The Grayson Waller Effect, Austin Theory VS LA Knight
This week’s “special edition” of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with the brand-new United States Champion Rey Mysterio, and Santos Escobar, joining the Grayson Waller Effect. Grayson tried to sow seeds of descension between the two LWO members as Waller claimed that Rey stole Santos’ opportunity (he’s right). Neither Mysterio nor Escobar were having anything that The Arrogant Aussie was saying before Austin Theory arrived and the former US Champ demanded that Adam Pearce come out and hand him back his title. Pearce then came out, but was quickly interrupted by LA Knight (to the delight of the WWE Universe) and The Megastar came up with the idea to have him and Theory go one-on-one with the winner getting an opportunity at Rey Mysterio’s United States Championship. Pearce was very happy to accept because of cause he was. This was a solid start to the show, it’s nice to see that a bunch of NXT greats are getting to shine on the main roster. It is still odd that Grayson Waller isn’t the main star on his own talk show, though.
Grade: C+
Before the match between Austin Theory and LA Knight could start, The Miz arrived to join commentary because he’s currently in a feud with Mr. Knight. This match was solid, it wasn’t anything spectacular, but there also wasn’t anything wrong with it. I really like Miz on commentary, I think he’s very good at it and the crowd being as into LA Knight as they are certainly helps things. The Megastar was looking in a pretty good position to win, but a distraction from the A-Lister allowed Theory to sneak a roll-up victory and secure himself a rematch for the United States Championship against Austin Theory. I don’t know why he wasn’t given a rematch anyway, but that doesn’t really matter anymore.
Grade: C+
Celebrating Edge, Damage CTRL VS Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair, The Street Profits VS The O.C.
John Cena, Natalya, Sami Zayn, Charlotte Flair, and more congratulated Edge’s 25 years in WWE with pre-taped messages before we got a cool video package for the Rated-R Superstar which included legends such as The Undertaker, Mick Foley, and Randy Orton. Bayley then welcomed out the WWE Women’s Champion Iyo Sky as it was time for Damage CTRL to take on the team of Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair. It feels like recently, especially on SmackDown, the women haven’t necessarily been on the same page and that continued in this one as there was a very odd moment where Charlotte just stopped when she could’ve easily made the tag to Bianca Belair. Anyway, they actually got a good amount of time to showcase their abilities, but it just felt a bit off again. The main problem I think I’m having with the SmackDown Women’s Division is it’s really, really good, yet the matches aren’t producing those results. Also, Bianca Belair pinned Bayley after delivering the K.O.D. to pick up the win, and I’m just sick of established tag teams being defeated by people that don’t even like each other.
Grade: C-
We got some more messages of congratulations for Edge, including ones from Cody Rhodes, Becky Lynch, The Miz, and Kurt Angle before Bianca Belair got completely blindsided by Damage CTRL who viciously assaulted the knee of The EST. One of the commentators (I think it was Michael Cole) said that this was an attack on the already injured knee of Belair, but if that’s the case, why didn’t Bianca sell her knee injury at all in their tag team match? That makes no sense, and what also made no sense was The Street Profits coming down to the ring doing the same entrance they’ve done for 6 years despite the fact that they’re now supposed to be more “Heelish”. The Profits were also facing The O.C. who’ve really been booked into the ground since they returned to WWE, and after about 2 minutes, Ford and Dawkins debuted a new tag team finisher (which is a good thing) to get the victory. Bobby Lashley then arrived to celebrate with them because that’s what he does these days.
Grade: C-
Kayla Braxton attempted to interview Paul Heyman to ask him about rumours surrounding The Bloodline, so Paul fired back and started talking about rumours surrounding Kayla’s family which was quite funny and unexpected. Paul then got a phone call from someone and announced that Jimmy Uso will be here Live on SmackDown next week.
Edge VS Sheamus
The Rated-R Superstar Edge got a massive ovation during his entrance as it was time for him to have his eagerly anticipated match with Sheamus. Edge’s family watched on as him and Sheamus brought their all in a hard-hitting contest. What I liked about this match is The Celtic Warrior had no problem playing the Villain and he nearly picked up the victory with the Brogue Kick. Edge was able to deliver a Spear which Sheamus kicked out of, but a second, more devastating Spear was enough for the Hall of Famer to pick up the victory to the delight of the crowd. The show then went off the air with Edge and Sheamus hugging. This was a solid main event that was heightened by the fact that it could well have been the last time Edge steps into a WWE ring which is quite crazy when you think about it.
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