WWE Friday Night SmackDown recap for Nov. 1, 2019: NXT Takeover

This edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown saw an NXT Takeover, Bayley defending her title and Adam Cole versus Daniel Bryan for the NXT Championship.

The latest edition of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX was in a word, incredible. With WWE’s backs against the wall due to travel issues, they were forced to think fast and what they came up with was one of the most exciting and unpredictable episodes of SmackDown we have ever seen.

So let’s get right into it, shall we? This is the WWE Friday Night SmackDown recap for Nov. 1, 2019.

The Beast made it out of Saudi Arabia

SmackDown kicked off by talking about the travel problems returning from Thursday’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. Afterward, we are greeted to the commentary team of Tom Phillips, Aiden English and Renee Young. Almost immediately Brock Lesnar’s music hits as the Beast and Paul Heyman make their way to the ring.

Heyman let us all know that Brock is in a terrible mood, which we can only figure is because he wasn’t scheduled to be here to begin with. Heyman then goes to the ‘Tron to make his point about Cain Velasquez, and WWE then actually airs the entire Crow Jewel match between Lesnar and Velasquez. They do need to fill time.

After the match, they play the aftermath of Rey Mysterio attacking Lesnar with a chair and sending the champion packing, which is the reason why the champ is in such a bad mood. Heyman says Lesnar wants Mysterio but Vince McMahon told them no because Lesnar is exclusive to SmackDown and Mysterio is exclusive to Monday Night Raw.

This prompted Heyman to say that he and Lesnar would be heading to Raw on Monday night to go after Mysterio and he would like to see somebody stop them. Heyman then says that the two of them have quit SmackDown and will be at Raw on Monday and presumably permanently. The two then left the building as Triple H and Shawn Michaels looked on. So we guess our champion problem has been taken care of now that The Fiend is Universal Champion.

Bayley defends her championship against Nikki Cross

When the show returns from commercial break we get a WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship match as Bayley defends her title against Nikki Cross. This match was announced earlier in the day when the travel problems arose. Besides this, we haven’t be informed of any of the other matches scheduled heading into it.

These two women had a great match, which was to be expected. Of course, there was interference from Bayley’s best friend Sasha Banks, which set up a false finish where Cross kicked out of Bayley’s top rope elbow drop. This really got the crowd going for the rest of the matchup.

The finish once again saw interference from Banks which led Bayley hitting a new finishing move to get the pinfall victory on Cross. Afterward, NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler came through the crowd and laid out both Banks and Bayley. The crowd absolutely lost their minds. This was also a sign of things to come, ultimately giving us quite the surprising show.

Is NXT Taking Over SmackDown?

When SmackDown returned from commercial break, Pat McAfee replaced English on commentary. They then go backstage to Sami Zayn who talks about what NXT is doing showing up on SmackDown and he runs down the black and gold brand. Before he can dig himself too deep he is confronted by Matt Riddle and Keith Lee. He tries to back down and say how much he loves NXT and how he used to be the heart and soul of the black and gold brand.

He ends up running away from Lee and Riddle who catch him at ringside and corner him in the ring. Zayn tries to talk his way out of it, calling Riddle his “bro.” When he sees this isn’t going to work he tries to attack Riddle and gets a Bro Derek for his problems.

Lee then shows the WWE Universe why they call him “Limitless” with a moonsault off the second rope onto Zayn, laying him out. NXT is truly taking over the blue brand. This is a perfect lead up to Survivor Series that no one could have predicted 24 hours earlier.

Miz TV without Bray Wyatt

The Miz comes out to host Miz TV. He starts by talking about “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt who was supposed to be his guest. They show highlights from Crown Jewel with Wyatt defeating Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship.

Afterward, Miz says that Wyatt won’t be there; instead, The Miz would like to talk about the fact that NXT has been all over SmackDown. He runs down everything that has happened and before he could continue he was interrupted by Tommaso Ciampa. The Miz looks less-than-pleased as the former NXT Champion made his way to the ring.

Ciampa says that Miz TV is supposed to be “must-see” and that Miz is supposedly the most must-see WWE Superstar of all time but that it is instead Ciampa who is the world’s best sports entertainer. Ciampa tells Miz that he is everything that is wrong with both Raw and SmackDown.

