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SmackDown: 2 things that went right on the Nov. 19 episode

By Christopher Jeter

Big E arrives for his match during the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Crown Jewel pay-per-view in the Saudi capital Riyadh on October 21, 2021. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine / AFP) (Photo by FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)
Big E arrives for his match during the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Crown Jewel pay-per-view in the Saudi capital Riyadh on October 21, 2021. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine / AFP) (Photo by FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images) /
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On this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown, the promotion had a final chance to convince fans that the 2021 Survivor Series is worth watching. Even though it doesn’t make up for the fact that I did a better job hyping up the show through writing about old matches than WWE did, the company did a somewhat admirable job here.

Sure, there was still plenty of talking and plenty of matches that failed to reach the two-minute mark, but that doesn’t mean that most of the content the company provided failed to reach a watchable standard.

WWE put some good things on this SmackDown, and those highlights are what we’re here to discuss today.

These are two of the things that went right on the Nov. 19 episode of SmackDown.

A (full-time) babyface finally gets one over on Roman Reigns.

Listen, if there’s anything you can criticize about this otherwise brilliant run Roman Reigns has been on for the last year or so, it’s that he seldom receives any sort of comeuppance from a babyface that isn’t a part-time performer.

Sure, we all know this is part of WWE’s ongoing mission to build up Reigns as one of the all-time greats (you’d think someone would tell WWE that simply having great matches against credible challengers and cutting great promos would take care of that, but whatever), but seeing him get heat on midcard babyfaces week after week can get exhausting for anyone who’s not the most ardent Reigns supporter.

At the start of Friday’s show, it looked like things would trend in the same direction when he destroyed Xavier Woods’ King of the Ring props (which was effective given how much everyone knew how much winning King of the Ring meant to Woods).

That changed at the end of the show when Woods called out Reigns and Big E’s music hit.

What followed was a cathartic beatdown of the Universal Champion by The New Day. Reigns slipped out of Big E’s Big Ending (likely to save that spot for the PPV), but that doesn’t change how nice it was to see a SmackDown end with something other than The Bloodline standing tall.

Video package for Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch

For as much buzz as there is around the Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair match at Survivor Series, much of that anticipation wasn’t due to WWE’s booking (at least, not intentionally), a fact best exemplified in Flair’s “Becky Uh Oh” line.

This three-minute video package that chronicled Flair and Lynch’s history as friends and as rivals stands out as one of the few high points from a WWE creative standpoint. This did more to promote Flair vs. Lynch as a major match than any contrived segment ever could, which makes you wonder why WWE doesn’t utilize these hype videos more often.

Next. Big E should defeat Roman Reigns clean at Survivor Series. dark

If you’re someone who’s still indifferent to this match, this is the video that could change your mind.