Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes come face-to-face, Rhea Ripley VS Liv Morgan
This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Before he could really say anything, Cody Rhodes’ music hit and the American Nightmare came down to the ring. Roman told Paul Heyman, Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa to leave leaving the two WrestleMania opponents in the ring alone. Roman talked about his respect for the American Dream Dusty Rhodes before he took a few shots at his latest challenger. This ended with Cody Rhodes saying it was now a necessity for him to win at WrestleMania before the two shook hands. I thought both men did really well here and I’m intrigued to see where WWE is going to go from here.
Grade: B
Rhea Ripley then made her way down to the ring as she was about to take on her former tag team partner Liv Morgan. I thought this match was pretty decent where both women showcased how far they’ve come in the past 12 months. Some of the moves that Liv Morgan hit were particularly impressive and she came close to picking up the victory over the woman who eliminated her last at the Royal Rumble. However, as Liv dived off the top rope, Ripley caught her mid-air and slammed her down with a Powerbomb before the 2023 Women’s Royal Rumble winner hit the Riptide. However, she didn’t go for the pin and she instead tapped out Morgan with a submission move she used back in NXT. I thought this was also done well.
Grade: B-
Santos Escobar VS Dominik Mysterio, the IC Title Scene, Shayna Baszler VS Tegan Nox
We cut backstage to the Bloodline to hear that Roman Reigns was losing his patience with Jimmy Uso, not Jey. Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio were then walking backstage and Santos Escobar came up to them and said he’s going to teach Dom a lesson in the ring right now. The next thing on the show was then a match between the two. This match was solid and Santos Escobar was being cheered like he’s Sami Zayn, mainly due to everyone’s distain at Dominik Mysterio. It was a pretty even contest until Dom got out a pair of brass knuckles. The referee stopped him from using them, but this allowed Rhea Ripley to deliver a Riptide onto Escobar on the floor before Mysterio picked up the win with a Frog Splash. Dom then ripped up the mask that Rey Mysterio gave to the Emperor of Lucha Libre before Dominik’s father came out. Rey still refuses to attack his son and when he went to pick up the mask, Evil Mysterio wrecked his father from behind. Once again, this furthered the story well.
Grade: B-
Sami Zayn made it crystal clear that he won’t stop until the Bloodline crumble before Drew McIntyre made his way down to the ring and challenged Gunther to an Intercontinental Championship match. Sheamus then made his way down to the ring and he was not happy at his friend challenging the Ring General given the fact that the Celtic Warrior had expressed his desire to challenge Gunther at WrestleMania. The Megastar LA Knight then arrived and he’s great before the New Day came out to do more of the same as what they did last week. Karrion Kross then arrived and after a bit of a scuffle, the former 2-time NXT Champion was the one standing tall. I thought this was a totally fine segment and I really hope this leads to a ladder match to kick off WrestleMania 39.
Grade: C+
After a backstage clip that showed both Ronda Rousey and Natalya getting hurt, we got a match between Shayna Baszler and Tegan Nox. This already started badly before the match started as neither competitor came out to their own music which is infuriating. The match itself then saw Shayna dominate Nox before she picked up a submission victory. I’m really torn over the booking of this match. Tegan Nox is one of my favourite competitors in WWE and this match made her look really crap. However, it made Shayna Baszler look like the dominant heel that she should be. We then have to throw in the fact that I was annoyed on Raw because WWE didn’t book Piper Niven this way so if I’m being fair, this was ok.
Grade: C
Bobby Lashley arrives on SmackDown, Sami Zayn VS Solo Sikoa
Gunther cut a promo backstage where he was furious about what’s going on with his championship before Bobby Lashley arrived on Friday Night SmackDown. Bobby said he’s had enough of Bray Wyatt’s “kid's games” before he was interrupted by Uncle Howdy who tried to attack him. However, this didn’t work and as it looked like Bobby was going to spear Howdy, the lights went off and when they came back on, Wyatt’s Uncle was nowhere to be seen. This was a segment that I can’t really review as it was so short.
Jimmy Uso then went to Roman Reigns backstage and told Roman that Jey had said to leave him the hell alone. He then told his cousin to go out there with Solo Sikoa and end Sami Zayn because if that happens, Jey will come home. After Jimmy left, the Tribal Chief made it clear to Paul Heyman that if Jey Uso isn’t back in the Bloodline next week, he’s holding Jimmy accountable. This then lead into the main event of the evening as Sami Zayn took on the Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa. These two know each other well so they were able to put on a solid contest that was more about the story. When Zayn looked like he was in a position to win, Jimmy Uso tripped him up and this allowed Solo to pick up the win with the Samoan Spike. After the match, Solo was going to injure Sami for good before Jimmy decided he wanted to do it himself. This allowed Zayn to get back to his feet, throw a chair into Sikoa’s face and deliver a Helluva Kick to Jimmy Uso before he escaped into the crowd. This was a good way to keep Solo undefeated, have Sami end the night on top and further the tension between Roman Reigns and Jimmy Uso.
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