3/6 WWE TALKING SMACK REPORT: Bayley takes over the questions, Crews reiterates Smackdown statement, and Rey Mysterio lays down the challenge to Otis and Gable

WWE TALKING SMACK
MARCH 6, 2021
BY NICK MORGAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Hosts: Kayla Braxton and Paul Heyman

This week’s guests: Bayley, Apollo Crews, and Rey Mysterio w/Dominick 

– Like normal, Kayla welcomed us to the show noting that it was only six weeks until WrestleMania, but then moved quickly to promoting Fastlane as she introduced co-host Paul Heyman and went right into the show ending cage match between Jey Uso and Daniel Bryan where Bryan won the chance for a match against Roman Reigns at Fastlane for the Universal Championship.

– Kayla rattled on a bit as Paul sat stoically until he finally spoke, claiming Daniel is a special human being and stating that he has everything: A loving wife, healthy children, the adoration of the fans, and now a direct path to the main event at WrestleMania. What he doesn’t have Paul noted is a plan to beat Roman Reigns, claiming that Daniel is not man enough and is incapable of replacing Roman Reigns in the main event at WrestleMania. Paul then gave us a spoiler (not a prediction) that Roman will decimate Daniel in their match.

– Kayla and Paul exchanged some barbs and banter with Kayla finally introducing their first guest: Bayley. As Bayley entered, Paul kissed her hand and Bayley fell to the floor in exaltation. A quick note on Bayley’s outfit. Rather than coming out in wrestling gear, Bayley was in full “talk show” regalia, turtleneck and glasses. Paul mentioned Kayla’s appearance on Raw Talk earlier in the week and Kayla shot back that it was nice to have a real co-host on that show in R-Truth.

– They finally got back to Bayley, but since she didn’t wrestle this week, they talked about the Ding Dong, Hello segment on the show. Bayley turned things around and said since she was in her host outfit, she was going to ask the questions and asked Kayla if she was the one who wrote the nasty tweet that Bayley crumpled up without reading.

(Morgan’s Analysis: On the whole this whole segment was very disjointed and really didn’t forward any wrestling angle. I do love watching Bayley in this character. She is having fun and is a blast to watch.)

– The next guest was Apollo Crews. He showed up in full Nigerian royalty mode accompanied by his two guards. Kayla asked Crews how it felt to finally be able to represent his true self after all this time. After saying that it felt great to finally show who he really is, Crews basically repeated (almost word for word) his promo against Big E from earlier on Smackdown the “night” before. Crews was all in with his character with the accent and the scarf and after stating his certainty that he would beat Big E, he was out.

(Morgan’s Analysis: This was a quick segment and while I’m not completely sold on how far they have gone with this character, Apollo Crews is leaning all the way in on it and I hope they can find the sweet spot.)

-After Crews left, Paul sold him big, saying that Apollo Crews will be a “top tier talent”.

– Rey & Dominic Mysterio were the final guests of the night.

(Morgan’s Analysis: I just want to say this about Dominic: He has been doing good work on Smackdown, but in this setting he looked like a twelve-year-old and if he is just going to appear in a tee shirt, he needs to add some muscle to his arms and upper body, he just looks scrawny.)

– As Kayla was trying to get out a question about the Mysterio’s current rivalry with Gable and Otis, Paul cut her off and addressed Rey and told him that the floor was all Rey’s and to go ahead. Rey started off saying that he was working really hard to train and teach his son to be the best he can be and then dumped on Chad Gable for basically manipulating Otis into doing all his dirty work. He came at Gable and Otis saying that everything they have been doing to him is just fueling him up and that he has taken on the biggest and baddest before and that they have no idea about the “hurricane that is coming” their way. He ended the promo by speaking Spanish which sad to say I am unable to translate (I took French in school). A short but serviceable promo to continue the feud and just a note, Dominick did not say a word.

– The show ended on Rey’s final words without anything further from either Kayla or Paul.

FINAL THOUGHTS: At 21 minutes this week, the show was short and kind of sweet. The opening between Paul and Kayla was fine. Bayley was all energy and silliness, but fun to watch. As I said above, Bayley is having the time of her life and it comes across and makes her very enjoyable to watch no matter what. Apollo’s segment was pretty much just a repeat of his promo from Smackdown with little to no input to intensify things from Paul. The Mysterio’s promo, while fine and showed some good intensity from Rey, fell a bit flat as it didn’t quite explain why he is angry. They have just been having a couple of 50/50 matches with no really nasty, evil things from Gable and Otis. We’ll see. Again, Paul really didn’t add anything to Rey’s promo. After coming out of the gate extremely hot, Talking Smack with Paul Heyman has definitely cooled off a bit and while still watchable (especially the interplay between Paul and Kayla) it is definitely much less essential viewing than it was; at least right now.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S TALKING SMACK REPORT: 2/27 WWE TALKING SMACK REPORT: Cage match set between Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns, Belair talks Banks, more