WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 04/04
- Linus O'Howell
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
CM Punk Starts the Show, Nathan Frazer VS Rey Fenix
Friday Night SmackDown kicked off this week with CM Punk coming out to a massive reception in front of his home crowd in Chicago, Illinois! Punk said despite everything he’s been told in the past, he earnt his way into the Main Event spot at WrestleMania, and that’s just where the story begins! Paul Heyman then arrived to pay his respects to CM Punk, but he also told his friend that he needed to know what the favour is. Punk told Paul that he’d tell him once Roman Reigns arrives, and that was that, this was very much a segment setting up another segment for later in the show!
Grade: C+
It was then time for the opening match of the night as Rey Fenix made his WWE debut against Nathan Frazer! This was a bit of a random match, but it was good, both guys looked really good, and this was a positive debut for Fenix. However, I do find it a bit weird that Frazer was put in this position given the fact that he should be getting pushed once he gets called up to the Main Roster soon, but anyway, Rey Fenix was eventually able to get the win with an MMB before he announced his arrival in WWE!
Grade: B-
LA Knight VS Tama Tonga, Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair’s Meeting, DIY VS Motor City Machine Guns: WWE Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Match
Santos Escobar loved Berto’s fire in regards to Rey Fenix, which sets up a match between the two of them next week before Drew McIntyre cut another great promo calling Damian Priest a vulture! Braun Strowman then got into a war of words with Solo Sikoa backstage before that led into the next match as LA Knight took on Tama Tonga! This was a totally fine match, it was solid for what it was, nothing really to write home about, but I did like Solo Sikoa’s mannerisms on the outside! Solo also tried to get involved multiple times, allowing Tama to come close to winning, but in the end, Knight was able to nail Tonga with the BFT to get the 1,2,3!
Grade: C+
Paul Heyman was waiting by the parking lot waiting to see when Roman Reigns would arrive, but the next guy to show up was actually Seth “Freakin” Rollins! Rollins told Heyman to get a grip of this whole “favour thing” before Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair had a back-and-forth in-ring promo segment! Both women went at each other, with Tiffany getting in a few good lines early on, and the one line seemed to throw Charlotte off her game a little, especially with the crowd fully on her back! However, the segment then kind of went downhill, with Stratton’s delivery getting worse as the segment went on before she eventually just ran off! These are two of the most talented women in the entire company, but this feud between Stratton and Flair just isn’t working!
Grade: C
Nick Aldis confirmed that there will be a Tag Team Gauntlet Match next week to determine the Number 1 Contender’s to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships before DIY and the Motor City Machine Guns clashed in a Number 1 Contender’s Match for the WWE Tag Team Championships! This was a decent match, both teams are very good, it flowed well, but it’s not like we haven’t seen this one before. It also didn’t really make much sense for this match to be happening because it feels like this has been the one story that has warranted a multi-person match, but anyway, after Tommaso Ciampa went face first into the exposed turnbuckle, Chris Sabin was able to take advantage and steal the win with a roll-up!
Grade: C+
B-Fab VS Naomi, Kevin Owens Promo, Braun Strowman VS Jacob Fatu: United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Last Man Standing Match
Melo Don’t Miz got into a heated conversation backstage with Pretty Deadly before B-Fab was ready to go one-on-one with Naomi! However, before the match could even begin, Naomi was attacked from behind by Jade Cargill, and whilst the match still went ahead, this gave B-Fab more of a chance to actually pull out a shock result here. Despite that, that never materialised as Naomi picked up the victory with a nice-looking finisher, only for Cargill to boot right in the face after the match was over! Jade and Naomi will now face each other at WrestleMania, and good for them!
Grade: C+
After Damian Priest cut a promo that very much cut into part of Drew McIntyre’s logic, Nick Aldis was in the ring to welcome out Kevin Owens who had some sad news to tell. Unfortunately, KO has been dealing with a neck injury, and he now requires surgery, meaning he’ll not only miss WrestleMania this year, but potentially others in the future too! This was a really sad moment because Kevin Owens is on my Mount Rushmore, I think he’s absolutely superb, so this absolutely sucks! Randy Orton then came out, and after Aldis told Randy that this means he no longer has a WrestleMania match, Orton just RKO’d him! I’m very interested to see what happens with Randy Orton now because there are plenty of good options!
It was then time for the Main Event match of the night as Braun Strowman and Jacob Fatu went to war in a Last Man Standing Match to determine who would face LA Knight for the United States Championship at WrestleMania! This was a really fun match, both guys gave it their all, and there were a few crazy spots in here. Braun running Jacob through the barricade was well done, Strowman delivering a superplex on Fatu through a pair of tables was pretty insane, and the closing spot of Fatu putting Strowman through a table was also quite nasty! Jacob Fatu was victorious, meaning he is set to head to WrestleMania to fight for the US Title, and this was definitely the match of the night!
Grade: B
CM Punk Announces His Favour
Roman Reigns finally arrived at the building at the end of this week’s Friday Night SmackDown as Roman wanted to know what CM Punk’s favour is. Roman was visibly angry by all the recent ongoings with both Punk and Seth “Freakin” Rollins before Seth came out to talk about the both of them! This annoyed Reigns even more who started talking about loyalty (which is important) as CM Punk finally arrived and announced that his favour is that he wants Paul Heyman to be in his corner at WrestleMania! Roman Reigns completely laughed this off, believing that his Wiseman would say no straight away, but that’s not what happened as Heyman said he couldn’t say no, resulting in Reigns getting all up in Paul’s face before Punk laid him out with a GTS! Seth Rollins was just watching on laughing the entire time, and this was another well-done segment, particularly from Reigns and Heyman!
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