3 Interesting observations from WWE SmackDown (November 8, 2019)
This week's pre-taped episode of Friday Night SmackDown from Manchester, England wasn't as lively as one hoped it would be.
A huge reason behind why last night's show had a nonchalant vibe throughout its runtime is that the Manchester crowd were dead silent for the most of it.
To be fair, a lot of the segments paled in comparison to a rather momentous invasion themed episodes across WWE's programming in the recent few weeks.
But a few plot threads, such as the NXT invasion, as well as Bray Wyatt's future on the Blue Brand were an important and exciting part of the episode.
Here are a few interesting observations from this week's WWE SmackDown on FOX (November 8, 2019):
#3 Why SmackDown seems like the weaker brand in terms of unity so far
King Corbin defeated Roman Reigns in last night's pre-taped main event from Manchester.
Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode assisted Corbin to pick up the victory. One thing that pops out from this scenario is the former RAW Tag Team Champions' inclusion into this match: The commentators speculated that a lot of Superstars aren't happy about Roman Reigns slacking as their locker room leader, and that could explain why Ziggler & Roode went out of their way to help Corbin win the match.
But on a broader scale of things, it doesn't look like most of the SmackDown talent are on the same page at the moment. Because of last night's show, WWE has established that a certain category of Superstars in the locker room (mostly heels) don't accept Reigns as their leader.
On the other hand, their main champion is an unstoppable entity (The Fiend) that acts on his own terms.
This disjointed energy amongst the Blue Brand talent shows why they have been on the receiving end of cross-branded invasions so far.
While RAW has managed to retaliate in some form or the other, SmackDown has a long way to go to reign supreme at this year's Survivor Series Pay-Per-View.