WWE SmackDown 11/08/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show that dares you not to have feelings about Sami Zayn raising a finger alongside Roman Reign and The Usos! If that was the dare, the WINC staff certainly lost, as we have tons of feelings for all things Bloodline on this episode. That's not all though — we also have thoughts on Kevin Owens pulling out a piledriver to cripple Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes' role in that storyline (and in literally no other storyline), the announcement of a new women's championship, and a plethora of tag team matches scattered throughout the show! It's a pretty good week to have friends and wonder whether or not they're really in your corner, which is one of the things wrestling has always done best.

Granted, there is one tag match we're not really covering here, that being the Motor City Machine Guns vs. A-Town Down Under. If you're dying to know more about that particular match, we suggest heading over to our "SmackDown" results page, where you can find a detailed and objective breakdown of the entire show. If you want to know what we thought of it, however, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 11/8/24 episode of "WWE SmackDown."

I have to start out by saying I absolutely loved the use of the piledriver to help tell this story, I won't deny that. However, I think I didn't like this because this felt like what we should have gotten at Crown Jewel, if not the "SmackDown" before, to not add more time to the premium live event that ran a bit long on Saturday to begin with. It seems like this match between Kevin Owens and Randy Orton should have happened already, and WWE is dragging things on to Survivor Series. If that's the case, I don't like it even more, because it seems strange to have this strong of a grudge match between the pair on a card that already has a WarGames match. After two brawls, and this one that sent Orton out in an ambulance, it seems like Owens versus Orton should now have a hardcore stipulation, and that could feel weird or too much with WarGames and the Bloodline battle.

I also didn't love this because I'm not quite a fan of WWE doing the stretcher/ambulance job when wrestlers have had previously really serious injuries. That may sound hypocritical since I did like the fact it was a piledriver that took Orton out, but it's kind of like a "well, if it HAD to happen, might as well have been with a piledriver" kind of thought. Because with Orton pushing 300 pounds and being an absolute monster in the best shape of his life right now, I wouldn't have believed too many moves could put him out like that, much less send him out of the arena in an ambulance. That much was convincing, at least, even if I am a bit squeamish about doing the entire angle overall.

This also seemed kind of redundant that Owens was the one to end their brawl at Crown Jewel by sending Orton through a table with an elbow drop, and now, he took him out once again. Owens has pretty convincingly gotten the better of Orton, who I'd imagine won't be on TV for a week or two, so there's an argument there that maybe some people wouldn't even want to see a match anymore. It certainly seems like Owens' craziness over being "betrayed" has won out here, despite there not being a match at all. I guess Triple H did tell Orton "he didn't want to do this," and I bet he's thinking that, in storyline from his hospital bed with "undisclosed injuries," right now.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Of all the titles in WWE, it's the belt Cody Rhodes holds that carries the longest and most-storied lineage. Traced back through several different iterations before it was ever considered Undisputed or Universal, the title Rhodes holds once belonged to the likes of Bruno Sammartino and Buddy Rogers, and he famously made a big deal of the fact it was one his father had never won. With that in mind, it's not exactly great that once again Rhodes and the title around his waist have become supporting actors in someone else's story — ironic considering pre-WrestleMania — as Kevin Owens took hostilities with Randy Orton a degree further tonight.

Accompanying Orton while he was being seen by EMTs backstage, there was nothing else during this post-PPV show to suggest anyone within the roster even cares about the title. Sure, if the idea is Orton is being written off for a while then it could be remedied by having "KO" go back after the title and continue his feud with Rhodes. But once again, that is the WWE title being made secondary to other factors at play.

The issue isn't really what's being done with Rhodes, as even though his last title defense came during September, he has still continued to perform often in a non-title capacity, notably alongside Roman Reigns against The Bloodline at Bad Blood and against GUNTHER in a Champion vs. Champion match at Crown Jewel. But there is just a general sense of out of sight, out of mind, when it comes to the way the belt is being treated. If Rhodes has it on the TV screen, it will receive all the plaudits and superlatives commentary can throw at it. But throughout the rest of the show, no one really seems to care nor desire the title.

Written by Max Everett

Considering how often I complain about there being no storytelling in the "SmackDown" tag division, I have to give a shout-out to this week's episode for dramatically advancing the stuff going on with DIY. We've actually seen hints of this for a while now, but this week it was given REAL, ACTUAL TV TIME, which doesn't usually happen. First we got a backstage segment with Johnny Gargano talking nice with the Motor City Machine Guns, only for Tommaso Ciampa to demand to know why he's consorting with the enemy. Then Ciampa wins a match against Pretty Deadly without ever tagging Gargano in (which doesn't make Pretty Deadly look great, but they'll be fine) and finally, DIY confront MCMG backstage and ask for a title match, only to discover that the Street Profits have gotten it first, which enrages Ciampa all over again.

