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From Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre's contract signing segment to several other RAW Superstars appearing on the Blue brand, this week's edition of WWE SmackDown featured many contrasting moments.
The go-home episode of SmackDown before Survivor Series had a few questionable booking blunders made throughout the show. The Blue brand generally puts on better episodes than the Red brand each week, but the credit goes to RAW for doing a better job this week.
That being said, SmackDown did include some good moments that were sprinkled in bits and pieces, and it wasn't a bad episode at all, it's just that it could have been a better one as a whole.
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Which show was better this week, RAW or SmackDown? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Here are the five biggest news stories from this week's episode of WWE SmackDown (November 20, 2020).
#5: Sami Zayn engaged in some smack talk about The Undertaker on WWE SmackDown
While teams like The Street Profits and The New Day paid their respective tributes to The Undertaker at the beginning of the show, a skeptical Sami Zayn interrupted New Day along with three other heel Superstars.
Zayn brilliantly annoyed everyone by bringing up that The Undertaker's retirement is only an excuse to prevent the Intercontinental Champion from dominating The Deadman, but he did speak the truth with regards to focusing on the matches instead of The Phenom's Final Farewell at Survivor Series. Sami Zayn is truly the Larry David of WWE, isn't he?
An impromptu eight-man tag team match was made official, as Zayn teamed up with King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode to face The New Day and Street Profits.
While Zayn intentionally kept himself out of this match, he ended up getting pinned by The Street Profits at the end. This was certainly an unusual booking decision.
Perhaps Zayn was booked to take the pin so that there is added conflict when it comes to the chasm of in-ring strength between Bobby Lashley and Sami Zayn, just before their clash at Survivor Series.
Could The Undertaker confront Sami Zayn at WWE Survivor Series 2020 based on the comments Zayn made on this week's SmackDown?
#4: Sasha Banks appeared in a strange face-to-face confrontation with Asuka on WWE SmackDown
The buildup to Sasha Banks and Asuka's clash was inevitably delayed because of Bank's storylines with Bayley and Carmella. Finally, the WWE SmackDown Women's Champion was featured in a face-to-face segment with the RAW Women's Champion, Asuka, and it ended up being a strange confrontation for several reasons.
Asuka made some jokes by impersonating Road Dogg and John Cena, which is in line with Asuka's bizarre comedy character, but it just didn't fit within the context of her rivalry with Sasha Banks, heading into WWE Survivor Series. The parts where she spoke in Japanese worked the most.
As for Sasha Banks, she has been established as a babyface as a result of her feud with Bayley. But The Legit Boss displayed some heel characteristics just because of her storyline with Asuka. This was a weird contrast since Banks got jumped by Carmella for the third consecutive time, which immediately reminded everyone that the SmackDown Women's Champion is a babyface when it comes to feuding with Carmella.
Asuka didn't help Banks in any capacity before Survivor Series. Both Sasha Banks and Asuka have great in-ring chemistry with each other, so their match at WWE's upcoming pay-per-view should be a good one regardless of the buildup.
#3: Bayley and Natalya became the final two members of the women's WWE SmackDown Survivor Series team; Otis announced as the final member of the men's SmackDown team, instead of Big E
It's a mystery why WWE chose to include Otis - someone who has already lost his opportunity - on Team SmackDown instead of Big E, who has been impressive on the Blue brand in recent memory.
Apparently, Adam Pearce has the power to make such decisions in a kayfabe capacity, but he can only pick one member on either team for WWE SmackDown. Over on the Red brand, Pearce did pick the majority of the RAW women's Survivor Series team, but the rules are supposedly different when it comes to the Blue brand, for some reason.
Before this week, Natalya had lost multiple opportunities to qualify for Team SmackDown, but she made it in at the last minute thanks to her victory over Tamina. After the match, it looked like the women over on SmackDown were more united in comparison to RAW.
Even the men on the Red brand haven't managed to co-exist together, but if united together, they hold a great advantage over the men from SmackDown at Survivor Series 2020.
#2: Murphy overcame his former messiah, Seth Rollins, in what could be the definite end to their storyline on WWE SmackDown
Over these past few months, Rey Mysterio's WWE feud against Seth Rollins gradually evolved into a family drama storyline involving the Mysterio family, but one thing it succeeded in was to establish two other in-ring athletes such as Dominik Mysterio and Murphy.
Seth Rollins faced his former disciple in a one-on-one match on WWE SmackDown, as Murphy was flanked by Aalyah, Rey, and Dominik Mysterio this week.
After a good back-and-forth battle between Rollins and Murphy, the latter managed to hit Murphy's Law for the victory, celebrating his triumph with the Mysterios to end this storyline for the night.
Most WWE fans knew that Rollins was going to put Murphy over sooner rather than later. These plans were accelerated because Rollins probably needs to take some time off since Becky Lynch is expected to give birth to their first child soon.
As for Murphy, the man himself has talked about future plans on the Blue brand after overcoming the threat of Seth Rollins. That story can be read here.
#1: Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre face-off in an excellent contract signing segment on WWE SmackDown; Daniel Bryan defeats Jey Uso in the main event
When contract signings in WWE don't end with a massive brawl, there has to be a specific reason behind it. In this case, Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre have evolved beyond the point of taking part in standard brawls as a result of some trash talk.
Drew McIntyre stepped into Roman Reigns' show as the man of the week after winning the WWE Championship on Monday Night RAW. What he didn't know was that Roman Reigns was going to cut a promo that would instantly overshadow McIntyre's momentum heading into Survivor Series.
Reigns said that McIntyre has been the right guy at the right place at the wrong time, all along. This is similar to the position Reigns was in as a babyface when stars like Brock Lesnar were at the top of the food chain.
Roman Reigns took an overarching look at the company's current landscape and predicted that the current WWE Champion will thank him for the lessons he taught Drew McIntyre, and Reigns will love him right back when that day will come in the future. But as of now, McIntyre will always be Reigns' 'favorite number two' in WWE.
The Tribal Chief spoke like a true mafia boss, and the contract signing segment was enough to get fans excited for Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre's clash at WWE Survivor Series 2020.
Meanwhile, WWE has already started building towards Reigns' feud after Survivor Series is over. Daniel Bryan defeated Jey Uso in the main event of this week's SmackDown, and Bryan may come after The Tribal Chief's Universal title next.
Do catch Sportskeeda Wrestling experts Rick Ucchino and Denise Salcedo as they share their thoughts on all that went down during last night's WWE SmackDown in the video linked above.
