Review Watch WWE Smackdown 12/1/23 1st December 2023 Live Online

Randy Orton officially signs with Friday Night SmackDown and sends a message to Roman Reigns.

So, I guess we are doing Randy Orton vs Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble?

Where does LA Knight fit in with that?

This whole Charlotte and Bianca going through DC is gonna end with all of DC jobbing to both of them and Charlotte And Bianca facing off to face io OR a triple threat where io drops the title for “lol Charlotte/Bianca wins”

Some nice showcases and what not which is good. Interested in that U.S. Title tournament especially.

That said..

Please..please let this Romans title reign and bloodline stiff end man…HHH has done a lot of good stuff but God I’m sooo tired of hearing and saying what could b up next for the bloodline, who could have a problem with the bloodline, who’s gonna face Roman for the titles, who’s gonna dethrone Roman..etc..

Just…please end lol.

some people were theorizing that the brand warfare teases with Pearce and Aldis were setting up something for Survivor Series, but what if they’re actually setting up a Mania elimination match with Raw and Smackdown guys going against each other, it would be a pretty great way of getting people who have no programs or feuds in the card and who knows, maybe we could have both Pearce and Aldis wrestling in that match

Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton

Seth Rollins vs. ???

Kevin Owens vs. Logan Paul

Men’s Royal Rumble

Women’s Royal Rumble

Don’t think there will be more than five matches.

The only person from NXT I could see would be Bron Breakker because Carmelo Hayes has his storyline with Lexis King but I doubt they’d introduce a main NXT guy in a tournament so I could see Axiom getting rewarded for putting on the banger with Dragon Lee a couple weeks ago.

She brought the wheel and everyrhing. Props to them going all out though, since this is probably a showcase match for her since her return. Why make Bianca’s offense eat up most of the match though? Could have been a Kairi running circles around her early then her coming back off the Bayley distraction.

Jey can breathe a sigh of relief now that Randy is in SD.

The crowd refuses to boo Bobby and the profits and I don’t blame them.

The United States title tournament sounds good to me, my prediction is that Kevin wins it.

I hope that when they throw Bayley Damage CTRL will start to look more dominant, they have lost again in a war games match and another member loses today, the group needs to re-energize .

I love Santos as a heel and I hope his rematch against Daragon Lee has more time this time.

20 years and this was my first in-person show ever. Had an absolute blast, would recommend to anyone who’s never gone.

A completely different vibe and atmosphere. So much energy!

I was thinking Axiom or Tyler Bate just now (you can even tie him into the current story they’re doing with Butch), but tbh I just realized that maybe Bron Breaker could both be in this tournament and also do the Iron Survivor match, if so they could totally have him go all out, get him to the semi finals only for KO to beat him while getting over how dangerous and tough he is even though he defeated him

Randy v Roman is going to be the most intriguing

Randy giving his brand new boss the RKO is what life should be.

So funny thing about Randy and Roman. They’ve only had ONE match with a conclusive finish and that was their Summerslam 2014 match, which Roman won. Every other one on one match they’ve had ended in either a DQ or a No Contest.

Sometimes you gotta treat yourself just cause

Just offering Randy first in line for a WHC match. There’s a conspiracy going on here.

Randy is a savage and a beast in his current shape, the crowds are pumped for him and I just don’t like the idea of him loosing to Roman through the inevitable bloodline shenanigans. I loved the bloodline in the beginning but it’s totally gone stale to me since jey left to raw, I wouldn’t be mad if Randy beat Roman, not sure exactly how they could get there but Randy vs Cody at mania would be awesome to see.

Butch and Wilde both getting competitive match

The Crowd just refuses to boo Lashley and Heel Santos is fantastic

Nxt member being a potential challenger in the tournament for US title us quite a interesting twist

Theory and Waller are really starting to click are we slowly getting himbo Theory back

Poor Kairi already taking a L in her first 1 in 1 match

Not being able to wrestle, i’m sure taking that was something he was all for doing to get a taste of it again

That LA Knight and Randy dynamic will be fuckin dope to see… Anytime anyone of them can stun/rko each other 🤌🤌

Now on to the last Pac12 game in history

Can we appreciate that Randy orton in 2023 going in 2024 is arguably one of the top 3 most over guys in wrestling? In terms of reactions.

Can Pearce take an RKO? Is that why Randy went to Smackdown?

Since there’s continuity again, I wonder if Randy will face any consequences for RKOing Aldis lol.

