WWE SmackDown Live Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for November 7

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Follow along with our live WWE SmackDown review – even though the show is airing via tape delay.

Last time around on WWE SmackDown Live, it was Halloween! Shane McMahon declared himself captain at Survivor Series. Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura earned spots on said Survivor Series team. Big E and Rusev battled in a HOSS FIGHT. And Sin Cara showed a lot of fight against Baron Corbin – too much, probably.

This week, the Blue Team is overseas, as was Raw last night. In fact, if you watched Raw, you saw The New Day invade during the main event. SmackDown is taping in the same building – The Manchester Arena in the United Kingdom – so one has to wonder if there will be any retaliation for the invasion. Kurt Angle’s crew still owes payback for the siege two weeks ago, as well.

There’a a pair of big title matches scheduled for tonight’s show. Both could have a huge impact on Survivor Series. Up first, AJ Styles gets his chance to reclaim the WWE Championship. He’ll face Jinder Mahal, who will undoubtedly have The Singh Brothers in his corner. Whoever wins will have Brock Lesnar waiting for him at Survivor Series. Will that be a phenomenal match, or a modern-day masterpiece?

The other championship match is for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. The Usos defend their titles against Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable. After Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins lost the Raw Tag Team Championships to Cesaro and Sheamus, the Survivor Series “champion vs. champion” match is already turned upside down. Will The Usos get bumped out as well?

Finally, WWE is putting on an intergender match tonight. Well, if JBL was still around, he’d probably call it an interspecies match. Anyway, Becky Lynch is sick and tired of James Ellsworth, who’s been questioning her qualifications to be Survivor Series captain. Lynch challenged Carmella to a match, but the Princess of Staten Island responded by offering Ellsworth instead. So the Irish Lass Kicker will face the Chinless Wonder tonight. There’s really only one way this one can end up, right?

Related Story: Top 10 Moments in WWE Survivor Series History

Follow along with our live WWE SmackDown review right here starting at 8 p.m. ET.

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It’s A New Shane, Yes It Is

Shane’s first order of business? WAR OF WORDS, YO. He’s heard the jabs from Raw and General Manager Kurt Angle about SmackDown being the B-show. And he is not happy about it. He proclaims SmackDown as THE show. Sometimes, it’s hard to argue that point.

Shane O Mac also makes it abundantly clear that he believes the attack on Daniel Bryan was a calculated move. He blames Stephanie McMahon and Angle for locking Bryan in the office, then sending in Kane to do his worst. I don’t buy Angle’s involvement, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Stephanie hadn’t really left, or had a spy left behind to do her bidding.

Things progress to the siege and the constant shots being fired on Raw. So Shane brings out this week’s perpetrators – New Day. And if it wasn’t clear before that things are building to The Shield vs. The New Day at Survivor Series, the rest of this segment leaves no doubt. I could have done without Shane trying the Triple H tactic of dad dancing with New Day, but I’m all in for a hot six-man tag between the two factions.

Also upset with Shane’s gyrations? Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, who come down to the stage to confront the commissioner. They’re playing conspiracy victims, almost on par with late 1990s Chris Jericho. It’s predictably great, because Owens and Zayn are great. Throw in New Day going all WORLDSTAR on “Sam Zayn,” and this is a heck of a way to kick of SmackDown.

Even better? A Sam Zayn vs. Kofi Kingston match after the break!

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Kofi Kingston (w/ Big E & Xavier Woods) vs. Sami Zayn (w/ Kevin Owens)

Result: Kofi Kingston defeated Sami Zayn via pinfall

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Before we get into the meat of this one, can I just say that while Kofi/Sami is great, I really want to see Owens/Big E? It would be the hossiest of hoss fights, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it would rule so hard.

But this match is really good, too. The dropkick from Kofi early on (the one right after the twerking) was nasty as all hell. Both the vertical leap and the way it connected on Zayn’s face were amped way up. Despite the presence of Owens at ringside – and notice he never attempted to interfere, he was just there – Kofi puts a hurting on Zayn.

