the Dudleys in control and Bubba Ray telling D-Von to get the tables. Unfortunately for the Dudleys, Harper got involved and kicks Bubba Ray down. Rowan and Harper hit a double chokeslam on Bubba Ray through a table to end the segment. Winner via DQ: The Dudley Boyz Paige vs. Becky Lynch The match ended with Becky Lynch trying to lock in her submission finisher, but Paige grabs the ropes, forcing Becky to release it. When Becky wasn’t paying attention, Paige whips her into the ropes and rolls her up for the victory. Winners via Pinfall: Paige New Day Potluck Dinner with Team BAD New Day welcomes us (and Team BAD) to the first annual New Day Potluck dinner. They talk about their tag team titles and start a funny “Thanks...To Us” chant. Heath Slater crashes the party and says he’s here to start the party. He brings a Slater Slaw, but there’s a bandaid in it. Adam Rose joins the party and says that he’s brought rabbit stew. Big E freaks out and yells “You did that to Bunny?!” Up next is The Ascension and they’ve brought destruction and desolation so the New Day denies them entry to the potluck. Big E and Kofi both say that they didn’t bring a turkey and that Woods would bring it. That brings the Gobbledy Gooker, but it’s actually Xavier Woods. Woods puts the head piece back on and starts twerking his turkey tail. Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger Before the match starts, Colter and Del Rio run Swagger down. Colter calls Swagger an SOB and says that he’s a hater like the WWE Universe. At the end of the match, the fight spills onto the outside. Swagger runs into Del Rio and clothesline him over the barricade and into the timekeeper’s area. Swagger stalks Colter and ADR hits Swagger from behind with a chair. After the match, Swagger gets a hold of the chair and beats the holy hell out of Del Rio. Winners via DQ: Jack Swagger Thoughts: Looks like we’re getting Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger for the US Title in a Steel Chair match at TLC. Haven’t we seen Swagger in this patriotic role before? How many times will we see him in this position and lose? Backstage with the Usos The Uso brothers are talking backstage as the Gobbledy Gooker (aka Xavier Woods) passes by them, clucking like a turkey. Do turkeys cluck? Anyways, they say that they have a plan and walk off the screen. Lucha Dragons vs. New Day Big E comes out in his apron and chef's hat, Kofi joins him, and then the Gobbledy Gooker. Is one of the Uso brothers in that costume instead? The closing moments of the match comes between Kalisto and Kofi. Kofi knocks Kalisto down and rolls him up, using the ropes for leverage. The Gooker, though, shoves Kofi’s feet off the ropes and breaks up the count. Kofi is now yelling at the Gooker and Kalisto takes advantage of this. He hits Kofi with the Salida del Sol for the victory. After the match, New Day are wondering what happened? We hear an air horn and see that one of the Usos (Jimmy?) is walking with a bondaged up Xavier Woods. So I was right! Jey Uso was in the Gooker costume! Back in the ring, the Lucha Dragons and the Usos grab a hold of Xavier Woods. Jimmy hits a superkick and Jey hits a frog splash to end the segment. Winner via Pinfall: Lucha Dragons Thoughts: Triple threat tag team match at TLC?? I love the New Day, by the way. Recap Video The Undertaker celebrating 25 years. Backstage interview with Dean Ambrose Renee Young mentions what happened at Survivor Series. Ambrose said that Sunday wasn’t luck. At Survivor Series, he beat Kevin Owens. He says that Reigns was the better man on that night. He adds that Sheamus cashing in was right play -- right time. He says he isn’t a betting man, but if he were… then his odds at winning tonight were high. #1 Contender's Match for the Intercontinental Championship -- Triple Threat Match Dean Ambrose vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler This was a great, action packed match. The closing moments of this match came just when Ziggler came so close to winning by pinning Breeze and Breeze kicking out. Breeze rolls out of the ring, leaving Ambrose and Ziggler alone. Ziggler charges at Ambrose, but Ambrose hits a shoulder block. Both men make their way to the top turnbuckle, but Ambrose shoves him off. Ambrose jumps off and lands on his feet. Ziggler runs at Ambrose, connecting with a Zig Zag! Ziggler covers Ambrose, but Breeze breaks it up. Breeze hits the Money Shot on Ziggler and tries to hit the Unprettier, but Ambrose runs in, kicks him in the midsection, and hits the Dirty Deeds! With Ziggler knocked out, Ambrose successfully gets the pinfall victory over Breeze and becomes the #1 contender for Kevin Owens’s Intercontinental Championship. After the match, Ambrose and Owens have a staredown. Ambrose shoves Owens back into his commentary chair. Owens bounces back up, gets in Ambrose’s face, and just walks away… as Smackdown comes to an end Winner via Pinfall: Dean Ambrose Main Event + Overall Thoughts: This show went by fast for me. With Thanksgiving upon us, I didn’t expect too much to happen with tonight’s episode. We got a lackluster opening segment between the World Heavyweight Champion and his challenger. We got an awesome triple threat main event match and a new #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship. Our main event was pretty much the only newsworthy segment in the whole show. For that, I’ll give this show a boring and average C+ The WWE is surely in a bit of a pickle, huh. They have a lot of superstars who are currently out with something. Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, John Cena, Cesaro, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Nikki Bella...just to name a few. So what do we get instead? Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns. Not to be a major hater, but I wasn’t shocked at all by what happened at Survivor Series. Who was? I was hoping that we’d get something shocking. A heel turn by either Reigns or Ambrose. With that said, I completely understand why they went with what they did. They want Reigns to be a mega face star. So turning him heel would’ve messed with their long term plans -- including Wrestlemania. What about turning Ambrose heel? Sure, he’s super over...but what does he got to show for it? He’s not winning the IC Title. He hasn’t been showcased as an actual main event player. Certainly as an upper midcarder at times, but for the most part, he’s being treated like a Dolph Ziggler and Cesaro. It’s a shame. They have so many talented superstars on their roster that they’ve just done a poor job developing. These are human beings, whose jobs are to create characters and bring them to life. That’s what this is. How hard can it be to create compelling television every single Monday night? Forget about Smackdown and Main Event. Monday Night RAW should be captivating with complex storylines. I don’t care all that much about a Heavyweight Champion who is bland and has consistently been losing matches for a long time. Sheamus is just not someone who interests me and teaming up with Rusev and Barrett doesn’t do him any justice either. Barrett has to be one of the worst booked characters who had so much potential. He’s a freaking clown and I can’t stand it. Rusev, while a hidden comedic gem, has wasted all of his time fighting Ziggler over Summer Rae and Lana. Give me a break. The WWE is short on heels and this was their solution. Well, best of luck to them. I’m not going to give up on the WWE. And it’s too bad if you think I’m bitter. All I want is some reward for watching their product and writing about Smackdown. The reward? The reward should be great storylines and an unbelievable RAW. Let’s see where they take this Authority & Sheamus/Barrett/Rusev angle. I’ll be watching RAW and we’ll see together. Disagree with “C+” grade? Want to share what you’re thankful for on Thanksgiving? Felt like I said something wrong or something that you agree with? Feel free to comment below about your thoughts on Smackdown, this Report, or anything else you’d like. Feel free to shoot me an email here. Or follow me on Twitter and tweet me! Follow @UncleLeoLoP That’s all for me, folks. Thanks for reading, and until next time, smack you later.
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