Bianca Belair Starts the Show, Bobby Lashley VS Butch
This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Bianca Belair as The EST of WWE wanted to talk about her team’s victory at WarGames. Bianca was clearly very pleased about this before she made it clear that she’s not finished with Damage CTRL yet as Iyo Sky still has “her” WWE Women’s Championship. This brought out Damage Control (minus Bayley) to laugh about this statement before Charlotte Flair and Shotzi arrived and a big brawl started and ended with Belair dropping Iyo to the outside. All this showed/told me was WarGames actually didn’t matter that much at all.
Grade: C
Iyo Sky and the rest of Damage CTRL seemed very annoyed with Bayley for not being out there with them (in the opening segment) before Bayley offered to give Kairi Sane some advice in regards to her match against Bianca Belair. It was then time for the first match of the night as Butch entered alone against Bobby Lashley. This was a pretty straightforward contest really as Bobby controlled nearly the entire match whilst Butch would gain a little bit of momentum here and there. Funnily enough, Kevin Patrick on commentary said that “Butch is still in this” and as soon as he said those words, Lashley wrecked The Bruiserweight with a Spear to get the victory. This really didn’t do anything for me if I’m being honest.
Grade: C
Santos Escobar VS Joaquin Wilde, Logan Paul Promo, Kevin Owens VS Grayson Waller, Bianca Belair VS Kairi Sane
Paul Heyman walked into Nick Aldis’ office to ask him why he’s invited Randy Orton to SmackDown tonight. Aldis responded by saying that he’s going to offer a full-time SmackDown contract to The Viper and that Heyman should probably tell Roman Reigns. Butch then seemed upset backstage and his day got worse as Pretty Deadly just beat him up before Santos Escobar cut a really good little backstage promo on Joaquin Wilde which was quite fitting as it was time for a singles contest between the two former Legado Members. This was a pretty decent contest given the amount of time it had and it was just nice to see two talented performers compete against one another. Joaquin Wilde is certainly an underrated and underutilised competitor, but that didn’t really help him in this contest as one Phantom Driver was enough for Santos to pick up the W. After the match, Escobar continued to beat down Wilde before Dragon Lee ran down to make the save.
Grade: C+
Adam Pearce appeared and told Nick Aldis that he wasn’t impressed with his tactics which is why he’s brought a contract of his own for Randy Orton to sign. Really, Nick Aldis should’ve just kicked Pearce out the building. Anyway, Logan Paul’s music then hit as the United States Champion made his return after around a month away. Logan then quickly announced that there will be a tournament to crown his next challenger and the competitors in that field are; Kevin Owens, Dragon Lee, Santos Escobar, Austin Theory, Grayson Waller, Bobby Lashley, and someone from NXT. This brought Kevin Owens out who made it crystal clear that he can’t stand Mr. Paul before A-Town Down Under made their way down to the ring as it was time for Grayson Waller to go one-on-one with KO. The story of this match saw Grayson Waller work on the injured right hand of Kevin Owens which was originally injured thanks to interference from Austin Theory. Whilst the story was good in thought, it didn’t really work out all that well for The Arrogant Aussie as Owens was able to score a victory with a roll-up. Personally, I would’ve just had KO win clean or even given Grayson Waller a massive W. Still, I am looking forward to that tournament and I really hope the NXT star is Wes Lee.
Grade: C+ (Promo and Match Combined)
Iyo Sky emphatically told Bayley to stay in the back for the Main Event match of the night as Kairi Sane wrestled her first singles match on WWE television for nearly 3 and a half years against “The EST of WWE”, Bianca Belair. Iyo Sky interfered early on which the referee didn’t spot before Charlotte Flair just decided to trip Kairi’s leg. The referee then decided to chuck both Charlotte and Shotzi out which was wrong for two reasons as one, it should’ve been a Disqualification, and two, what did Shotzi do? Asuka was then in the ring for some reason which meant the referee chucked Asuka and the rest of Damage CTRL out as well which also seemed harsh on Dakota Kai as she was just standing there. Anyway, I didn’t really rate this match very highly as Bianca Belair dominated Kairi Sane for about 85-to-90% of this match. Sane did get a tiny bit of offense in and she nearly had an opening when Bayley showed up to help her, but it didn’t end up resulting in anything for The Pirate Princess other than a K.O.D and a 1-2-3 for Belair. Shrug Emoji!
Grade: C-
Randy Orton Returns to SmackDown
Nick Aldis welcomed Randy Orton back to SmackDown to a big pop from the Brooklyn crowd before Adam Pearce decided to be a pain in the ass by shoving a contract right in Randy’s face. I was kind of sad Aldis didn’t just floor Pearce because he frankly deserved it. Anyway, Paul Heyman then came out to tell Randy that he wouldn’t be the one making the decision which brought out the rest of The Bloodline (minus Roman Reigns) to get dropped by Orton (as well as LA Knight) pretty comfortably. The Viper then grabbed both of the contracts and signed the SmackDown one before he made it clear to The Wiseman that he wants Roman Reigns. Nick Aldis then got in the ring to shake Orton’s hand before The Viper struck and dropped the SmackDown General Manager with an RKO. Take out Adam Pearce and this was a pretty alright segment.
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