WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 11/04
- Linus O'Howell
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Nick Aldis Calls Out Randy Orton, WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Gauntlet Match
Friday Night SmackDown kicked off this week with Nick Aldis asking Randy Orton to come down to the ring to discuss what happened last week. Randy came out and made it clear to Nick that that RKO last week wasn’t personal, and that it was actually a long time coming. Aldis then demanded some respect from Orton who said that the respect is there, but it might not be if he’s not given a match at WrestleMania! This brought out Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga who didn’t care about this before LA Knight ran down to make the save, setting up a Tag Team for the show’s Main Event!
Grade: C+
The opening match of this week’s SmackDown was a 6-Team Gauntlet Match to determine the Number 1 Contender’s for Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez’s WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships! The match started off with Bayley and Lyra Valkyria taking on Pure Fusion Collective, and it was Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark who were eliminated before the pairing of Natalya and Maxxine Dupri came out. As expected, Maxxine was pinned pretty easily before Katana Chance and Kayden Carter put on a decent showing, even if they ended up falling short too following a Night Wing! B-Fab and Michin were the penultimate team to come out, and they again were no match for Bayley and Lyra before The Secret Hervice entered as the final team, and this was definitely the best match of this whole Gauntlet as both Piper Niven and Alba Fyre gave it a right old go! In the end, though, it was The Role Model and the Women’s Intercontinental Champion that got the win to book their tickets to WrestleMania! This wasn’t particularly interesting or exciting, but the final match was pretty good!
Grade: C
Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest Come Face-to-Face, Rey Fenix VS Berto, Chelsea Green VS Zelina Vega
Damian Priest made his way down to the ring for a scheduled face-to-face confrontation with Drew McIntyre, but that didn’t happen as Drew attacked Damian from behind! McIntyre then cut a promo saying he was going to punish Priest at WrestleMania before The Scottish Warrior revealed that his eye is now fully healed! An injured Damian Priest then stormed his way back down to the ring to start a brawl, but it was McIntyre who again stood tall following a vicious Future-Shock DDT onto the steel steps. I firmly believe that this McIntyre-Priest feud has been one of the best heading into this year’s WrestleMania, and this was another strong segment between the two!
Grade: B
DIY were talking to Pretty Deadly about a potential conspiracy against them before the Motor City Machine Guns (and Pretty Deadly) called Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa “delusional”! It was then time for the first singles match of the night as Rey Fenix took on Berto! This was a really fun match, both of these guys are great high-flyers, I really don’t think Berto gets the credit that he deserves because he is really damn good when he gets going! Now of course, the focus here was fully on Rey Fenix, and I have to say that I’ve been pretty impressed by him so far, he looks really promising. Ultimately, it was Fenix who got the win following the MMB, and after the match, Santos Escobar arrived to shake Rey’s hand!
Grade: B
Roxanne Perez made a surprise appearance on SmackDown to pitch herself as a potential replacement for the WWE Women’s Championship Match at WrestleMania, and this got under the skin of Tiffany Stratton which set up a match for later in the evening. We then got a good video package highlighting the history between CM Punk and Paul Heyman before it was time for Chelsea Green to take on Zelina Vega! Now, Chelsea wasn’t too interested in having this match as both members of her Secret Hervice were stuck in the trainer’s room, but what we actually got was a bit of a mess as Green got counted out even though it felt like the referee never counted! To say this was a mess would be an understatement!
Grade: D
Cody Rhodes Promo, Tiffany Stratton VS Roxanne Perez
Santos Escobar was not impressed by Berto’s efforts against Rey Fenix which is when Santos said that he’d get Angel a match with Fenix instead! Andrade then tried to give Berto some advice (which he didn’t want) before Naomi and Jade Cargill both had a video promo calling each other snakes! Cody Rhodes was then out next as he cut a promo about being the Undisputed WWE Champion whilst having a bunch of old WWE Championships surrounding him. Cody said that John Cena is trying to take away an opportunity for younger wrestlers to grow up dreaming of becoming the WWE Champion, and that he cannot let that happen. Rhodes’ delivery was once again strong here, I feel like he’s stepped up recently, and the idea of the crowd being his army is well done!
Grade: B-
The Street Profits were cutting a promo on the Motor City Machine Guns before Melo Don’t Miz walked in as The Miz was disgusted over the fact that the WWE Tag Team Championships aren’t being defended at WrestleMania. I’m telling you now, they’d better be! Tiffany Stratton was then out next as it was time for the WWE Women’s Champion to go one-on-one with Roxanne Perez! For me, Tiffany and Roxanne are the two best women to come out of the NXT 2.0 Era, they’re both great in-ring wrestlers who have incredibly bright futures in this company. However, this match felt a little rushed, it didn’t really need to happen, and it was just done to give Tiffany a win which isn’t how Roxanne Perez should be being booked. Anyway, after Stratton got the win following the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, Charlotte Flair attacked her rival from behind, leading to Wade Barrett having to stop Charlotte from going any further. I’m honestly going to be glad when this Rivalry’s over!
Grade: C+
LA Knight and Randy Orton VS The Bloodline
And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Randy Orton teamed up with LA Knight to take on The Bloodline! This was a fine match, it was fun for what it was, it very much had house show vibes to it, but that’s also okay! Randy Orton was able to drop Solo Sikoa late on with an RKO before LA Knight nailed Tama Tonga with a BFT to get the win! However, after the match was over, Jacob Fatu attacked Knight from behind and wrecked the United States Champion with at least 3 Moonsaults! Jacob Fatu winning the United States Championship at WrestleMania just makes sense right now!
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