Nick Aldis Makes an Announcement, Naomi VS Nia Jax: Queen of the Ring Round 1
Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Nick Aldis in the ring as the SmackDown General Manager brought Cody Rhodes down to the ring. Aldis confirmed that he’d found Cody’s next challenger, and that came in the form of the United States Champion Logan Paul. Logan took shots at Rhodes’ Championship running, stating that he’s the bigger star (which is true in some ways) and that he will leave Saudi Arabia as a Double Champion! The American Nightmare also said a few things back at The Maverick, and my question surrounding all of this is whether it’s Winner Takes All or not! Still, I personally have no problem with Logan Paul being in this position as he earnt it.
Grade: B-
AJ Styles blamed the French crowd for his loss to Cody Rhodes at Backlash before we got the first match of the night as Naomi looked to upset Nia Jax in the First Round of the Queen of the Ring Tournament. This was an okay match, they got everything in that they needed to do, but the result was fairly obvious, and I wouldn’t say in a particularly good way. Still, Naomi did hid a good split-legged Moonsault at one point for a near-fall, but in the end, Jax hit the Annihilator to score the victory!
Grade: C+
King and Queen of the Ring First Round Matches: Baron Corbin VS Carmelo Hayes, Jade Cargill VS Piper Niven, Bianca Belair VS Candice LeRae, Angelo Dawkins VS Tama Tonga
Baron Corbin talked about his run in NXT before Carmelo Hayes walked in and disrespected The Lone Wolf. DIY then got a video package before we headed into the First Round match between Corbin and Carmelo. If you watch NXT, you would know that both of these guys did a great job on this brand, and I thought this was probably the best match of the night! Baron Corbin has always been good, he just needed a character that could work as well whilst Carmelo Hayes is the future of this whole industry (if he isn’t already the present). In the end, Melo managed to sneak a win over Corbin via roll-up, and yeah, this was good!
Grade: B-
Bayley picked Jade Cargill as the favourite to win the Queen of the Ring Tournament before Chelsea Green walked in and laughed this off. We then got the first tease of what I expect to be the Clash at the Castle match as Piper Niven stared at Bayley’s WWE Women’s Championship before Piper headed to the ring for a monster clash with Jade Cargill. WWE have tried to make Jade look like a beast, and this is for me was by far the best she’s looked since the Royal Rumble because she was taking on someone who’s actually bigger than her (rather than facing someone like Kairi Sane). It also helps that Niven is a great in-ring competitor, and whilst this didn’t go long, it didn’t need to and resulted in Cargill scoring the win with Jaded.
Grade: B-
Shinsuke Nakamura got a video package which is always well done before it was time for Bianca Belair to go one-on-one with Candice LeRae. Candice got a little bit of help early on as Indi Hartwell delivered a chop-block to Belair behind the referee’s back, but this didn’t seem to hurt Bianca all too much as she was still way too powerful for The Poison Pixie before The EST of WWE dropped LeRae with the K.O.D. to score the 1,2,3! I have nothing else to add on this, it was simply just here!
Grade: C
Paul Heyman spoke to Solo Sikoa backstage about his actions, only for Solo to fire back by saying that he had spoken to Roman Reigns and The Tribal Chief had left The Enforcer in charge for the time being. Heyman sold this brilliantly! We then got another video package, this time for Andrade, before Tama Tonga made his WWE singles debut against Angelo Dawkins. Angelo actually got a few moves in, including a good near-fall after his partner Montez Ford wiped out the rest of The Bloodline, but it didn’t last long as Solo Sikoa and Tama Loa wrecked Ford on the outside before Tonga dropped Dawkins for the 3 count. This was another pretty short match, but I think it works well for The Bloodline, especially given how long Roman’s matches tend to be.
Grade: C+
King of the Ring Round 1: AJ Styles VS Randy Orton
And after a Blair Davenport video package (I think Blair has the potential to work well on the Main Roster), it was Main Event time as AJ Styles took on Randy Orton in another First Round matchup in the King of the Ring Tournament. This was a decent enough match, both guys are obviously all-time veterans, and yeah, this was solid stuff. The only unfortunate thing about it was we kind of knew who was going to win, but you can’t really do much about that! After AJ came close to winning with the Phenomenal Forearm (Randy put his hand on the ropes), Orton dropped Styles with the RKO to score the win and book his place in the Quarter-Finals! Orton-Hayes next week is going to be something!
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