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WWE SmackDown: 2 things that went wrong on the Sept. 24 episode

By Christopher Jeter

Baron Corbin shows off to the crowd. The main event was a street fight between Baron Corbin and Braun Strowman, with lots of of chairs, sticks and tables. WWE Live Road to Wrestlemania came to Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019.Ww3
Baron Corbin shows off to the crowd. The main event was a street fight between Baron Corbin and Braun Strowman, with lots of of chairs, sticks and tables. WWE Live Road to Wrestlemania came to Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019.Ww3 /
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In a Daily DDT poll conducted on Twitter, roughly 83 percent of respondents gave this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown a “thumbs up” (the poll is still active if you’d like to add your voice to the discourse).

Clearly, the fans enjoyed seeing Montez Ford get a chance to show what he could do in a high-profile singles match against Roman Reigns as well as the Bianca Belair/Becky Lynch show-opening confrontation.

Those were just a couple of things that stood out on this show in a positive way, but there were also areas where WWE dropped the ball creatively. There weren’t many, but they’re worth bringing up here.

These are the two things that went wrong on the Sept. 24 episode of SmackDown.

“Happy Talk” with Happy Corbin

We get it, Baron Corbin is rich and he can’t shut up about it. WWE didn’t get this message, however, which is why the promotion trotted Corbin to the ring on SmackDown to host his new talk show, “Happy Talk”.

Now, Corbin is a heel and there was no announced guest for the show, so you can guess what happened: Corbin announced himself as “Happy Talk’s” inaugural guest and once again bragged about his newfound opulence. You don’t have to take my word for how tedious this was; just go back and listen to the crowd chand “We don’t care” and you’ll get the idea.

Eventually, Kevin Owens interrupted this, but the returning Riddick Moss (who Michael Cole mentioned by name before acting like he didn’t know who Moss was, likely indicating an impending name change) jumped him. He and Corbin finished off the attack with a double chokeslam to Owens on the base of the steel steps.

The idea of Corbin using his wealth to assemble roadblocks between himself and Owens works fine. We just didn’t need another talk show to get there.

Zelina Vega beats Liv Morgan

It’s nice to see that WWE finally decided to give Zelina Vega a win, but this company has  plenty of chances to do so prior to this episode of SmackDown. That would’ve been preferable to stalling the little momentum Liv Morgan had before Morgan faces Carmella at Extreme Rules. 

WWE attempted to “protect” Morgan in defeat by booking her to get distracted by Carmella before Vega pinned her with a Code Red (at least Vega didn’t win with a cheap rollup), but if anything, it made Morgan look dumb for turning her attention to someone who was simply jawing at her outside the ring instead of focusing on her opponent.

The idea was probably to, of course, put HEEEEAT on Carmella before Liv beats her on Sunday, but WWE would’ve been better served showcasing Morgan as an in-ring threat instead of once again overthinking things.