The first Talking Smack of 2021 is GLORIOUS!

After wrecking the Street Profits’ New Year Smoketacular, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode want to talk some smack! What will they say about their 2021 plans?

Kayla Braxton welcomes us back to the show!

A Happy New Year to us all, and SmackDown had a great start to 2021! Paul Heyman’s handkerchief- Um, no, this is a pocket square. Sorry, the pocket square matches Kayla’s lipstick so this show is already off to a great start, too. Kayla doesn’t understand male fashion sometimes. Women’s suits don’t have things like pockets. Did she get hers from the Freddie Blassie estate? Does she not like Blassie? Does she know who he is? Kayla moves on to the show, and talks New Year’s Resolutions. Has Heyman made any?

What an interesting question. Heyman is oddly surprised, but says he has made resolutions. “More ambitious opponents for the Universal Champion, Roman Reigns, unlike Kevin Owens, because Kevin Owens is handcuffed, pun intended, to mediocrity.” That will be Kevin’s legacy: mediocrity. And he has no one to blame but himself! Kevin could’ve been great, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and a legend in the business, but he messed with the wrong Big Dog and got bit. “Kevin Owens just doesn’t learn.”

Heyman uses an old saying that’s pretty much everywhere, and one of the best lines not written by Heyman. To paraphrase, “If you come at your Tribal Chief, you best not miss. Kevin Owens missed. Whiffed. Struck out.” And now Kevin will learn his legacy is not as a great, not as a legend, though it should’ve been. Kevin’s legacy will be as someone who came up against Roman Reigns and learned the most painful lesson of all: The Island of Relevancy belongs to Roman Reigns, and Kevin Owens is just not welcomed. Powerful words, and another powerful ending to SmackDown. Kayla is hoping Kevin makes a speedy recovery. Kayla knows Jey Uso is a guest tonight and she has some hard-hitting questions. Is she saying Jey’s not man enough to answer them? We’ll have to wait and see.

Now, Carmella pinned Sasha Banks on SmackDown and could get another title shot, while Daniel Bryan and Otis beat Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. Bryan is planning to win the Royal Rumble, is a fan favorite at this point, but perhaps he could take it all. Heyman says everyone wants to win and take on Roman Reigns. The Rock, Daniel Bryan, whoever. In or out of WWE, you are paying attention to the single biggest star in this industry. If you’re not zeroing in on Roman during WrestleMania season, then you’re not ambitious enough. But use Kevin Owens as an example of what could happen if you try to take from the Tribal Chief. Time will tell, but now it’s time for our first guests!

Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode join Talking Smack!

The Dirty Dawgs are back on Talking Smack, and Heyman accuses Kayla of using Ziggler’s ringtone joke. But Kayla says that while there was a brutal attack to end SmackDown, Roode & Ziggler also brutally attacked the Street Profits. They said that they’re going after the tag team titles one way or another. Kayla is breaking the news right here, the Profits have accepted the challenger, and the title match is happening next Friday! Ziggler says this is very deserved. And Ziggler apologizes for how intense he and Roode were in that backstage interview because they were angry with the Profits.

The Profits have been skating by. They’re well liked and entertaining. But say you were at some other job, like a regional manager at some company, and you were being told you were the best, you want to move up, but they can’t lose you at the position you’re in. So that means you need to do something on your own, out of the box, what you’re “destined” to do. That is what they did to the Profits tonight. Roode says that what happened tonight was deserved. How many times do the Dirty Dawgs have to be the butt of the joke? It’s all about fun and putting smiles on faces. The Profits are one of the best teams at that.

But that’s not what Roode and Ziggler are about. They’re about being the best, being the top of the card. The attack was well-deserved. Kayla apologizes for her wording of saying it was “unprovoked.” She is a fan of the Profits, but she can understand the jokes they were making at Ziggler’s expense would be upsetting. Of course. Shawn Michaels has been compared to Ziggler a lot in their careers, and ever since Ziggler invented the Superkick, that doesn’t just mean the character they live their lives upon any less. “If you’re awesome at something, you get compared.” Maybe one day when Ziggler is retired and feeble, working behind the scenes, people will compare others to Ziggler.

But that’s not now. Right now, Ziggler and Roode do what they want when they want. And this wasn’t unprovoked. They’re sick of being the butts of jokes, they’re here to show everyone how damn good they are. Kayla brings up how Heyman admires and respects the Profits, but with Ziggler & Roode going after the titles, what predictions will he make? Heyman does not make predictions, he gives spoilers, but there are no spoilers here because he has no inside word.

But Heyman is a fan of the Profits, and with respect to Roode & Ziggler, the attack was neither provoked or deserved, but it was successful. It got the Profits to give Ziggler & Roode the championship match, which is what they wanted. If you want to complain about it, don’t blame them, blame Adam Pearce or whoever makes matches around here for rewarding the ruthlessness of the challengers. And now the Profits are going to be on the downside of another beating because they only have six days to prepare for a very capable tag team.

Kayla asks what the New Year’s Resolution is for Ziggler & Roode, but it’s obvious that it’s to be tag team champions. Ziggler says Kayla steals milk, jokes, resolutions, maybe she’ll be taking the titles instead. Maybe Heyman will be her tag partner. Ziggler says it’s always a treat being on this show, and they head out.

Billie Kay joins Talking Smack!

