Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn come face-to-face, The Brawling Brutes VS Pretty Deadly
Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman made their way down to the ring to start this week’s SmackDown before they were quickly interrupted by the reigning Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Kevin Owens clearly just wanted to fight whilst Sami Zayn wanted to send a message to the Tribal Chief. After it looked like Roman was going to send his own statement back to the Master Strategist, Jimmy and Jey Uso showed up and beat down the tag team champions. These actions very much angered Roman Reigns who stormed off. Everyone involved is really good, but that doesn’t change the fact that this feud has been going on for far too long.
Grade: C+
When we came back from the ad break, Roman Reigns berated his cousins in his locker room for “making Head of the Table choices”. He then told the Usos to get out as Solo Sikoa watched on. The first match of the night then took place as Pretty Deadly made their main roster debut against the Brawling Brutes. Sheamus joined commentary and him and Wade Barrett were having a right old laugh whilst the match was going on. I thought the match itself was pretty decent, Butch and Ridge Holland have worked really well as a tag team (including their time back in NXT) whilst Pretty Deadly might be the best tag team in all of WWE right now. After the referee was checking on Butch, Pretty Deadly hit Spilt Milk before Elton Prince hung himself back in the ropes as Kit Wilson got the pinfall victory. This was a great main roster introduction for Pretty Deadly and their video beforehand was utterly ridiculous. A YES BOY!
Grade: B-
Asuka VS Zelina Vega, The Grayson Waller Effect, The Street Profits VS LA Knight and Rick Boogs
Zelina Vega cut a backstage promo about how she proved she can compete with the best at Backlash. Vega then looked to back those comments up as she went one-on-one with the Number 1 Contender for the Raw Women’s Championship, Asuka. Zelina got in a decent amount of offense in this match which included a 619 and a Meteora from the top rope. However, this match was all about Asuka as she picked up the victory with one of her many horrible-looking submissions (horrible in a good way). After the match, she continued to apply the submission hold to Vega before Bianca Belair came out to make the save. The Empress of Tomorrow then tried to spit blue mist in the Champs’ face again and it nearly worked. Unfortunately, the lack of build and bad decision-making at WrestleMania has made me have no interest in this feud.
Grade: C+
I then got super excited as it was time for the main roster debut episode of the “Grayson Waller Effect”. Now usually, I talk about all my favourite comments from the show, but there weren’t really any. Someone asking Grayson what his “favourite ice cream flavour is” was funny and there were references to Karrion Kross in the chat, but other than that, nothing happened. AJ Styles said he’s desperate to win the World Heavyweight Championship at Night of Champions before Waller said it was going to be Seth “Freakin” Rollins who wins the title. Grayson Waller is one of the best heels I’ve ever seen in NXT, but this felt like a much more laid-back, less arrogant version which isn’t great when he’s called “the Arrogant Aussie”. They didn’t even have the GWTV!
Grade: D
The LWO were talking backstage as they all agreed they could beat the Usos tonight. The Street Profits then made their way down to the ring as they were about to face the random team of LA Knight and Rick Boogs. This match started with Boogs just having a laugh with the Street Profits before the actual match got underway when the Megastar got into the ring. However, Knight wasn’t in control for very long and he was eventually taken out by a Montez Ford dive. Back in the ring, Angelo Dawkins delivered a spine buster to Rick Boogs before Ford hit the Frog Splash to get the victory. After the match, LA Knight hit Boogs with the BFT so at least one thing was achieved in this segment.
Grade: C
Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn VS Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon, Austin Theory Live
Cameron Grimes cut a backstage promo where he said he’s going “to the Moon”. I hope for his sake he does. Karrion Kross and Scarlett then appeared to show a tarot card of AJ Styles so my suspicions were sort of correct (I originally thought Kross was going to feud with Waller) before the NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn made their SmackDown in-ring debut. The Unholy Union happened to be facing Valentina Feroz and the returning Yulisa Leon yet WWE wouldn’t want you to know that. The match went less than 2 minutes and Fyre and Dawn picked up the win with their cool tag team finisher. If this match happened on NXT, it would be announced a week in advance, would be really competitive and the crowd would be really into it. However, WWE treated Feroz and Leon like enhancement talents which is ridiculous because not only are they on NXT, but they are also one of the few genuine tag teams in the women’s division. All of this was bad.
Grade: E
Michael Cole then announced that Liv Morgan will be out of action for a considerable amount of time meaning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships have been vacated. Raquel Rodriguez then cut a promo backstage where she said she was devastated for Liv and will now look for a new partner to try and win the tag titles back. Nobody in WWE history has had as many different tag team partners as Raquel. Damage CTRL (besides Dakota Kai) then walked in and challenged Rodriguez to find a tag team partner for next week. Great start to the brand split! It was then time for a bit of Austin Theory Live as the United States Champion entered the building. Theory talked about his excellent title reign before he talked trash about Sheamus. The Celtic Warrior then arrived and Brogue Kicked Theory to end the segment. The match is happening on next week’s show so I don’t really get this feud.
Grade: C
The Usos VS The LWO
Paul Heyman told the Usos that Roman Reigns forgives them, but he also won’t be coming out to ringside for their match against the LWO. Santos Escobar and Rey Mysterio then came out to Rey Mysterio’s entrance music (which is stupid) as they were about to take on the Uso twins. This was definitely the match of the night as all four men put in a good performance. The Usos did a good job at making Santos Escobar look good and the best part of the match came when Rey Mysterio somehow kicked out of a Uso Splash from Jey. Kevin Owens then arrived to distract the referee which allowed Sami to hit Jimmy before Rey delivered a 619 and Santos hit the Splash to get the victory. Usos losing again makes sense and Santos Escobar should be getting the winning pinfall. However, I’m never a fan of babyfaces cheating to get victories and it also makes the LWO look a bit rubbish.
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