SmackDown Results and Recap: I Am Wooman

Kimberly Schueler

The November 20, 2018, episode of WWE SmackDown Live was the first after a Survivor Series at which the blue brand lost all six of their main-card matches against Raw opponents. We saw the New Day bring up their pre-show victory, the new versions of Charlotte Flair and Daniel Bryan, and Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton for the first time on SmackDown in twelve years.

The episode opened with a video package recapping the Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair match at Survivor Series that ended when Flair shockingly beat Rousey with objects like kendo sticks and chairs to the point she lost by disqualification. Then the Queen confidently entered the ring and said, to applause, that she wasn’t sorry about the beatdown. She said she did what she did for Becky Lynch, and what Rousey did was “bow down – woo! – to the Queen.”

SmackDown General Manager Paige entered the arena and said she didn’t want Flair to apologize for getting DQ’ed. She reminded her that Rousey said on Raw that she would find Flair, and Flair said she would gladly beat her up again at the next PPV, TLC. Paige then got to her actual reason for coming out to the ring, to fine Flair $100,000 for putting hands on WWE officials.

The Iiconics entered and mocked Flair for looking like “a female Frankenstein” on Sunday and for being fined. Flair responded by challenging whichever one of them wanted to be “the next Ronda Rousey” to a fight. After a commercial break, we saw Billie Kay vs. a very dominant-looking Charlotte Flair in action. Interference from Royce extended the match, but Kay soon fell to Natural Selection.

But that wasn’t enough for the Queen. She immediately challenged Royce to a fight. It took a while for Royce to get in the ring, but she took up Flair’s offer. Flair wasn’t quite as dominant in this match, which ended in a DQ after Kay ran in to attack her life partner’s opponent right in front of the referee. The Iiconics tried to beat Flair with a chair after the match, but she got the better of the Australian duo. Weeks ago, Flair wasn’t confident enough to captain the Survivor Series team, but here we saw her with her groove fully back, standing on the announce table and telling the crowd to bow down.

The Miz then entered the ring, very popular in his billed hometown, for a Miz TV segment with Shane McMahon. The Miz sucked up hard to the boss, praising his Survivor Series performance and even referring to himself as “a Shane stan.” The Miz said that since he’s 2/3 Best In The World and McMahon is 1/3, referencing who won the World Cup matches at Crown Jewel, they should be a tag team. McMahon didn’t necessarily accept the offer, but the Miz already had local opponents lined up for them.

McMahon, still very sore from Survivor Series, didn’t refuse the match against LA’s Bryant Brothers. He got on the apron in street clothes, not even removing his blazer. The Miz started the match for their team, but was so occupied with showing off to his boss that one of the local wrestlers rolled him up for a victory.

The New Day continued their feud with tag team champions the Bar in what they called a Thanksgiving Feast-Fight. They brought up their win on the Survivor Series pre-show and the fact that the Bar lost to a tag team whose manager peed his pants during their match. Big E danced with and licked a turkey throughout because oh yeah, the New Day brought a full Thanksgiving dinner to the ring with them. The New Day proceeded to win the match after E sent Big Show through a dinner table outside the ring and festival food fight broke out.

Asuka and Naomi continued to look great as a tag team, but Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville looked like their friendship might be at an end. Dissension led them to lose the match, setting up Deville to tap out to the Asuka Lock.

Coming off a surprising win of the WWE Championship and loss (after a great match) to Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series, Daniel Bryan entered the ring to explain his recent change of behavior. He addressed his unhinged promo to himself and spoke in third person throughout. Bryan revealed that he spent three hours a day inside a hyerbaric chamber on his road to recovery and during this time he meditated on his new mantra “Fight for your dreams and your dreams will fight for you.” He said this is why he was miraculously able to return to competition, and he beat AJ Styles when “Daniel Bryan’s dreams did what they were programmed to do inside that hyperbaric chamber.” After this speech that only became more passionate, he stood on the announce table and had himself introduced as “your WWE Champion, the new Daniel Bryan.”

Earlier in the show, we saw Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton cut pre-recorded promos on each other ahead of their first match on SmackDown Live in twelve years. Mysterio said he “didn’t come back to WWE just to be another one of the Viper’s victims.” Orton disrespected Mysterio’s mask and said he would show people who Mysterio really is. We also saw a recap of Mysterio defeating Orton in the WWE World Cup, being injured by an RKO and post-match beatdown at Crown Jewel, and dodging another one after his match with Almas two weeks ago. 

Orton quickly targeted Mysterio’s mask in their main event match, but the luchador managed to fight him off. It looked like this match between old rivals could go either way, each able to counter many of the other’s moves. But after Orton caught a baseball slide into an RKO outside the ring, he soon defeated Mysterio.

Orton then grabbed a steel chair from ringside, trapped Mysterio’s head in it, and slammed it into the ringpost. During this process, his mask came off. As Mysterio was treated by medical personnel, Orton raised the mask high to loud boos. It doesn’t seem likely that this will be the end of this revived feud.

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