Miz retorts that he knows exactly who Ciampa is and runs down his accolades. He said everyone has always wanted to see them go head-to-head on the microphone and he wishes Ciampa would have come at him with criticism that is more original. This ends up leading to a match.

Ciampa and the Miz are done talking

Luckily we didn’t miss any of the match during the commercial break as they waited to ring the bell until the show was back on the air. For a pairing that as far as we know have not only never met up in the ring together and most likely had next to no time to prepare, these two had a pretty good match.

The great thing about this show being in Buffalo is it seems the audience very much knows who all these NXT stars are. The crowd is treating them as a big deal and it helps convey to the audience at home who might be seeing these Superstars for the first time that they are all legitimate competitors and not from a second-class show.

The finish of the match saw Ciampa hit the Fairytale Ending to pick up the victory. Afterward, he was favoring his knee but it’s likely that he was just selling and not legitimately injured. Another injury would be a terrible thing for the Blackheart, who just returned from neck surgery two weeks ago.

One thing we need to point out is the incredible chemistry on commentary between McAfee and Young. These two need to be put together on a broadcast booth on a weekly basis. Let’s hope we hear more from both of them in the future.

The NXT Championship is on the line

Backstage, Daniel Bryan approached Triple H and HBK and has a stare-down with the both of them. Bryan wants to know what’s going on with all of this NXT business. Triple H says they were watching Crown Jewel on Thursday and noticed the Survivor Series ad that the three brands, and not just Raw and SmackDown, were going to war. So they decided to take action.

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Bryan said he wanted a fight and called out Triple H to wrestle who declined because he didn’t have his gear with him. Michaels teased that he would but ended up backing down, too. Triple H then brought in NXT Champion Adam Cole, leading to a staredown between he and Bryan.

Triple H asks if they want the match and Bryan says he does and that he wants it to be for the NXT Championship. Triple H and Cole agreed to Bryan’s request, giving us the main event for the evening.

Carmella and Brooke are unavailable

When SmackDown returned from commercial break, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville were in the ring waiting on their opponents, Carmella and Dana Brooke. Unfortunately, they are unable to arrive as they were taken out backstage by Bianca Belair.

Instead, Rose and Deville faced NXT’s Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox, who pretty much destroy Fire and Desire. This match wasn’t even close. It was at this point that Young started to paint the NXT brand as the heels in the situation. It will be interesting to see if that is the angle WWE is going to try to go with moving forward, considering that the NXT Superstars are the ones doing the “invading.”

It will difficult to make a majority of the audience, especially the fans that travel to pay-per-views, to boo the black and gold brand against the stars of Raw and SmackDown. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few weeks leading into Survivor Series.

The SmackDown main event is a dream match

Before the main event, Triple H and HBK head to ringside to be present for the main event between Cole and Bryan. Before the match, Stephanie McMahon also came out to put over the match between Natalya and Lacey Evans at Crown Jewel, an historic moment.

Judging by what time it was when Bryan made his way to the ring, it was clear we are going to get a lengthy match between he and Cole for the NXT Championship. Everything is set up for this to go down as one of the most memorable editions of SmackDown in history.

Cole came to the stage with NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong but Strong didn’t accompany him to ringside. Still, the threat of the Undisputed Era looms heavy over this main event.

The match was everything we hoped it would be. Cole and Bryan absolutely tore the house down in a competitive match from start to finish. The only spot we didn’t like was Bryan’s insistence to continue to break out the diving headbutt from the top rope. For his long term health and career, it would be better that he just removes that move from his arsenal.

The finish of the match saw Cole hit the Panama Sunrise followed by the Last Shot to retain the NXT Championship over Bryan. Afterward, everyone who was in the building from the black and gold brand came out and celebrated. Triple H hit the ring and said they have fired the first shot against SmackDown and Raw, which also leaves the door wide open for Raw and SmackDown to retaliate next week. Things are going to get interesting ahead of Survivor Series.

That wraps up for this week’s Friday Night SmackDown recap. It could seriously go down as one of the best episodes of SmackDown of all time. The road to Survivor Series just got windier. What did you think of SmackDown this week? What was your favorite match? Sound off in the comments section below!