Talking Smack is now legit with Sasha Banks!

The 2020 WWE Draft is coming, but so is a match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship! What does The Boss, the Blueprint, the Standard, have to say about it all?

Kayla Braxton welcomes us back!

Clash of Champions was eventful, but the WWE Draft is coming, and there was a lot that happened on Friday Night SmackDown dealing with both of them! But Xavier Woods can’t be here, so instead, Kayla’s cohost is the Guru of Greatness, the Shaman of Sexy! It’s JOHN MORRISON! Well, him and his fan guy, as in the guy who brings the fan that blows Morrison’s hair for his slow-mo entrance. Kayla doesn’t have a fan guy? She wants a fan guy. Maybe Morrison can get her this guy’s contact. No, she’s gotta get her own fan guy. That’d be like sharing kick pad makers, it’s just not right. Well, welcome and happy birthday, Morrison!

Kayla knows Morrison loves “parkour arts,” so wouldn’t he just love to do that in the ThunderDome. Yes, he’d love to use his “parkour arts.” But the lights might distract. There’s just so much stuff happening in there. Morrison might be easily excited. Speaking of exciting, The Speed of Time, great movie. Now, obviously he and Miz are a team, but if Morrison could team up with his future self, would he? As someone who believes strongly in self-love, yes. You gotta love yourself before you can properly love another. Speaking of love, Kayla loves Halloween, and that makes things Spooky Season. Morrison doesn’t want to talk about spooky. He wants to talk about show notes. He doesn’t have some. Someone hands him notes and now he’s fine.

Kayla gets back to The Fiend and Alexa Bliss. Kevin Owens tried to get to the bottom of it, but that didn’t work out. Kayla pulls a “made you look” on Morrison, he legit thought a puppet or something was gonna be behind him. But yes, Alexa told Kevin to #LetHimIn, and The Fiend went right after Kevin! Alexa was probably the only one watching that enjoyed it. Morrison was unsettled by Alexa just sitting there. What is it that draws her to The Fiend? Maybe Alexa doesn’t even know. Broken brain maybe? No, she’s very intelligent. That doesn’t mean she can’t be off. She’s scary right now! Drawn to the Fiend, who knows why? Does he take showers? We’d hope so, he keeps shoving his hand in mouths… But you can’t wash hair and have dreads like those.

That all aside, Clash of Champions. The first guest didn’t get things to happen the way he wanted, but he has a win over AJ Styles and a rematch with Roman Reigns coming!

Jey Uso joins Talking Smack!

Jey isn’t in the best of moods, considering everything that’s happened. Morrison admits he likes joking around, but at the end of Clash, it was awkward for everyone to even watch. Morrison has family, and he knows how hard it must be for family to end up like that. He just wants Jey to know that was a powerful moment that night. Kayla asks how Jey is doing. Jey doesn’t speak. Morrison says he was gone 8 years, but when he returned, the Usos made him feel welcomed. Morrison doesn’t remember Roman saying hi at once. That’s not who Roman is anymore. He’s gotten dark. Jey says Roman is acting different these days. Real different. Morrison knows Roman has that fancy bus with the AC, but it makes sense, they’re in Florida.

Kayla says the Hell in a Cell match for the Universal Championship is on, IN the Cell. Roman said this will have “the highest stakes” in WWE history, what does Jey feel that might be? He shakes his head because he doesn’t know. Morrison ask a serious question about Roman. “Have you ever seen your cousin with dry hair?” Okay not that serious. Roman’s hair is always wet. Jey can’t help but smirk at that one. Jey admits, he hasn’t seen dry Roman. Is that what’s helping him stay on top? It’s like a superpower! Kayla admits this is getting off topic.

How did Jey feel after Jimmy threw in the towel? Jey says that’s for another time. Everyone saw what happened. Roman says Jey disrespected him and the family, but Roman was the one disrespecting and embarrassing Jey. Roman hit a nerve. “Uce, you hit a real nerve. All this right here, we know what it is. But you, Joe. You hit a real nerve, Uce.” Jey will see him in that cell. So Jey will not call Roman the Tribal Chief? Jey takes his leave, and that’s answer enough.

Morrison says Big Dog going from His Yard to the Chief and His Island. That seems weird. But how would he feel if Miz threw in the towel for Morrison? He’d feel bad, but if Morrison was in that same position, he’d throw the towel, too. “It’s like sometimes in boxing, in fighting, you see the wings getting picked off a butterfly and you know what’s gonna happen. But Jey never gave up.” And he isn’t now. Roman has his hands full now.  Speaking of a relationship that’s turned sour…

Sasha Banks joins Talking Smack!

Kayla is pleased to see Sasha and Sasha is thankful to be here. It took everything to be back here. She wasn’t cleared even for Clash, but she’s here to tell Bayley what she has in store for her. But where is that coward? Not anywhere near here. Bayley tried to end Sasha’s career! Morrison says this storied history makes it even more personal. This isn’t just someone new or an enemy. This was someone who was a close friend. Does Sasha have any ideas as to why Bayley has changed? Kayla brings up what Bayley said herself. “Do you think I’m some sort of idiot? Who knows you better than me? Nobody!” Sasha was the one waiting and pretending, but Bayley was ready because she was using Sasha, too.

