Hello there my friends, it’s time once again for another SmackDown Live Nutshell. Now that Daniel Bryan is sitting atop the blue brand as champion, everyone’s attention is turning toward just how December’s TLC PPV will unfold. We expect TLC to feature prominently in the happenings on this SmackDown Live, as we should find out Daniel Bryan’s schedule for that event, as well as what Becky Lynch will be doing as well. It’s all about setting up for TLC, so let’s crack open this Nutshell and find out!
Best Match of the night:
I am going to give this one to the women’s battle royal, but I felt there was no true standout match. That’s not to say the matches were duds-not that at all. Just that, sometimes your card is just OK, nothing spectacular, and that’s exactly what we had tonight.
Worst match of the night:
Nakamura and Rusev. Because it wasn’t even a match.
I will say this about the participants…I think WWE ruined a good thing when they turned Nakamura, and I think WWE blew it by not pushing Rusev harder when the whole Rusev Day thing took off. Now, it’s not a feud that screams for attention.
Crowd Chants of the Night:
Becky
Hardy
Delete
Thank you Hardy
Star of the Night
I am going to go out on a limb and give this to Asuka. I’ve been a fan ever since her NXT debut, and hopefully this match gets her moving in the right direction.
Spot of the Night:
Not a spot that I’d really call attention to.
Holy Sh!@ Moment of the Night:
Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton have themselves a rather hot feud going right now, with the two men fighting things out once again.
Noteworthy Moment:
Nice to see Becky back, and the fans were happy to see her back too. Right out of the gate, we get a match set up for TLC, with the first ever women’s TLC to take place between Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. As part of the opening segment, other SmackDown women wanted to shot too, so Paige created a women’s battle royal for later in the show to determine the third woman in the title match. As we learned at the close of the show, that woman will in fact be Asuka.
Another interesting segment was the celebration for twenty years of Jeff Hardy. You kind of got the sense it was being done to set up an angle, because it’s rare that WWE does one of these contrived events and it does not turn into someone attacking the person being honored. Tonight we had no attack in a physical sense, but we did get the continuation of Joe and Jeff. Could have been worse, I suppose.
Overall lowlights:
Yes, I have said I love that Asuka gets back into the title picture. That being said, the one thing that jumped out at me about the battle royal win for her, was that the winning segment felt and looked a lot like what went down at Royal Rumble. look, Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice ending…but it feels odd that you’d use it on the same wrestler twice in the same year.
Overall highlights:
AJ is back and on a mission
Becky is back and looking to bury Charlotte.
I am happy and excited to see Asuka in the title mix again.
After the final bell:
All in all, not a horrible SmackDown. I’d call it average, which isn’t really such a bad thing. They are doing just enough to get TLC set up, and both the men’s and women’s title matches look to be top notch.
