WWE SmackDown: Results, Highlights and Grades for Nov. 15

Daniel Bryan guest stars on Miz TV

After recapping how Bray won his title and introduces Bryan, Miz asks why he thinks The Fiend attacked him out of all people. Bryan remains silent. Miz says that if Bryan won’t speak, he’ll give his own two cents.

He says he thinks Fiend sees that Bryan is not the same man he was 10 years ago and is having a character conflict. Thus, was an easy target. “I think the Fiend sees that you’re washed up and I think that he wants to be the one to end Daniel Bryan.”

Bryan gets up and says he did not say a word because Miz TV does and always has sucked. But he says Miz is right. He’s not the same Bryan he used to be and he might mentally unstable, washed up, etc. But one thing that remains the same is that he has the same passion that pushed him into the main event of WrestleMania.

Miz doesn’t want to see this old spiel again, but Bryan tells him to shut up because he doesn’t understand the mental instability he had to kill the Yes Movement combined, but Bray Wyatt does because he, too, is mentally unstable. Bryan says he wants to fight an equally mentally unstable person, but gets interrupted by Firefly Fun House.

Bray appears on the titantron to say it’s rude to speak about another person when they are not person. He says he knows being confused is scary, but maybe The Fiend wanted to scare him. Or maybe The Fiend wanted to remind Bryan of what he did. Or maybe The Fiend just wants to play.

Bray wants to play, so he goes into his toy box and pulls out his favorite toy: The Universal Championship. Bray says if Bryan wants to play, he just has to say the magic word.

Bryan, instead, says, “No.” All while Bray’s puppets say “Yes.”

Bryan refuses to play with puppets or play into Bray’s manipulation because he is no puppet and if Bray wants to fight, then just fight, but they should do with the Bray’s “toy” on the line. So Bray says the magic word: “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! YES! YES! YES!”

Miz officially announces that it will be Daniel Bryan vs. The Fiend at Survivor Series for the Universal Championship.

Grade: A

Awesome promo between two of the best promos in WWE. Nuff said.

I think Bryan vs. Fiend just became my most anticipated PPV match up. Well, second to Baszler vs. Bayley vs. Lynch, but that’s how good this segment was.

Overall Grade: B

Not a perfect night of WWE TV, but not downright awful either. In fact, sans that opener, this was a quite good episode of SmackDown. I understand why some fans may have stronger criticisms, but judging by how bad certain past episodes have been and seeing just how bad this show can be sometimes, this was a masterpiece by comparison.

Say what you want about certain angles and segments, but because WWE Superstars are comprised of some of the best wrestlers on the planet, the in-ring stuff saves it all.