November 22, 2020 - Evan Luebbe

SmackDown has been on a streak of putting together several months of excellent programming, particularly the go-home episode right before a Pay-Per-View.

Three examples are:

The finals of the Intercontinental title tournament after Sami Zayn relinquished it earlier this year between Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles right before Backlash,
The Intercontinental championship match between Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles on the go-home episode right before SummerSlam,
And, even the recent encounter between Seth Rollins and Murphy, all three of which were Pay-Per-View-quality matches.

The November 20th edition of the program was quite possibly the greatest episode SmackDown has presented in 2020 because of the excellent transitions into each segment. Every part of the show seemed to flow together brilliantly.

Daniel Bryan was one of the highlights of the night. This edition was so well-done that there were about three segments that could have been perceived as the highlight of the night, but this was an awfully big deal, nonetheless.

The superstar Mr. McMahon opted to focus on most heavily this week was Daniel Bryan, which makes perfect sense in theory because he does not have a match scheduled for Survivor Series this Sunday. Bryan got some retribution by getting a victory over Jey Uso after being attacked by him several weeks ago. Speaking of Uso, he has benefited every bit as much as – if not more than – his cousin Roman Reigns in the past couple months since the storyline began between the two family members. Uce has been firmly established in the main event scene right beside his cousin and is serving as almost an indentured servant to The Head of The Table.

The leader of the Yes! Movement also hinted at the possibility of potentially beginning a rivalry with Sami Zayn starting immediately after Survivor Series for the Intercontinental title. Zayn has Bobby Lashley to worry about this Sunday, but Bryan has been involved on and off in the IC championship picture since June of this year. He has always been a proponent of the idea of the Intercontinental Champion defending the title on a weekly basis. AJ Styles didn’t share the same sentiment earlier in 2020, and Zayn has had similar disagreements with Bryan in recent weeks.

The Tribal Chief Roman Reigns is portraying a character right now who is so arrogant and sure of himself that people cannot help but like him, even though they know in the back of their mind that he is behaving in a very conceited manner. It is reminiscent of the way Paul Heyman’s mentality was when he was advocating for Brock Lesnar. Now that Roman has established himself as The Head of The Table and the unquestioned leader of WWE, he can now let loose and rule exactly how he sees fit.

If my memory is correct, Paul Heyman told Roman in 2015 (the year Reigns won the Royal Rumble which was not received very well – the WWE universe was clamoring for the returning Daniel Bryan) during the buildup to the WrestleMania 31 main event against Brock Lesnar that he was “the right guy, in the right place, at the wrong time.” So it’s extremely ironic that Roman does the same thing to Drew McIntyre just five years later – with Heyman at his side. This is a full-circle moment and maybe it will turn out differently for McIntyre – on the other hand, maybe it won’t. We will find out at Survivor Series.

Rollins, Mysterio and Murphy have told a brilliant story with many layers and nuances over the past six months. Murphy got the victory over Seth and it will hopefully launch him as a major superstar (as was Rollins’ intention all along. Young people like Dominik Mysterio also benefited.

The open storyline between Seth Rollins and Murphy was extremely well-done and executed nearly to perfection. It was about as good as a long-term story gets in WWE – primarily because it did its job effectively of writing Rollins off TV for his paternity leave presumably after Survivor Series. It also firmly established some groundwork for Murphy to work off of and it will hopefully springboard him into superstardom – now having an affiliation with the Mysterio family and being closely tied with them.

It’s great to see that the company found meaningful work for Chad Gable after dropping the Shorty G moniker – Otis as well after Tucker departed from SmackDown for RAW after the draft to seek greener pastures. Otis as well as Chad Gable now each have something meaningful to occupy themselves with now that Otis – with Gable in his corner – is the fifth member of Team SmackDown. And The New Day is always a welcome addition anywhere they decide to show up – now they dominate both brands, which is great marketing.

