11/21 TALKING SMACK REVIEW: Heyman and Braxton talk with Natalya interrupts Bayley, Street Profits get serious, Bryan talks about Jey Uso

WWE TALKING SMACK
NOVEMBER 21, 2020
AIRED ON WWE NETWORK
REVIEW BY NICK MORGAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Hosts: Kayla Braxton, Paul Heyman

This week’s guests: The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins), Bayley, and

– Kayla introduced the show, plugged Survivor Series and welcomed her co-host Paul Heyman. Kayla used Paul’s full title and Paul thanked her for doing it well. They cut short their banter and moved right into discussing Smackdown. When Kayla said the Roman-Drew match was champion versus champion, Paul aggressively interrupted her and said that no, this was champion versus placeholder, not champion versus champion. Paul then went on a vintage Paul rant and did a great job building up and building on the angle from the show this week.

– Primary quote here: “Drew McIntyre is a babysitter for a belt”.

– Continuing on Kayla started discussing the Murphy-Seth match in relation to Seth having to go into the Survivor Series match after suffering a loss, but Paul turned it around and said that her sees Jey Uso as coming out of the match very strong and then foreshadowed a possible upcoming angle with Roman and Jey, when he said that Jey had “better” come out of the match strong. Kayla was a bit flustered during this opening segment as it seemed that Paul, who is so good, was doing some ad-libbing and Kayla got thrown, or lost her place in the scripting. Or she is a great actress, and this is what we were supposed to think.

– Moving on, Kayla announced the first guests, The Street Profits. As can be expected, the Profits cast some shade at the New Day noting that they carried the New Day in their eight-man match on Smackdown. But, they did say that they know the New Day are good and are champions so they are setting things up that this is going to be a fight but a fight to show who is best and that the New Day is underestimating them. The Street Profits toned down their act a bit here and the whole segment was geared towards building up the match, as it should.

– As Bayley came out and sat down, everybody shook hands with everybody else and, for some reason, I found it very amusing. You go Paul. Kayla asked why Bayley should have been appointed to the team while everyone else had to “earn” they way in, and Bayley responded that she is so good and has such a good record and history that of course she should just be put on the team and made the “el captain.” At that point, just as I was enjoying Bayley’s act, Natalya came out. Ugh. Way to slow down a segment. Natalya said how she earned her way onto the team and that she has the experience to be on the team and be the captain. Of course, they bickered about who was best and tossed around their slogans: “the role model” and “the boat”. It dragged on a bit, but it seems that WWE can’t help having teams with dissention in their Survivor Series matches. Okay already, move on.

– Kayla tried to make piece between them as she sent them off, but they continued to argue as they left. Kayla announced Daniel Bryan (and his rather strange haircut, if you haven’t seen it yet, find a picture of it). Before moving into the segment, Daniel announced that it was his wife’s birthday and he gave what was obviously a real and from the heart birthday wish and love for his wife, Brie.

– Daniel talked about how he and Jey were friends and used to have a good time together and that everyone was behind him when he was main-eventing versus Roman everyone back stage was behind him, but now things have been changing and while Daniel never mentioned his name, he was obviously dumping on Roman.

– Daniel went into a rather long monologue, culminating in a good, old fashioned promo when he said that he was not happy with beating Jey Uso with a small package, and while he didn’t say it specifically, he made it clear that he wanted another shot at Jey (and if you can read between the lines, this is probably leading to Daniel and Roman being in a program, that I would say would culminate at the Royal Rumble.

– With that Daniel put down the mike and left. Really good work from Daniel Bryan.

– Kayla wrapped up and as Paul was going into full rant mode on Daniel, they went off the air.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Talking Smack was a “B“ this week, and clocking in at 27 minutes, it wasn’t bad or unwatchable, just kind of there.

Paul (and the WWE) continue to use his presence here on Talking Smack to add some shading and extra color to the Roman Reigns character and angle. While I am sure that many people who watch Smackdown but not this show aren’t terribly harmed by not getting this content, those that do watch get some added nuance adding to their overall enjoyment of the Roman Reigns (and company) act and performance(s).

I liked the fact that the Street Profits were more serious here, they did keep their fun attitude but kept it from crossing the line into overblown clowning around which I feel they fall into sometimes. The beginning of the Bayley and Natalya segment was good (when it was just Bayley), but Natalya has a tendency to overact. It was very evident here and rather boring and brought Bayley down. Daniel Bryan’s segment was good, but it was more a straight one-man promo rather than an interview and that is OK, because Daniel can bring it.

Well, that is it for now, see you all next week. Until then, take care and stay safe.

CATCH UP… 11/14 WWE TALKING SMACK REVIEW: Sasha Banks, Otis, Mysterio Family and Murphy join Heyman and Braxton to react to Smackdown