Sasha says the whole “using” part was true. Bayley has always needed Sasha. Bayley can’t do this without Sasha. The magazines, the following, the interviews, the star power. Sasha is a star! But that’s not what hurt Sasha. It was after all of these years of friendship, how they knew each other before getting signed, Sasha believed in Bayley before everyone else. And Bayley believed in Sasha, too. Bayley can “use” Sasha all she wants, but she should remember that she’s NOTHING without Sasha! Bayley tired to end Sasha because she knows she could never beat her. Next week, it isn’t even really about the title! Sasha is coming to end Bayley! And that’s all Sasha needs to say before leaving. But what else could be said?

Morrison thought Bayley was a hugger, not a fighter. But the war on social media has been even fiercer. Morrison thought Talking Smack was supposed to be fun. Well what changed on the show? Oh, she’s blaming Morrison? She’s calling him Buzz Killington? No, just… Well, this final guest is far from that. A fantastic Clash of Champions, a really good Friday Night, it’s the UNDISPUTED Intercontinental Champion!

Sami Zayn joins Talking Smack!

Morrison doesn’t know how to dance to Ska, but he doesn’t have to because Sami can! Didn’t it feel good to get it out, Kayla? No hesitation, no BS, just the respect Sami deserves. To be honest, it was great to hear, so thanks. Kayla wants to ask this right away to have a good mood. Sami’s in a great mood! Yes, he proved himself, congrats. But the two matches, Clash and Friday Night SmackDown, Sami had a plan. Kayla is asking on behalf of others. Isn’t that all cheating? Right, those words are not from her, right? Someone in her headset, right? But where and how did he cheat? The buckle pad on SmackDown…

Is she not familiar with the rule book? Tell him where, if at all, it says he can’t do something to the ring before the bell even rings. He didn’t do anything, Hardy just happened to hit the bare buckle! It worked out in his favor, but hey! This happens a lot, and this is not a shot at Kayla, but sometimes those who lack intellect can’t understand strategy on a certain level, so they get reductionist and call it “cheating.” But it’s not! It was brilliant! Morrison says he’s been in the ring with Hardy. There is nothing in the book, but at the end of a match, the winner is the winner. Fine, not “cheating,” but isn’t it questionable to use handcuffs in a ladder match? Again, Kayla is having a hard time getting around the advance strategies Sami uses.

This is not to be mean, it’s just that the level of intelligence in the locker room is not always on Sami’s. No one is used to that level of depth and complexity. But Sami is “wowing” a lot of people. And speaking of Clash of Champions, some people have called Sami “genius.” Not a single rule was broken! That’s how a Triple Threat and a Ladder match work. You can’t say it’s fine to use a ladder as a weapon but not bring a pair of handcuffs. Yes, that’s right. You can’t disqualify one person, because then who wins? It’s about working within the framework. Kayla says it’s an uneven playing field. Morrison says it was just thinking outside the box that’s outside the box, inside the ThunderDome, in the world.

Kayla moves things to throwing away Hardy’s title belt and being very smug about it. We all know Hardy is a future Hall of Fame inductee, so how could Sami be so disrespectful? Morrison focuses on how Sami is big into recycling, yet he threw that belt in the trash. Yes, Morrison is right. Sami doesn’t like leather all that much, either. But that was not disrespectful. It was disrespectful for Hardy to have that belt in the first place. Sami’s said this before, he’s brought up etiquette and so the right thing to do would have been to call Sami, reached out to him, and said WWE did Sami dirty. If Hardy had decorum, he would’ve vacated the sham title, asked Sami for a match for THE title, and there you go.

But no, Hardy did not do that. So Sami got rid of that belt, it’s in the trash and forgotten, “may the UNDISPUTED Intercontinental Champion live long and…” Prosper? Sami realized where he was going with that, then admires his reflection in the gold. Sami heads out as Morrison admits he does that all the time in the mirror. Kayla thanks us for tuning in, again wishes Morrison happy birthday, and Morrison is ready to party!

My Thoughts:

A quick episode but a fun one. Jey had great intensity to carry over from SmackDown, and I like that he even called Roman by his real name to make this feel even more personal. The Draft is coming but I would think Fox/SmackDown preserves their match by choosing Roman first and the Usos second so that all three are still on the same show. Sasha had her own great intensity, and I think she properly explained herself from her promo on SmackDown. She was more upset by how Bayley threw their friendship away and tried to claim they were never friends at all, and that makes sense. Even with past times where they were enemies, they came back together as friends at some point, but now it’s taken an even darker turn for Bayley.

Sami was also good, though he again repeated what he said, but his new material about how it’s not cheating when it’s outside of the bell-to-bell, and there are no disqualifications in the first place. And that’s very true, and is basically a time honored tradition in pro-wrestling. Sami is getting very creative, and I do look forward what he tries next. As I said in the SmackDown article, I feel like SmackDown is going to keep Sami since Raw will keep Hurt Business and the US Championship. Otherwise it screws up the parts of each show that are actually working really well.