By Ryan Satin
This week’s continuation of the Roman Reigns/Jey Uso saga on SmackDown once again showcased some of the best acting we’ve seen in years on WWE TV.
Before we get to my biggest takeaways from the October 30, 2020 edition of Friday Night SmackDown, here are the quick results:
- Kevin Owens defeated Dolph Ziggler to earn a spot on Team SmackDown at Survivor Series
- Bianca Belair defeated Billie Kay and Natalya to earn a spot on the women’s SmackDown team at Survivor Series
- Tag Team Champions The Street Profits defeated Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro
- Jey Uso defeated Daniel Bryan to earn a spot on Team SmackDown at Survivor Series
Outside of one part of the show, which we’ll get to shortly, this episode was a home run. Each segment and match felt like it had purpose in successfully furthering a story or character.
Friday’s SmackDown also continued a positive trend, which I outlined in my Raw Reactions article earlier this week, of making the 5-on-5 brand vs. brand match at Survivor Series feel important.
He Understands Now
This was a huge night for Jey Uso.
First, he began the show by putting in an Emmy-worthy acting performance opposite Roman Reigns.
Tough love is uncomfortable to watch.
These two Superstars made that clear as Jey uttered one last declaration to the man insistent on putting him in his place.
The despair in Jey’s voice cut to the core, and Roman’s unwillingness to veer off track amplified the emotions inside of his younger cousin brilliantly.
This allowed you to feel every bitter word he was saying in response to the Head of the Table.
Jey Uso also secured the biggest win of his singles career in the main event by defeating Daniel Bryan to qualify for a spot on Team SmackDown at Survivor Series.
Bryan’s insistence on working with fresh talent helped Jey establish himself in a big way on Friday night.
A clean win over a former World Champion will go a long way in allowing the tag team wrestler to be viewed as a singles competitor going forward.
Then, in a perfectly executed angle, Jey turned heel by finally acknowledging "The Tribal Chief" and beating Bryan to a pulp to prove his allegiance to the family.
The way I see it is this:
Roman was honest about loving Jey this entire time.
His whole mission was to help Jey level up by putting him in a title match while Jimmy Uso was out of commission.
Unfortunately, Jey Uso let the excitement of his first title opportunity detract from the fact that it was Roman who helped him get there.
Reigns was trying to assist his cousin in providing a better life for other members of their tribe, not give away his seat at the table.
By the end of Friday’s show, though, Jey Uso finally seemed to understand that Roman brought out a new side of him that is now strong enough to defeat Daniel Bryan on his own.
So, in order to stay at the top, Jey realized he needs to fall in line.
Aalyah Mysterio and Murphy Go Public
This is that part of the show I didn’t think was successful.
Yes, Aalyah’s love admission and kiss with Murphy in the middle of the ring got people talking.
Unfortunately, the whole thing was about as awkward as Michael Jackson’s interaction with Lisa Marie Presley back in the day at the VMAs (look it up if you don’t know what I’m talking about).
Even if this part of the story is intended to show Murphy was manipulating Aalyah to prove something to Seth, which is where I think this is all headed, kissing a 19-year-old girl is not the kind of thing that will take his character to the next level.
We’ve also barely got any explanation as to why Aalyah would suddenly believe that Murphy was a changed man.
Just weeks ago, she was kendo sticking him to eternity alongside the rest of the Mysterios.
The guy terrorized her family and now suddenly she’s done a 180 because he seems ... nice? I understand she was frustrated about being talked down to once by her father, but this seems a bit extreme.
At least if she had been getting visibly brainwashed by Murphy or something, we as the viewers could understand her motivations.
Right now, however, it almost seems like we’re supposed to feel sympathy for Seth’s former disciple without any reason given as to why – other than his newfound relationship with formerly innocent Aalyah.
Alternatively, if it's Aalyah who is manipulating Murphy, all of this seems a bit far fetched.
The storyline here is starting to lose steam and I’m not sure the current direction is the right way to get viewers re-invested.
"The Freak" Doesn’t Like People
Say what you will about Lars Sullivan, but the guy has proven he’s more than capable on the microphone.
Even when he’s given a mouthful of exposition to spit out during a promo, the guy is captivating to watch speak.
This week’s sit-down interview between Lars Sullivan and Corey Graves was much more effective than the one he did last year before suffering an injury.
As you may recall, that interview featured Lars speaking in a poetic manner and re-working a nursery rhyme to talk about his opponents.
The interview with Graves, however, almost normalized Sullivan.
He spoke like a real human this time and told a story about being called "The Freak" for the first time as a child by a pair of bullies, who he later tormented for hours in an act of revenge.
This might not have been a major development, but I’ve really enjoyed WWE making an attempt to give depth to as many characters as possible lately. It seems as though a real effort is being put in.
This character building for Sullivan, while small, is better than him just being an unexplainable "freak."
Now we know his character is motivated by all the people who look at him that way, which helps illustrate why we should be invested in watching him each week.
Can Sasha Keep Her Belt This Time?
This was a great interaction to further the feud between new SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks and Bayley.
Banks looked like an absolute star holding gold around her waist during this segment.
Bayley also brought up a great point that I’m happy to see referenced on WWE TV – Sasha’s bad luck at retaining titles.
This is obviously not Banks’ first time as Women’s champion, but none of her reigns have lasted very long. "The Boss" has been Raw Women’s champion a total of 5 times, but has only been able to hold onto the belt for a combined total of 106 days.
Here’s how the other top women in WWE compare:
- Alexa Bliss: 3 Raw title reigns, 2 SmackDown title reigns – combined 598 days as champion
- Becky Lynch: 3 SmackDown title reigns, 1 Raw title reign – combined 614 days as champion
- Charlotte Flair: 4 Raw title reigns, 5 SmackDown title reigns – combined 431 days as champion
The fact that Sasha is so far behind the others is (hopefully) being rectified with her current title run.
Another short reign would throw away all the amazing work they’ve put into raising Sasha’s profile in this fantastically crafted storyline.
Next week’s rematch between these two competitors should be intriguing to see how they stretch this out further.