The Femme Fatale has her resume and headshot as she scoots in next to Mr. Paul Heyman. They shake hands, she wishes everyone Happy New Year’s, and then hands her resume over. How many of those has she printed out? Careful having that on camera, people might see that. Billie has a pen from Corey Graves that she’ll use to update some things, too. Kayla asks about the confusion on SmackDown. Billie couldn’t/didn’t find a tag team partner for her match but Tamina and Natalya teamed up instead. Somehow this was part of her plan? But then she switches sides to be with the winners, the Riott Squad. What is the plan?

First off, great recap. Then, Billie says she has experience as both a tag team partner and a manager, so she wanted to offer help wherever she can. Whether that’s Riott Squad, Natty & Tamina, or someone else entirely, that’s what she’ll do. Does she know what “hopping on the bandwagon” means? That’s what that felt like. Oh, right, okay. But NO, and Billie doesn’t appreciate what Kayla is implying, as well as the tone of how she’s saying it. So sassy in 2021! New year, new Kayla, apparently. But Billie shows off her new shirt, Shades of Kay. Zoom in, get this on WWE Shop. Numerous quantities to Heyman. Kayla says Billie is great and is excited to see what 2021 holds, so what is her resolution?

Billie has a few in the works. But first, she wants to be a two-time Women’s Tag Team Champion and that would solidify her. She wants to work towards that, and she just signed up for gymnastics lessons to learn how to do the splits. She might be even more agile and flexible now. Well that’s great! Wasn’t another resolution being on WWE’s The Bump? That’s happening, not that Kayla knew, but Matt Camp made it happen. Billie will thank Camp, not Kayla. But they can talk about this more on The Bump. Billie is in high demand, and has to get going.

Jey Uso joins Talking Smack!

Heyman and Jey shake hands and bring it in, and Heyman tells Jey how proud he is of him. Jey takes his seat and Kayla asks if it’s alright, she wants to dive into the pretty serious questions she has, and she is sure the fans have. This is a warning that some questions might not be to their liking, but she hopes they answer the best that they can. Did she write these herself? Yes. Jey says fire away. Kayla starts with, “Every time Roman Reigns has successfully defended his Universal title, it’s because you’ve interfered.” The question is, does the credit of this reign go to Roman or to Jey? Jey says that that’s a very simple question to answer.

But Heyman wants to say his part as just the cohost, not as the Special Counsel to Roman Reigns, he is an associate and friend with the entire family since he was 15 years old. He’s known the family longer than Roman and Jey were born. So though Heyman isn’t Special Counsel, but if he was, he would advise Jey that with that question, respectfully plead the fifth. The fifth? Wow, yeah, that’s smart. Fifth Amendment! Heyman apologizes to Kayla and promises to sit the rest of these out. He also apologizes to the rest of the Talking Smack crew, this is Kayla’s moment and we have 51 more weeks to do. Heyman will stay quiet.

Kayla asks Jey answer this next one then. “On SmackDown, Kevin Owens clearly got the upper-hand over you until Roman came out. Do you truly believe that your individual success is because of your talent? Or by the power yielded by your cousin, Roman Reigns?” Jey says “coming up from the sandbox,” this is real. Heyman breaks his promise and speaks up, praising how great of a question that was from Kayla. Heyman pokes fun but damn it, Kayla, Charly, the other lady who isn’t here anymore, all of them together, Kayla is the best! How Kayla isn’t District Attorney somewhere…! Oh, and plead the fifth.

Kayla says this should probably just stop if this is going to continue. Jey apologizes, and promises Paul won’t speak this time. Jey puts it on his family, he is here to answer questions. But Kayla is going to address them both. She respects them both, and wishes they would do the same. Heyman apologizes and takes his earpiece out. Kayla just wants to do her job with the best questions she can come up with and hopes for answers. She is a professional, so maybe they’ll just cut this short. Jey says everyone needs to chill. Heyman turns around and Kayla asks her third question. But we’re running short on time…

Jey says that was excellent! Why do they call Jey “Main Event Uso?” Call McIntyre, because Jey got him! Call Bryan, because Jey got him! Call Kevin, because if you watched SmackDown, “GOTEEEEM!”

My Thoughts:

A pretty fast moving Talking Smack with a very good ending. Ziggler and Roode showing up seemed like a formality, there wasn’t much more that needed to be said, but it was great to have breaking news in that segment. I feel like if there’s any time for the Dirty Dawgs to take those titles, it’s this next attempt, or else they don’t look like a strong tag team at all. You can only come close to winning so many times, so they need to win to help bring things further along into the year and towards the Royal Rumble. Billie’s segment was fun, but not much was said other than Billie has some strange master plan that she probably hasn’t even fully created.

Jey’s segment was probably the best, because nothing much was said. Heyman was of course going to keep Jey from answering those prying questions Kayla had, not that Jey would speak ill against Roman at this point anyway. This segment did a lot to add to Jey’s character given his interaction with Heyman, and how fired up he was listing off who he went after on behalf of Roman. I feel like they should have Jey Uso enter the Rumble just so he can make sure someone from SmackDown doesn’t win. And he can just shout “GOTEEE!” with every elimination he pulls off, until whoever it is that will win throws him out. It could even be Jey and Bryan as the last two to tease it being between Finger Poke of Doom 2021 or a real match of Roman VS Bryan.