5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Oct 27 - Results & Review)
John Cena's next WWE match revealed; Kevin Owens = directionless; LA Knight rocks Roman Reigns.
WWE filmed two episodes of SmackDown on Friday night due to next week's jaunt to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel. Typically, at least one of the double shot tapings hits a bum note and crawls along, but it certainly wasn't this edition. No, not everything was perfect, but the promo work was.
Watch Smackers to see some of the best babyface and heel mic masterclasses pro wrestling will throw up in 2023. Roman Reigns played his role to a tee, LA Knight stomped all over the 'Tribal Chief' like he was possessed by the spirit of The Rock (that's meant as a compliment, not a dig like Kevin Nash served up!), then Paul Heyman and John Cena showcased unreal chemistry.
Admittedly, actual wrestling took a back seat to the mic work, but that's OK - WWE had a PLE to build here. Speaking of "build", that regrettably feeds into some of the 'Downs'. Christ knows why the company bothered to move one wrestler from Raw > SmackDown, and creative has clearly lost interest in a recently-repackaged act elsewhere.
Speaking generally though, the episode did tick off WWE's core objectives. It set up Cena's next match, gave Bianca Belair a bit of sparkle back and made Knight look like a million bucks.
Here's our review!