Eventually, though, Owens’ existence did distract Kofi just enough to allow Sami to take over. Kofi fought back, hitting an interesting plancha after a reverse skinning the cat kind of maneuver. An SOS by Kingston only managed a two count, as did possibly the best Blue Thunder Bomb Zayn has ever hit.

When Sami went for the Helluva Kick, Kofi wiggled free, and climbed to the top turnbuckle. A crossbody – yes, a crossbody – was enough for Kofi to get the win, but not enough to stop Owens from beating him down immediately following the match.

After a nice promo to kick things off, this match was a perfect follow up. Exciting, not too long, and continued the thread from the open. Great job all around.

Jinder Mahal

Mahal is still focused on Brock Lesnar, because he’s assuming a victory against AJ Styles tonight is guaranteed. I like his chances.

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Bludgeon Brothers

Not going to lie, I really thought this promo was some kind of commercial. I’m really digging these two in this repackage, but maybe the videos are too good at setting the tone. Let’s get these monsters in the ring already!

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Rusev (w/ Aiden English) vs. Randy Orton

Result: Randy Orton defeated Rusev via pinfall

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

If Rusev wins this match, he will be the final member of Team SmackDown at Survivor Series. Aiden English is nice enough to sing Rusev to the ring – an entrance befitting such a great superstar.

And once the bell rang, Rusev leapt into action. The Bulgarian Brute is one of the toughest superstars in WWE. His attacks are meant to wear an opponent down, and that’s Rusev’s strategy.

But Orton didn’t become a 13-time world champion by falling prey to great strategy. Over the course of the match, The Viper just weathered the storm, biding his time for an opening. And eventually that opening shows up, and an RKO from outta nowhere seals the deal. No Survivor Series team for Rusev.

The match wasn’t half bad, but the commercial break with no picture in picture hurt this one a bit.

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James Ellsworth Lurking Backstage

Ellsworth is pacing outside the women’s locker room. When Tamina comes out, he asks her to get Carmella – politely! He said please and everything! But instead, he gets his opponent for tonight – Becky Lynch.

The Lass Kicker has to listen to Ellsworth basically role play as Andy Kaufman circa 1982. Misogyny aside, Becky puts him in his place, and everyone should be super hyped for this match by now.

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James Ellsworth (w/ Carmella) vs. Becky Lynch

Result: Becky Lynch defeated James Ellsworth via submission

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

The rest of the SmackDown women’s division – except for Natalya – was at ringside for this one. And all things considered, the match itself wasn’t bad. There were too many other things going on for it to really be great, but for what it was it served its purpose.

Thankfully, the only thing that indicated WWE wasn’t taking this match seriously was the commentary. As far as the actual in-ring action, it was a straight-up wrestling match. For a proponent of intergender wrestling like myself, that’s huge. WWE/NXT has a ton of women either currently on the roster (Abbey Laith, Ruby Riot) or who participated in the Mae Young Classic (literally like half the field) with intergender experience. It shouldn’t be as taboo as it once was, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Back to this one, Ellsworth played his part perfectly, and Becky got to show off her skills a bit. The arrogance of Ellsworth really played into things well – the shoves to the outside were a nice touch.

The end – and result – was fairly predictable. With all the othersuperstars from the women’s division at ringside, you knew they would come into play. As they chased Ellsworth back into the ring, it set Becky up for her signature moves. A tapout victory is 100% the right call, too – make the overconfident and cocky man lose by literally giving up.

After the match, we may have seen the end of Carmellsworth, as Ms. Money in the Bank superkicked Ellsworth into next week and left alone.

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Big Title Match Set For Next Week

Charlotte and Shane McMahon are chatting – perhaps about the Ric Flair 30 for 30 premiering tonight – when they’re interrupted by Natalya. Nattie says that not only will she beat Alexa Bliss at Survivor Series, she’ll volunteer to take Charlotte’s spot on the women’s team.