It's true that a story about one team member getting fed up with losing all the time and teasing a heel turn on their less ambitious partner as a result seems very similar to what The New Day are doing on "Raw." Still, that "Raw" storyline is really good, so if you're going to crib from something you could do worse, and Ciampa already feels like a very different animal in this context than Xavier Woods. After all, we've never seen Woods spend like four years torturing Kofi Kingston as a psychotic heel on "NXT," but we have seen Ciampa do that to Gargano, and commentary explicitly pointed out that Ciampa was acting more like his "NXT" persona all of a sudden. That alone opens up a much wider array of outcomes, many of which are tantalizing to anyone who rode for the black and gold back in the day.

I don't know where this story is going, but I know this — I would also be frustrated if I were the Ciampa character, and it's just as good to see DIY doing literally anything interesting as it is to see the tag division getting time to advance a storyline.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

I'm trying to imagine what my past self would say if I went five years back in time and told them that Nia Jax would be one of my favorite characters in 2024 WWE. I imagine it would involve a lot of incredulous laughter, followed by questions about why this was what I had decided to use my time machine for.

It's not just that Nia's in-ring was good this, week, though it was — her tag team match with Tiffany Stratton against Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill was by far the best match of the night. The real showcase, however, was the backstage segment with Jax, Stratton, and Candice LeRae, who is apparently trying to get into Jax's good graces now that her tag team partner has been unceremoniously fired for no reason. Jax and Stratton continue to be absolute gold as a duo; I love how long their awkward partnership is getting drawn out, and while Stratton finally cashing in on Jax will be a great moment, it will also be a little bittersweet when this particular party comes to an end. I cannot emphasize to you enough that Jax calls Stratton "Tifferson" in this segment before proceeding to just be utterly baffled by Stratton's justification for booking them in a match with the tag champs. It's so, so good, and Jax is the one who makes it work.

I'm less in love with the storytelling as a whole, which seems to be a mechanism for cramming an entire women's WarGames build into a three-week period. Also, if you're going to book LeRae in a WarGames match, maybe don't fire her tag partner a month beforehand? But that's all fine, because at this point I have confidence in Jax to make just about anything work. Again, something I would never have imagined myself saying at any point in the previous decade.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

I am absolutely all for introducing a new midcard title in the women's division. I think the idea of a Women's United States Championship is pretty cool, especially after the various rumblings of adding another title into the mix over the years. I am less for having a new midcard title in the women's division introduced by "SmackDown" General Manager Nick Aldis in a very short video that only lasted for a minute or two.

There was no reason for WWE not to have the title introduced in front of the live audience, and there was definitely time and room to fit it in somewhere on the show. I'm not saying that the segment needed to have an immense amount of time dedicated to it, but unveiling the Women's United States Championship in front of the live audience would've made it feel like an even bigger deal and automatically given a higher level of regard than the video did.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

I started out tonight after the opening segment and what followed backstage loving the sassy Usos and their attitudes toward their cousin, Roman Reigns, but after the main event segment, I decided I just love everything that's going on with the original Bloodline ahead of Survivor Series: WarGames, which was officially announced tonight. First, I love the fact that Jey Uso is sticking to his guns about how he'll walk away from it all if Reigns treats him like anything other than an equal. He even kind of put his hands on Reigns backstage tonight when he was talking to him about denying Sami Zayn in the Bloodline. Jimmy Uso had the similar kind of sass to him tonight, when he asked Reigns just what he thought he was doing. Reigns' expressions throughout all of this, with me wondering if he'll just snap on everyone and go back to being a bad guy, help this all so much. The Usos, especially Jey, are doing such a great job with this.

I also really loved the swerve at the end of the night, with Solo Sikoa saying that WarGames would be five on five, because he had Zayn on his side. When Sikoa had Reigns down, he told Zayn to come down the ramp and take out Reigns, but instead, Zayn hit Sikoa with a Helluva Kick. I saw it coming after the first few seconds when my brain caught up to everything that was happening, but the fact I even had a few seconds of thinking Zayn would unite with Sikoa and the new Bloodline after Reigns was rude to him at the beginning of the night was enough for me to enjoy it. Reigns still hasn't apologized to Zayn, however, and that's something I'd like to see in the coming weeks with Reigns turning over a bit more of a new leaf, but that's still to be seen and I hope we see some development there to make it seem like Reigns is actually a babyface.

The ending image of first Jey Uso raising the one up, followed by his brother, then Zayn, then Reigns was a nice thing for the broadcast to go home on. I was never a huge fan of Survivor Series until Triple H brought in WarGames, and this is the perfect feud made for that match stipulation, and I'm really excited to see it. I do worry a bit with three more "SmackDown" shows left until the PLE, so hopefully WWE can continue this storyline, hopefully strengthening the reunited old guard ahead of the match. After tonight, I actually have faith in that and want to see more.

Written by Daisy Ruth