WWE

WWE SmackDown served as a go-home show on Friday night representing the final bit of television ahead of Sunday's TLC pay-per-view. While there was little done by way of changes to the card, the rivalries topping the SmackDown side of the PPV did heat up. Most notably, Roman Reigns struck back at King Corbin and Dolph Ziggler after last week's dog food bath and Bray Wyatt severely violated the safety of The Miz's home.

Let's take a look at the action that went down from Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Friday night's SmackDown.

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Roman Reigns gets a taste of revenge 

Corbin and Ziggler opened the show with an in-ring promo, immediately gloating about smearing dog food all over the face and body of Reigns to close last week's SmackDown. Corbin promised to continue his impressive 2019 by taking out Reigns in their tables, ladders and chairs match at Sunday's TLC pay-per-view. Corbin also promised Reigns would receive a fate worse than last week should he show at the arena tonight. After stating it would be the dawning of a new day for SmackDown, New Day's music hit as Kofi Kingston and Big E entered the picture. Kingston said he found the dog food incident disrespectful and he did not like it before slapping Corbin. Corbin promised Kingston would get humiliated like Reigns before walking off. Kingston vs. Corbin was then set up to take place in the main event as Corbin and Ziggler walked to their locker room and found the security forces knocked out. They later found more security knocked out and planned to bring more security to guard him in the ring during his match with Kingston.

New Day def. King Corbin & Dolph Ziggler via disqualification: Corbin vs. Kingston ended in a no contest when it turned into a brawl between the two men and their seconds, leading to the sudden change to a tag match. When Big E was taken out during the match, Corbin broke out the handcuffs once again, locking up both of Kingston's hands as the referee called for the bell. Ziggler and Corbin hung Kingston from the ring post as they'd done to Reigns last week with The Revival emerging to help take out Big E. As Corbin grabbed a can of dog food, Reigns' music hit. He marched toward the ring, taking out security, Dawson, Wilder and Ziggler before Corbin was able to blindside him. Reigns hit a Superman Punch on Corbin before he could use the scepter. Ziggler and Reigns climbed a ladder at ringside, which "The Big Dog" used to put Ziggler through the announce table to end the show.

Reigns not getting his full revenge on Corbin makes sense given we're two days away from their TLC match, but he did get a measure of revenge on Ziggler. This show featured a lot of Corbin, however; too much, in my opinion. He was in lengthy segments to lead off and close the show with backstage segments throughout, and it contributed to the show feeling like a drag toward the end. But "too much Corbin" has felt like a steady issue for SmackDown since the move to Fox. We'll see if TLC can bring the Reigns vs. Corbin rivalry to an end, and I'm certainly hoping it does. That said, the matches here were solid and nothing was actively bad. Grade: B-

Bray Wyatt crosses the family line

The Miz was interviewed by Renee Young in his home to address the mental games played by Bray Wyatt last week on SmackDown. First, he addressed his newfound closeness with Daniel Bryan, saying he may not like Bryan but he does respect him and it's "finally time for Miz to do the right thing." He then said Wyatt crossed the line by bringing his family into the equation, and while Wyatt may "change people," he is already a changed man by being a father of two young girls. Unsurprisingly, Maryse began screaming from the other room only to show Miz a baby monitor with his daughter Monroe surrounded by the puppets from the "Firefly Funhouse" before Wyatt's face appeared on the monitor to say "let me in." When they ran into the nursery, the puppets were gone except for a single one remaining in the crib with his daughter.

After the interview segment ended, a new edition of "Firefly Funhouse" kicked off, with Wyatt claiming he was just trying to be nice because it's the holiday season. Wyatt said Miz's concern over Bryan left himself exposed and that Bryan is still "with him." Wyatt also said you can be trained to not feel pain and Miz can train himself to not feel love, and he's willing to teach him.

This isn't an entirely unique storyline given WWE has done home invasions -- or at least teases of it -- in the past. However, the supernatural elements of Wyatt do add some new wrinkles, and it's a fairly gutsy move to pull Bryan from the picture for weeks as a consequence of his run-in with "The Fiend" while Wyatt begins to target Miz and his family. And the touch of messing directly with Monroe while in her crib is sincerely creepy. Grade: B+

What else happened on SmackDown?

  • Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss def. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville via pinfall when Cross hit a neckbreaker on Deville. Deville and Rose attacked Cross and Bliss backstage prior to the start of the match. Referees separated the four women and the match then began, ending shortly after. Cross hit a neckbreaker on Deville to get the quick victory for her team.
  • Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro def. Heavy Machinery via pinfall after Nakamura hit Tucker with Kinshasa. Backstage, Otis and Tucker gave Sami Zayn a wrapped baked ham because Otis had pulled his name in Secret Santa. Zayn laid into Otis for giving a vegan a hunk of meat, causing the big man to pout until he was called a "dumb oaf." Cesaro and Nakamura showed up and smashed the ham on the ground before walking off. Heavy Machinery were in control of the match with Otis about to hit the Caterpillar before Zayn's interference caused a distraction. Cesaro dumped Otis from the ring before Tucker dumped Cesaro and then turned into the Kinshasa for the pinfall.
  • The Revival def. Shorty G & Mustafa Ali via pinfall with a Shatter Machine on Ali. Prior to the start of the match, it was announced Revival vs. New Day at TLC would now be a ladder match. This was four talented guys putting on a very good tag match. In the end, Revival caught Ali coming off the top rope and hit him with what amounted to a flying Shatter Machine for the win.
  • Bayley def. Dana Brooke via pinfall after attacking her knee. While Bayley cut a backstage promo discussing her recent issues with Lacey Evans, she was interrupted by a song from Elias with Dana Brooke looking on. After the customary Elias insults, Brooke was called out by Bayley for laughing, leading to a match. There wasn't much to the match, with Bayley winning fairly quickly to continue down the road to a showdown with Evans.