Shane will have none of that, and instead books Natalya vs. Charlotte in a Women’s Championship match next week. Survivor Series is looking to get shaken up even more.

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WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match

The Usos (c) vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin

Result: Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin defeated The Usos via count out

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Jimmy and Jey talk a little trash before this one, implying that Shelton Benjamin is really just Jason Jordan – kinda. It’s borderline inappropriate, for somewhat obvious reasons.

But the match gets started, and it’s pretty good at first. Most of it happened in the inset during the commercial break, but it was somewhat back and forth. The Usos eventually started to take over, but the action went to the arena floor. That’s where everything went to hell.

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Reminiscent of what the Usos did to Chad Gable roughly a year ago, Gable hit Jey Uso with a chop block. It looked like Jey’s leg bent awkwardly, and he was unable to answer the referee’s ten count and re-enter the ring. Benjamin made no attempt to head to the outside to get him in the ring – remember, titles can’t change hands via count out.

Half the WWE Universe thinks this is a legit injury, which, if true, would be awful. The Usos have terrible luck with injury, as one of the twins almost always seems to be injured somewhat seriously. But the rest of the fans believe it’s a work – no ‘X’ was thrown up, and (allegedly) Jey walked out under his own power after the match.

It remains to be seen what Jey’s status is, but if this is a work it was poorly thought out. If it’s legit, it’s a darn shame.

AJ Styles is Ready

Jinder’s looking ahead to Lesnar? No problem. Styles sounds ready, but it may not be enough to propel him to another championship reign.

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WWE Championship Match

Jinder Mahal (w/ The Singh Brothers) (c) vs. AJ Styles

Result: AJ Styles defeated Jinder Mahal via pinfall to become the new WWE Champion

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

You know how there’s no such thing as coincidence? Well, try this on for size: The WWE Championship hasn’t changed hands on SmackDown since 2003. That match? Brock Lesnar – the next opponent for whoever wins this match – defeated Kurt Angle – the current Raw GM who’s right smack in the middle of this whole brand supremacy thing. Interesting factoid, glad the announce team brought it up.

I’m sure no one would be surprised if I said this was the best Jinder Mahal match since he was shaken up to SmackDown last spring. It’s all in the pairings – one great superstar can usually pull his or her opponent to a great match. Two great superstars – sky’s the limit. Here, Styles practically willed Jinder into something nice.

While Jinder reveled in the punishment he was dishing out, Styles was bumping like crazy to sell that punishment. When AJ started his inevitable comeback, it seemed like it may have come too soon. There was more than ten minutes left in the episode when AJ hit the stike flurry combo.

But after that initial comeback, things got even better. Mahal launched him across the ring with a couple of faceplants, Stlyes came back with the ushigoroshi. Jinder works the knee, Styles transitions into the Calf Crusher. Both superstars had an answer for everything his opponent had up his sleeve.

It took until about 15 minutes into the match before The Singh Brothers got involved. AJ hit the springboard 450 splash, but the Singhs pulled Jinder out of the ring. Styles beat them both down, but Jinder recovered enough to counter the Phenomenal Forearm into a Khallas – but Styles got his foot on the ropes and survived to fight a little longer.

The response from the crowd when Styles hit the Phenomenal Forearm and won the match was amazing. The fact that the WWE Championship changed hands is surprising enough – but on a pre-taped episode of SmackDown in the UK? When does that happen? (The answer is never – the WWE Championship had never changed hands outside of North America until tonight.)

Next: AJ Styles: Ten Best Matches Prior To Joining WWE

So now Survivor Series undergoes another change, and we’ll get AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar in a champion vs. champion match. The excitement meter just went way off the charts for this one, even if there is no build to it. It was a lovely cherry on top of a great episode of WWE SmackDown Live.