Intercontinental Championship: Gunther VS Braun Strowman
Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with the Intercontinental Championship on the line as Gunther looked to retain against Braun Strowman. As expected, this was a hard-hitting affair between two of the toughest and biggest men in all of WWE. At some points during the match, Braun Strowman showed his ridiculous strength by picking up the Ring General and dropping him to the mat. Later on in the match, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci came out to try and help Gunther, but he just wasn’t able to get the win. As the two were fighting on the top rope, Gunther targeted the Monster’s injured shoulder before he powerbombed him off the top rope to get the victory. This was the best Braun has looked in a long time whilst Gunther is fully cementing himself as one of the greatest Intercontinental Champions in history.
Grade: B
Karrion Kross interrupts Rey Mysterio, Xia Li VS Tegan Nox
Sami Zayn was walking backstage before he knocked on the door of the Bloodline. Paul Heyman came out and told him that he was the only one there as Roman Reigns said he wanted Sami Zayn to deal with Kevin Owens “on his own”. Rey Mysterio then came out and talked about how he didn’t have a “very merry Christmas” because of everything that happened with Dominik Mysterio. Rey was then interrupted by Karrion Kross who came down to the ring and questioned why Rey was such a bad father. This angered Mysterio to the point where he attacked Kross, but as he was going for the 619, Scarlett tripped him up and this allowed Karrion to lock in the Kross Jacket to send his newest rival to sleep. This was a fine segment and it should lead to a big win for Karrion Kross in two weeks.
Grade: C+
Liv Morgan was in the women’s locker room with Emma and Maxxine Dupri and they both questioned Morgan’s reasons for wanting to enter the Woman’s Royal Rumble match first. Raquel Rodriguez then walked into shot and told Liv that a person of her size would have a much better chance of winning the rumble from number 30. Liv didn’t like this comment so she slapped Rodriguez across the face before they both agreed to a match for later on in the show. Xia Li was then out as she was about to go one-on-one with Tegan Nox. Xia Li cost Tegan the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships about a month ago and she also beat her in the women’s gauntlet match so Nox really needed to pick up the victory. That did happen as Nox hit the Shiniest Wizard for the victory. I’m a big fan of Tegan so I’m happy that she won and both she and Li looked pretty decent in the short time they were on tv.
Grade: C
Bray Wyatt’s back? Raquel Rodriguez VS Liv Morgan
After we saw a video of the Viking Raiders attacking Drew McIntyre and Sheamus after SmackDown went off the air last week, the Viking Raiders and Valhalla made it clear that they are going to finish McIntyre and Sheamus. We then cut back to Adam Pearce’s office and whilst the Scottish Warrior wanted the Raiders in a match tonight, the Celtic Warrior was way more interested in getting a rematch with the Usos. Adam Pearce told them both that from next week, there will be a tag team tournament to determine the number 1 contenders for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. He then told Drew and Sheamus that they would be in the tournament and their first match would be against the Viking Raiders. Bray Wyatt’s music then hit and he did his whole entrance before he cut a promo about how he is the Eater of Worlds. He was also sitting on his old rocking chair before he told LA Knight to run. The old Bray Wyatt intro thing then ran so it looks like Bray is going back to his old character which I much prefer to the character he has “played” since he came back to WWE.
Grade: B
Kevin Owens was being interviewed by Kayla Braxton before he was quickly interrupted by Sami Zayn. Sami asked Kevin why he couldn’t have just left him alone on SmackDown before Owens responded with “you guys came over to Raw”. Zayn then told KO that he and the Bloodline are family, something Owens doesn’t understand. These guys are so good. Imperium were then in the trainers' room and Gunther said he was delighted to overcome his biggest challenge yet. He then said he was going to enter the Royal Rumble, win the whole thing and go on to main event WrestleMania. I’d like that. It was then time for Liv Morgan to face Raquel Rodriguez in singles action. Both Morgan and Rodriguez are two of the biggest faces in the women’s division and they are also two of the main people on the whole of Friday Night SmackDown. Both women performed well in this match, but in the end, Raquel picked up the win after hitting the Chingona Bomb onto Liv. I expect these two to be two of the main pillars in this year's Women’s Royal Rumble match.
Grade: C+
Kevin Owens VS Sami Zayn
Sonya Deville was backstage and she requested that she gets a rematch with Charlotte Flair. When Adam Pearce said no, Deville said that she would find some way to get it. When we came back from the ad break, Sonya Deville attacked Charlotte before WWE officials and referees had to break it up. This was a pretty smart way for Deville to get a rematch with Flair. It was then time for the main event of the evening as the “Prizefighter” Kevin Owens took on the “Honorary Uce” Sami Zayn. KO and Sami have wrestled each other hundreds of times so you knew this was going to be good. The number of times Zayn dropped Owens on his head was ridiculous and Sami’s Blue Thunder Bomb was brilliant. When it looked like Sami was going to get the win, the Usos and Solo Sikoa came out of nowhere and attacked the Number 1 contender to Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Sami Zayn looked confused and annoyed as he had Owens in the position to hit the Helluva Kick whilst the Usos hit the 1D onto KO. The Bloodline then set KO up on the table before Solo Sikoa jumped off the barricade and hit the Flying Solo to send Owens crashing through the table. Again, Sami Zayn didn’t look particularly happy with what had happened. The show went off the air with all four members of the Bloodline standing over Kevin Owens. The match was pretty good and this was a really interesting and maybe crucial moment in the Sami Zayn-Bloodline story. Let’s see what the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns has to say about this on next week's show.
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