I know this sub is very mixed on Bianca but I can’t blame her for that match being crap. Kairi didn’t look great tonight to say the least. May have just been a bad day at the office but I’ve always felt Kairi’s WWE singles matches leave something to be desired

Raw already have Drew, Damien, Seth, Punk (most likely), Jey & Sami

Pretty Deadly interfere in his match cuz british, and so him and Butch reteam.

So Aldis is willing to take bumps.

That turn on Bayley is going to hit like crack. Randy leaning into being hot and calling himself “daddy” is everything the gays could ask for. Excited to see where everything on the show goes.

But the Bianca/Kairi match sucked ass tonight, and it was almost entirely due to Bianca deciding to no sell damn near everything. People in the live thread were blaming Kairi, but fuck, I would be pissed as well since Bianca was loudly calling all of her spots and no selling damn near everything Kairi threw at her.

I’m amazed how Triple H could look at Damage CTRL and see that they are drawing big numbers, and then decide to immediately feed them to Bianca (who is already quickly starting to get crowd apathy reactions again) because god forbid the hot act look good.

Rumble ending is just gonna be Romans biggest ops fighting for the chance to get to him

No Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn despite those curse vignettes. Again, great job to Smackdown wasting 6 months of their careers for a pointless call up when they could’ve been killing it in NXT, but anyways onto what we got.

Kairi vs Bianca happening on Smackdown was cool to see because their match in the MYC really got Bianca some attention and it was a great match… this on the other hand was not. It was weirdly sloppy. Kairi went to attack Bianca from behind and they sort of just stood around. Whatever that move was with Bianca throwing Kairi to the ground looked weird. I’ll just say it’s an off night, both women are extremely talented. Bayley almost getting Kairi the win was interesting because again it shows that she really means well and can help. I am really sympathizing with Bayley at this point and I hope her character doesn’t have anything too bad happen to her 😭. Kairi’s return has been kinda meh so far, but I think she can adjust, possibly teaming with Asuka to get those tag titles.

Charlotte vs Asuka next week sounds meh. We’ve seen it way too many times. Speaking of Charlotte, that segment last week makes seeing her and Shotzi interact at ringside seem so much more genuine. Also wasn’t Shotzi going to pin Iyo at WarGames if it wasn’t broken up? She also hasn’t lost on TV since like early July, why isn’t she being considering for a title shot in story lol. No shade to Bianca or anything but we have seen her vs Bayley and Iyo a lot, even just waiting like 2 weeks or something to go back into her as the main challenger would’ve been nice but I’m not mad.

Credit to Dakota Kai, I’ve really been enjoying her since Crown Jewel. She’s not getting talked about as much because she’s injured, but I feel like she’s going to play a more pivotal role in the DC split than we realize, especially since she was called the leader at Survivor Series. Her being the main voice against the faces now that Bayley is being pushed out is great for her.

Even if you just take the first two hours of RAW it just seems like much less actually happens on Mondays.

And, once again

Theory and Waller are amazing together,

I have my fingers crossed they’re about to do something great with Butch. Santos is incredible. I’m interested to see who they call up from NXT for that tournament. I hope they use them better than they have Cameron Grimes, KC², and the Unholy Union.

WWE just feels so fun and interesting rn, great to see Butch and Wilde get some solid minutes and offense on their matches, the US Title tournament should be plenty of fun, brand warfare stuff that actually feels interesting, and that final segment, man I just know Randy is gonna be awesome in this face run. Only downside was how sloppy Bianca vs Kairi felt, guess Kairi might be relearning the WWE style, next time she should be better for her.

PS: Awesome to see another great pop for LA Knight, he was honestly the guy I was most worried about losing his spot because of Punk and Randy returning, his appearance on the last segment reassures me that they’ll keep him close to the top of the card

Evil Santos only just getting started!

Bianca has been feuding with Damage Control since the group was created over a year ago.

Hoping for some Brawlin Brutes conflict resolution with zen sage Tyler Bate.

I just can’t help but sorta feel for Jimmy from a fan perspective. He’s going nowhere and honestly super stale at this point. Why would he join the bloodline after what he did at SummerSlam?

Wonder who Judgement Day will feud with now since it seem the Randy thing was a one time thing.

I am slightly disappointed that it looks like they aren’t disbanding damage ctrl as a whole, because if I never hear that theme song again, I’d be so happy.

A lot of people going one way or the other with blaming Kairi or Bianca. Man, it just looks like the two had a REALLY rough night. It happens. Hopefully they find better chemistry next time.