Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Contract Signing, Legado Del Fantasma VS The LWO
Friday Night SmackDown started with Roman Reigns being angry at his cousins before Nick Aldis welcomed out AJ Styles, LA Knight, and Randy Orton to sign the Contract for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Fatal 4-Way clash which will take place at the Royal Rumble. Whilst all three of the challengers signed “on the dotted line”, Paul Heyman then came out to say that Roman Reigns wouldn’t be signing the contract which is when Aldis came back at Heyman and told him that he’d strip the Championship off of The Tribal Chief if he didn’t agree to have the match. Styles and Knight then started to brawl before Orton warned The Wiseman that he will end the night standing tall over The Head of The Table. This was a fine segment and I enjoyed the stuff between Paul Heyman and Nick Aldis. However, it also didn’t do much to further the story.
Grade: C+
After AJ Styles told Nick Aldis he wants a match with LA Knight, the first match of the night saw The LWO take on the newly reformed Legado Del Fantasma. This match had some pretty good moment which isn’t too surprisingly as Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde are good fun whilst Angel and Humberto are also pretty good. Also, seeing Santos Escobar as the leader of Legado just feels right, and in the end, Escobar used his veteran instincts to roll up Carlito for the 3 count in a move that was definetly the right decision.
Grade: B-
Butch and Tyler Bate VS Pretty Deadly, The Kevin Owens Show (Featuring Logan Paul), Katana Chance and Kayden Carter VS The Unholy Union: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
Pretty Deadly talked about how they were super prepared to face the team of Butch and Tyler Bate before Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits cut a promo on The Final Testament. It was then time for Pretty Deadly to take on the team of Butch and Tyler Bate. However, it wasn’t Butch and it was in fact the returning Pete Dunne and I had a really fun time with this match. Pretty Deadly are just brilliant whilst Bate and Dunne are a lot of fun. In the end, The Bruiserweight was able to get the victory with the Bitter End and what I found funny about this is Pete Dunne has now beaten Kit Wilson and Elton Prince more times than Butch (who’s faced them at least 7 times)!
Grade: B-
After Pretty Deadly brilliantly said they weren’t prepared for Pete Dunne, Kevin Owens was out as it was time for Logan Paul to be a guest on The Kevin Owens Show. I have to say, I thought this was a great segment. They leaned into the fact that Logan Paul’s first appearances in WWE were on opposing sides to KO before Owens praised Logan for being way better than anyone expected. LP then responded by cutting a brilliant promo on all his “accolades” before he sucker-punched Kevin after The Prizefighter took of his cast. However, Owens got back up before Logan slammed his hand on the steel steps to end the segment. I really enjoyed this, fair play to both men.
Grade: B+
Roman Reigns was very angry with Jimmy Uso backstage before Solo Sikoa stepped up and said he’d handle everything tonight. Damage CTRL were then at ringside as it was time for Katana Chance and Kayden Carter to put their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against The Unholy Union. I like both of these teams, they were really cool in NXT, but this wasn’t great. The reason for that is the match only went a couple of minutes and the focus was more on Bayley and Damage CTRL. In the end, The KC’s got the victory with the Cake Stand before The Kabuki Warriors started dancing with the Tag Team Titles because they’re mad!
Grade: C
AJ Styles VS LA Knight, Randy Orton VS Solo Sikoa
After another cool Karrion Kross Promo and a rematch was set up between Carmelo Hayes and Austin Theory, Part 1 of this week’s Main Event saw AJ Styles go one-on-one with LA Knight. As someone that watches a lot of WWE programming (basically all of it), I knew something was off about this match and I was proven to be correct as during the contest, Solo Sikoa and Jimmy Uso arrived before Solo dropped both Styles and Knight with the Samoan Spike. Don’t really know what else to say about this match if I’m being honest.
Grade: C
Following this, we got Randy Orton VS Solo Sikoa which was again fine, but it was another typical SmackDown that ended more as an angle than an actual match. It was a pretty even contest until LA Knight dropped Jimmy Uso. This then lead to Orton dropping Sikoa with an RKO to get the victory before AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and LA Knight started to brawl, with Orton standing tall. However, Roman Reigns then arrived to drop Randy with a Superman Punch before Roman signed the contract for next weekend’s Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match. However, it wasn’t The Head of The Table who stood tall as Orton dropped Reigns with an RKO to close the show.
