Rey Mysterio Starts the Show, Bianca Belair and Naomi VS Nia Jax and Candice LeRae
This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Rey Mysterio who got a big reception in his hometown! Rey said it was great to be back home and perform in front of his family before he said he’s setting his sights on winning the Royal Rumble this year! Kevin Owens then came out and said he’s rooting for Rey so they can have a one-on-one match at WrestleMania, but Mysterio followed up by saying that Owens isn’t the Champion! This angered KO to the point where he took a swing at the Hall of Famer, but it was Kevin who ended up escaping! This was fine for what it was, there were some decent lines said.
Grade: C+
Naomi told Bianca Belair that there are still no leads as to who attacked Jade Cargill before Rey Mysterio got himself a match with Kevin Owens as Cody Rhodes told Nick Aldis that he was cleared. Aldis then handed a contract over for Cody to sign, but Rhodes said he wouldn’t sign it until KO had! It was then time for the first match of the night as Bianca Belair and Naomi took on the duo of Nia Jax and Candice LeRae! This match got a decent amount of time and most of it was Bianca Belair being worked down by the duo of Candice and Nia. I actually think Jax and LeRae work really well as a Team, they have a good amount of chemistry, and I actually now want to see them as the Champions. However, in the end, after Queen Nia accidentally dropped onto The Poison Pixie, it was the reigning WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions who got the win after Naomi hit one of her finishers!
Grade: B-
Carmelo Hayes VS Jimmy Uso, Los Garza VS Motor City Machine Guns
Bayley told Byron Saxton that she needs to win tonight to try and have a much stronger reign than she did last year before we got B-Fab and Michin hanging out, only for Chelsea Green and Piper Niven to walk in and say their piece! It was then time for another match as Jimmy Uso clashed with Carmelo Hayes! I thought this was easily the match of the night, I thought this was a really strong contest that said a lot about how great Carmelo Hayes is. To be fair, Jimmy Uso also looked good and got plenty of offense in, but this was definitely a really strong TV match that WWE can really build from going forward. However, we didn’t actually get a finish as Tama Tonga and Jacob Fatu arrived to clean house before Solo Sikoa made his return to SmackDown to literally say nothing, like Solo literally just left! This then angered Jacob Fatu who went mad at the crowd before LA Knight tried and failed to execute a sneak attack, but Braun Strowman’s arrival led to Tonga pulling Fatu out of the ring.
Grade: B
After Santos Escobar told Legado Del Fantasma that they had to make people fear them again, Los Garza headed down to the ring to clash with the Motor City Machine Guns! This was another good Tag Team match, both of these teams performed well last week, and I thought they both did a good job here. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley are particularly great, they work so well together, but Angel and Berto are also pretty good too! Towards the end of the match, Pretty Deadly appeared to try and help Los Garza get the win, but all they did was distract the referee to the point where MCMG came away as the victors!
Grade: B-
B-Fab VS Piper Niven, Kevin Owens VS Rey Mysterio
After Kevin Owens also refused to sign Nick Aldis’ contract, B-Fab made her way down to the ring as she went one-on-one with Piper Niven! This was definitely a much shorter match as Piper dominated the action to easily get the win with her finisher! After the match, Piper and Chelsea continued to beat up B-Fab before Michin ran down with a kendo stick to make the save! There really wasn’t much to this!
Grade: C
After Tiffany Stratton said she would retain her WWE Women’s Championship over Bayley in tonight’s Main Event, it was time for another match as Kevin Owens faced Rey Mysterio. This match was set up at the start of the show, and it was another contest that got plenty of time! I mean, Rey even kicked out of a Stunner which is actually pretty insane when you think about it! Ultimately, an aggressive KO was able to get the win with the Pop-Up Powerbomb before Owens tried to nail Mysterio with a package piledriver, only for Cody Rhodes to run down and make the save!
Grade: B-
WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton VS Bayley
After Nick Aldis told Cody Rhodes that there will be a Title handover at Saturday Night’s Main Event and we got a video package teasing the return of Charlotte Flair, it was Main Event time as Tiffany Stratton put her WWE Women’s Championship on the line for the first time against Bayley! This Main Event got a lot of time which is great as both of these women are very talented, and I thought it was a good contest. However, the crowd did go quite flat for a while and some parts felt a bit slow, so it wasn’t the classic that I think these two could put on. Despite that, I really liked the finish as Tiffany Stratton managed to win clean with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, and I thought this was a really important statement to make!
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