The Bloodline Start the Show, Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill VS Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell
After Cody Rhodes was shown waiting for AJ Styles in the Parking Lot, Friday Night SmackDown properly started with The Bloodline heading down to the ring. Paul Heyman officially confirmed Solo Sikoa as the new “Head of the Table” and Tama Tonga as the new “Right Hand Man”. Tonga Loa was also officially anointed into the family before Kevin Owens ran down to start a brawl. Of course, this didn’t work out too well for KO to start with, but The Street Profits then arrived to help even the odds. This was a decent start to the show simply because The Bloodline are both very good and very entertaining.
Grade: C+
Solo Sikoa demanded Paul Heyman talk to Nick Aldis to set up a Six-Man Tag for tonight’s Main Event before the first match of the night saw Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill take on Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell. This was a standard Tag Match, Candice and Indi work very well together, but this was all about making the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions look as strong and dominant as possible. After Bianca and Jade picked up the win, the teams of Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark as well as Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn attacked the Tag Champs, but in the end, it was Belair and Cargill that stood tall. Okay.
Grade: C+
Grayson Waller VS Johnny Gargano, Cody Rhodes Calls Out AJ Styles, Carmelo Hayes VS LA Knight, Piper Niven Interrupts Bayley
Nick Aldis wasn’t too impressed with Cody Rhodes just waiting around for AJ Styles before Apollo Crews talked about his excitement of getting to face Angel tonight. However, Apollo was attacked by Legado Del Fantasma before LA Knight and Carmelo Hayes got into another disagreement backstage which meant Nick Aldis booked that as a replacement match instead. DIY’s music then hit as it was time for Johnny Gargano to go one-on-one with Grayson Waller. This was a fun match between two guys that have a lot of history together. Some of the moves here from Johnny Wrestling were particularly crazy, and we also got a bit of story when Waller pulled Austin Theory into harm's way. In the end, this actually worked out for The Arrogant Aussie who was able to hit a nice move to score the win whilst Theory didn’t look best pleased. This was good!
Grade: B-
Cody Rhodes was still waiting for AJ Styles as security had to show up. AJ then arrived which led to Cody storming to the ring and demanding Styles make his way down there. Styles, accompanied by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, made it clear to The American Nightmare that he wants another shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship which the Champ happily agreed to for Clash at the Castle. However, it’s not just going to be any old match, it’s going to be an “I Quit” Match! Before a brawl could then start, security stopped Cody from going any further, but this allowed AJ to get one shot in before him and The O.C. ran off!
Grade: C+
Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill announced that they will be defending their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships in a Triple Threat Match at Clash at the Castle before it was time for Carmelo Hayes to clash with LA Knight. This was a fine match, but it felt kind of sudden. Carmelo and LA have been building up this feud for a while now, so to have it happen just like this feels like a bit of a waste. Hayes once again looked good here, but when doesn’t he, whilst Knight is clearly being positioned as the guy to dethrone Logan Paul for the United States Championship. In the end, after a nice sequence, The Megastar managed to beat Melo via roll-up before he said he’d come looking for Logan.
Grade: C+
Tiffany Stratton pitched an alliance to Nia Jax before Michin threw a drink in The Queen of the Ring’s face! Bayley then headed to the ring to talk about Clash at the Castle, but she was quickly interrupted by Chelsea Green and Piper Niven. Chelsea said a few things about why everyone is stupid before Bayley talked about having respect for Piper since the day she first stepped into a WWE ring. However, Niven made it clear that she was doing a hell of a lot of work before debuting in the Mae Young Classic and cut a genuinely great promo on how she was a World Champion a long time before joining WWE. This was really good, and it was very much needed!
Grade: B
The Bloodline VS Kevin Owens and The Street Profits
After Logan Paul cut a great video promo on LA Knight and Chelsea Green got into an argument with Naomi backstage, it was Main Event time as The Bloodline took on the trio of Kevin Owens and The Street Profits. This was a decent contest, there wasn’t anything great about it, but there also wasn’t anything bad. Montez Ford’s crazy dive was probably the highlight, but that didn’t really matter for much as Solo Sikoa hit Angelo Dawkins with a Steel Chair to cause the Disqualification. Solo, Tama Tonga, and Tonga Loa then beat up both Ford and Dawkins, including Sikoa Spearing Montez before the show went off the air with The Bloodline slamming KO through the announce table! This was a good visual!