Bayley is also providing continuity between storylines by proclaiming herself the captain of the SmackDown Women’s Survivor Series Team. Bianca Belair might have something to say about that given how she has dominated every woman on the roster since WrestleMania 36. The company is looking to establish her as the next major superstar in the women’s division. Carmella also made sure Sasha Banks did not forget about her challenge for the title after her rivalry with Asuka finishes.

Drew McIntyre is having the greatest calendar year of his career, and it’s only getting better as he has now won the second WWE championship of his career against Randy Orton. Not many WWE superstars have the ability to say they have won multiple WWE titles in their career – let alone by beating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania in the main event for the first title and winning the second by finishing a long-term program with Randy Orton. For McIntyre, his second WWE title victory felt as though it meant more in terms of furthering his status in the company and truly cementing his status as a top-tier main eventer. Immediately after the WWE championship match, The Viper tapped The Scottish Psychopath on the back of his leg as a way of giving respect and saying “good match kid. You earned it.”

McIntyre’s career year began with a Royal Rumble victory in January, followed by a victory against Lesnar for the WWE title at WrestleMania. Drew spent the middle portion of 2020 defending his title against various other superstars – such as Seth Rollins, King Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Dolph Ziggler (who McIntyre tagged with in 2018) – slowly building credibility before getting to the ultimate payoff rivalry later in the year of being caught over by someone who is quite possibly the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots in Randy Orton.

These two men met for the first time in this current feud in August 2020 at SummerSlam in which McIntyre got the victory. This match was followed in September with an Ambulance match which was won again by McIntyre (not by pinfall however so the rivalry could be extended). The starting match was a Hell In A Cell match in which McIntyre gave arguably his best in-ring performance ever (taking a hellacious fall from halfway up the cell). It was capped off this Monday with Randy Orton putting the finishing touches on the process of putting over Drew McIntyre as a perennial WWE champion and one of the top superstars in the entire WWE. Drew will now go on to face The Tribal Chief Roman Reigns at Survivor Series this Sunday.

Drew McIntyre has earned a significant amount of respect from me as well as the entire WWE universe – he has done everything with grace and appreciation for what he has been given. WWE has also practiced a slow-burn over the last 13 years with McIntyre. No one thought it would take quite that long for McIntyre to come into his own – Mr. McMahon had to know it would be a long process since McIntyre was so young and had much maturing to do when he was first discovered at 22 years old. But Drew McIntyre now has a sufficient amount of perspective on life at 35 now. The maturation process in life simply takes nothing but time which requires patience, but it always happens eventually. This is a similar view the company may want to take with Big E (who is a former NXT champion Mr. McMahon almost made the face of the company once upon a time).

The next opponent on the list for Drew McIntyre may be Sheamus, especially considering the symbolism which came to fruition during McIntyre’s entrance this Monday when McIntyre planted the sword Sheamus gave to him earlier in the night into the floor. Another reason this is a likely first feud for Drew McIntyre’s second reign as WWE champion is because he already has a well-established friendship with The Celtic Warrior. Two wrestlers who are friends almost always end up embarking in a rivalry at some point in time – this is just good business. Both men have so much chemistry together based on their friendship and they were also the top rivalry in all of Europe before they both signed with WWE.

Drew McIntyre may in fact be one of the top four or five superstars who can legitimately carry the WWE into the future over the course of the next 10/15 years. Obviously this cannot be said about just anyone, but McIntyre has been through more than his fair share of struggle and rejection (he has been told no multiple times by other companies, and as much as people don’t want to hear that it will strengthen their level of resolve).

Someone’s journey toward success in this or any other industry could take a much shorter amount of time or a much longer amount of time. No set amount of time can be placed on this sort of journey, but people will always find a significant amount of meaning in the journey and the way in which the process of their entire life unfolds before their eyes. For McIntyre the magic number was 19 years. No one can waste time overthinking the process of life, because then it is not enjoyed (which is the intention of life; if you’re not enjoying life then you are not doing it right. That’s the only thing I know for sure).

Now a face vs. heel match can take place at Survivor Series between Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns.

WWE SmackDown 11/20/2020

Drew McIntyre Becomes a Two-time WWE Champion