SmackDown recap & reactions: Survive Owens Survive

Roman Reigns wished us a happy new year and said 2020 was a rough year, but when you’re the Head of the Table and the Tribal Chief, you make it work. Paul Heyman was discarded and then was saved by him. Then Jey Uso became Main Event Uso because Jey is no longer the other Uso, and that’s because he acknowledged Reigns as the Tribal Chief.

Kevin Owens interrupted and said that he wants Jey Uso because it should embarrass Reigns that after all the stuff he’s put him through, he’s still standing.

Owens went to Adam Pearce, who was very hesitant to make the match but ended up doing it for his old friend Kev. I really liked that moment between them.

Jey and KO just attacked each other to start that match.

KO did a really hard clothesline and senton on the outside. KO started attacking Jey’s ankle and KO screamed “Remember my ankle?” and I love him so much. “I told you you were going to pay. And the worst part is it’s not even your fault.” “He’s your family and he’s doing this to you.” My god.

Jey finally superkicked Owens out of the ring, and then he ran into a superkick by Owens. After a commercial, KO hit a stunner and pinned Jey. He tried beating on Jey until Roman showed his face. He grabbed Corey Graves’ mic and told him to come save his family.

Owens grabbed the handcuffs under the ring and handcuffed Jey to the top rope. He just kept beating up Jey and then unhooked the handcuffs from the rope and brought him up the ramp to go find Roman. It ended up in the ThunderDome screens as Roman surprise attacked Owens, and then he and Jey battered KO up there with chairs and at one point Jey was choking Owens out with the handcuffs. (Daniel Bryan got fired for this a decade ago!)

Roman threw Owens into the LED screens and then off of the stage, like 20 feet down through two tables to end the show.

Have I mentioned that I never want this to end? I feel like I say this about every Reigns feud these days. Owens keeps surviving and coming back on his feet, so I can’t wait to see next week!

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SONYA DEVILLE IS BACK!

Sonya Deville is back.

SONYA DEVILLE IS BACK!

SONYA! DEVILLE! IS! BACK!

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The Rest

Big E and Apollo Crews defeated Corbin and Sami Zayn – This started as a singles match. “Wiggle your little hips” Sami said to Big E. A perfectly shot (and by accident so that’s how you know WWE is better when not planned) moment happened where Big E threw his jacket at Sami while the camera was on him at the announce table and hit him perfectly in the face, and Sami sold it hilariously. E did a gator role in Brodie Lee’s honor. There really wasn’t much of anything though, because as Big E hit the Big Ending on Corbin, Sami ran in to interfere and we got a DQ. E’s first match as champion, and it ended in a DQ.

For the tag team match playa playa, Corbin and Sami were able to isolate Apollo from E, and Sami was upset that the Knights of the Lone Wolf weren’t listening to him. E planted Corbin with a belly to belly and a splash. Sami got into an argument with them again and told Corbin to make them listen to him too. So Corbin and the Knights left him and Apollo powerbombed Sami for the win.

Big E vs. Corbin turned into Apollo pinning Sami Zayn to win a match. Alright then. This was fine, and helped build to next week and Apollo accepted an open challenge Big E set. Also really appreciated his “Rome to Rochester” (Brodie Lee’s hometown) and “Little Amandas and Nolans” (Brodie’s wife’s and son’s names) worked into his promo. I also liked how Apollo used him helping Big E last week in the Lumberjack match to justify his action. Good stuff all around.

Daniel Bryan and Otis defeated Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura – Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura isolated Bryan for most of the match. Bryan dove out to attack Cesaro but Cesaro caught him and gave him a vicious uppercut. Otis finally got tagged in and launched Cesaro over his head! He did the caterpillar but Nakamura made the save. Byran tagged in again and took out Cesaro, and then won with the Yes! Lock. Bryan and Otis were actually a decent team, and the three of them doing this pose and thrusting their hips admittedly got a laugh out of me. I love how much fun Bryan is having. Win the Rumble!

Baymella defeated Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair – The match was good, but I mainly need to address this thing with Reginald. I cannot stand when referees do not disqualify people who are clearly getting help from outside interference. A solid month of Reginald diving into the ring and causing chaos all around, and there’s no repercussion for it. It’s maddening. Reginald was literally doing acrobatics and interfering, and NOTHING?!? Come on! For real though he moves around really well and looked cool. Can’t knock that. But… come on!

Also, Bianca Belair be losing and that ain’t cool.

Dirty Dawgs want gold (or technically silver!) – The Street Profits had a dreadful promo segment, as usual, and then were met with a vicious beatdown by Ziggler and Roode, now dubbed the Dirty Dawgs. I am totally fine with this now, because WWE have nearly killed the Street Profits run with me on the main roster. They’re going to show some sort of vicious side after this attack most likely, but they’ll always return to doing these dumb heavily scripted promos that don’t fit with their characters. I’m tired of it.

The Riott Squad defeated Natalya and Tamina – This was a hilarious match! Billie had Natalya and Tamina team up instead of her fighting with one of them. So she spent the whole time coaching and encouraging the both of them. Liv showed a lot of fire going after Tamina and all of a sudden Billie went over to The Riott Squad area and was cheering them on. Liv pinned Tamina and then Billie celebrated with them. HAHAHAHAHA this was amazing. We need to get Liv and Ruby in the tag title scene pretty please! They’ve been winning!

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SONYA DEVILLE IS BACK! Not sure if I mentioned that. Happy New Year, pals!

Grade: B

What were your thoughts, Cagesiders?

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