Pat McAfee Returns to SmackDown, The Rock Returns to WWE!
This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with a big surprise as Pat McAfee made his return to WWE after over 5 months! Pat talked about his love for the business and the WWE Universe before Austin Theory arrived and mocked all of that. McAfee and Theory are old rivals so it was cool to see them getting into it, especially given how far their careers have progressed since WrestleMania 38 (especially Theory). And then, from out of absolutely nowhere, Pat McAfee said this is “the people’s show” before The Rock’s music hit, and one of (if not) the biggest stars on the planet made his return to WWE after 4 years! The Rock cut a great promo on Austin Theory before he got the crowd to chant along. In the end, The Rock nailed Theory with a People’s Elbow before Pat McAfee delivered one of his own. This segment very much proved why WWE doesn’t need to announce special arrivals because the element of surprise (which was in full effect here) is so much better. Also, can we just take a moment to think of some of the people that Austin Theory’s been in the ring with, and the scary thing is he’s only 26 years old!
Grade: A-
AJ Styles VS Finn Balor, The Street Profits VS The LWO
The first match of the night saw long-time friends/rivals collide as AJ Styles took on one half of the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, Finn Balor. This was a very competitive match that could’ve seen either guy pick up the victory, but the odds were always slightly against AJ due to The Judgment Day being at ringside. However, the referee caught Senor Money in the Bank Damian Priest trying to get involved so he chucked both Priest and the NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio from ringside, but this then allowed Jimmy Uso to arrive and a slight distraction by Jimmy allowed Balor to roll-up Styles to pick up the victory. This was alright, nothing special, but nothing bad.
Grade: C+
The Rock and Pat McAfee were talking backstage before John Cena came face-to-face with his old foe. The two Legends smiled at each other before they hugged in a nice moment. Finn Balor then found Jimmy Uso and tried to get Jimmy in The Judgment Day so he could be with his brother again. Balor’s main selling point was there aren’t any leaders in The JD, meaning there aren’t any Roman Reigns. The LWO were then in the ring to cut a promo before Santos Escobar asked “his hero” Rey Mysterio for a shot at the United States Championship. Rey accepted before Bobby Lashley’s music hit as The All Mighty clearly has an eye on every faction in the company. This then led into a match between The LWO (Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde) and The Street Profits, and I cannot believe I’m saying this, the match mostly took place in the ad break before we came back and The Profits scored the win in about 20 seconds. After the match, Bobby ordered Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins to attack their opponents before Bobby whipped out both Santos Escobar and Rey Mysterio (with a bit of help from The Profits). This for me fully establishes “The Suit Profits” as Heels. If they now come out dancing next week with their stupid entrance theme, I will be beyond annoyed. As for the match itself, it was completely pointless and I feel quite sorry for Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde. At least Santos challenging Rey to a match for the US Title is a good thing.
Grade: D+ (Promo, Match and Post-Match Angle Combined)
LA Knight VS The Miz, Asuka VS Bayley
We got an awesome video package highlighting the rivalry between LA Knight and The Miz before the A-Lister made his way down to the ring for his match with The Megastar. This was a decent match, and one I enjoyed more than their first encounter back at Payback. The Miz is very underrated whilst LA Knight is still so over with the crowd. Whilst Miz tried to cheat to win, he failed spectacularly before he suffered another loss to Knight as The Megastar hit Blunt Force Trauma to get the victory. After the match, Knight said he has eyes on Championship gold before he named Rey Mysterio, Gunther, Seth “Freakin” Rollins, and even Roman Reigns as potential options. Cool!
Grade: B-
We then saw Paul Heyman and Solo Sikoa watching LA Knight’s promo and Solo clearly wanted to go deal with him. However, The Wiseman told Sikoa that Roman Reigns hadn’t sent him the orders, and whilst Sikoa was fine to let this one go, he seemed less calm about it when Heyman brought up his brother Jimmy Uso. Paul then called Roman Reigns, and I’m starting to think Roman’s his only contact! Pretty Deadly were then in Adam Pearce’s office as Elton Prince was clearly still struggling with some trauma after Ridge Holland dislocated his shoulder. Kit Wilson fired him up however and I look forward to them being back in the ring because they rule! A YES BOY! Damage CTRL’s Bayley and Dakota Kai were talking backstage and they very much weren’t on the same page before it was time for The Role Model to go one-on-one with Iyo Sky’s first challenger, Asuka. Unfortunately, I didn’t rate this match very highly and I thought it was a bit scrappy. That very much seems to be the way in the Women’s Division right now (especially SmackDown) and it’s utterly bizarre because both Asuka and Bayley are terrific Professional Wrestlers. Shotzi also arrived and scared Bayley so much that Asuka was able to pick up the win with a backslide. I don’t really know why The Empress of Tomorrow couldn’t just hit her own finisher, but there you go.
Grade: C-
The Grayson Waller Effect (Featuring John Cena)
The “Main Event” of this week’s Friday Night SmackDown saw John Cena star on The Grayson Waller Effect! John Cena tried to talk, but Grayson kept interrupting him as he tried to put over the fact that Cena doesn’t want to/can’t wrestle anymore. Just as Cena was about to speak, Jimmy Uso’s music hit as Jimmy marched down to the ring. Jimmy told John to get out of his ring and never return before Solo Sikoa’s music hit and The Enforcer stormed down to the ring. Solo then scared Jimmy to death as he grabbed hold of his older brother, but this was just a ruse so he could deliver a Superkick to Cena. AJ Styles’ music then hit and The Phenomenal One took out Jimmy before the 16-time World Champion chucked Solo out of the ring meaning the show ended with AJ Styles and John Cena standing face to face. Given that Styles-Cena was one of the feuds that got me into Wrestling, I was very happy to see it. I’m also now very intrigued to see what’s going to happen in the future because there are so many people in and around this story. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Grayson Waller just stayed in his chair behind his desk the whole time because why the heck not!
