The Usos start the show, Rey Mysterio VS LA Knight
This week’s Friday Night SmackDown started with a recap of the shocking ending to last week’s show before the Usos arrived to a big ovation. Jimmy and Jey cut a promo on how they still love Roman Reigns, but he messed up when he started disrespecting them. The Usos then blamed Paul Heyman for everything before calling him a snake before they ended the segment by welcoming the Tribal Chief and their brother Solo Sikoa to the “Uso Penitentiary”. This was a fine segment, but it felt a bit lacking considering people have been waiting for this promo for nearly 3 years.
Grade: C+
The first match of the night saw Rey Mysterio look to get a bit of payback for last week as he went one-on-one with the Megastar LA Knight. For whatever reason, this match didn’t click and was quite sloppy in places. Rey Mysterio seemed particularly all over the place come the end of the match. However, the only saving grace to this was the fact that LA Knight won with the BFT. Knight then looked to continue beating down the Hall of Famer, but Santos Escobar ran down to make the save. An iffy start to the show indeed.
Grade: C (bumped up due to Knight winning)
WWE and NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships Unification Match: Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler VS Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn
Ridge Holland accidentally bumped into Solo Sikoa backstage and he paid for it as Sikoa delivered a Samoan Spike to the Brawling Brute. We then came back from the ad break to see Adam Pearce checking on Ridge before Sheamus walked in and demanded a match with Sikoa. Pearce didn’t seem to like this so the Celtic Warrior walked onto the entranceway and challenged Solo to a match. It was then time for the WWE and NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships to be unified as Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler took on Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn. Raquel Rodriguez watched on from ringside as the Unholy Union proved that they are a really good tag team. Alba Fyre has always been one of the best in-ring competitors in WWE whilst Isla Dawn continues to get better and better. However, it didn’t mean too much in the end as Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler got the victory by forcing both Fyre and Dawn to tap out. After the match, Raquel got in the ring and said she’s coming for the belts “that they never lost” before Liv Morgan made her return to WWE TV to stare down the brand-new Unified WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. I guess that’s alright, but it probably does just mean that we won’t see Fyre and Dawn for a while which sucks. Also, shoutout to the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships as they genuinely felt like massive deals in NXT, particularly when they belonged to the likes of Toxic Attraction and The Way.
Grade: C+
The Grayson Waller Effect, Pretty Deadly VS The Street Profits, Charlotte Flair VS Lacey Evans
Had Pretty Deadly joined the Grayson Waller Effect in NXT, this could’ve been one of the best segments of the year. However, the Grayson Waller Effect on Friday Night SmackDown doesn’t feel special and it feels like it’s just on the show each week for the sake of it. That’s particularly a shame as Pretty Deadly are excellent and Grayson Waller can be a future World Champion. Anyway, the Street Profits interrupted the former NXT and NXT UK Tag Team Champions before a match took place that was fine. Wade Barrett was funny on commentary and the in-ring action was solid, but I just really struggle to enjoy Street Profits matches as they’ve been doing the same thing since they arrived in WWE. However, Pretty Deadly getting a victory by using their ever-smart heel playbook was good.
Grade: C (for the GWE and match combined)
Charlotte Flair was then out next as she was about to go one-on-one with Lacey Evans and the crazy thing about this match is once upon a time, these two were meant to battle for a World Championship at WrestleMania. This was basically a 2-to-3-minute squash match as Flair breezed past the former Southern Belle. Lacey got barely any moves in and tapped out to the Figure-8. After the match, Asuka attacked Flair and laid her out. When it comes to Lacey Evans, she really needs to go back to her old character and a stint in NXT is probably a good thing (much like Mandy Rose). In terms of Asuka-Charlotte, that should be a great match next week as long as Flair doesn’t win.
Grade: C
Solo Sikoa VS Sheamus
Bianca Belair walked into Adam Pearce’s office backstage and she got even more frustrated with the WWE official as Pearce barred Belair from ringside for Asuka and Charlotte Flair’s WWE Women’s Championship match next week. Bianca was certainly not happy about this and let’s be honest, she’ll definitely appear at ringside at some point during that match. It was then time for the main event as Solo Sikoa battled Sheamus. This match was pretty decent and it was as hard-hitting as you would come to expect between these two. Sheamus was the first man to come close to picking up the victory with his always good-looking, but never effective Knee strike before Solo Sikoa nailed the Celtic Warrior with a Samoan Spike. Sikoa then delivered a Uranage to Sheamus onto the announce table before he sent Sheamus crashing through the barricade. Because of this, referee Jessica Carr called off the match before the Usos arrived and laid out their younger brother with a barrage of Superkicks. I’m fine with the Usos standing tall, but why WWE felt the need to protect Sheamus I’ll never know. This was a golden opportunity to give Solo Sikoa a big win and WWE completely missed the mark.
Comments