Rey Mysterio VS Santos Escobar
Friday Night SmackDown kicked off this week with a clash of rivals as Rey Mysterio took on Santos Escobar. This was alright, Santos looked pretty good, but Rey definitely made a couple of small mistakes early on which was a bit surprising. Anyway, you kind of knew this wasn’t going to end clean due to these two feeling like they’re destined to clash at WrestleMania. However, what happened did surprise as from absolutely nowhere, Dominik Mysterio arrived to trip over his Dad which ultimately allowed Escobar to hit the Phantom Driver to pick up a pretty big win. A potential Tag Team match coming at Mania instead I wonder?!
Grade: B-
A-Town Down Under VS The O.C., Iyo Sky VS Naomi, The Authors of Pain VS The Street Profits
Bayley and Naomi were chatting backstage before Bianca Belair walked in to tell Bayley that she deserves everything that’s coming to her. Fair enough! We then got Naomi telling Bianca that they all need to work together to take down Damage CTRL before it was time for A-Town Down Under to take on The O.C. This match was a bit odd in the sense that it only went about 3-to-4 minutes max, and despite Karl Anderson dominating for the large majority, Anderson decided to tag in a seemingly injured Luke Gallows and this ultimately opened the door for Austin Theory to steal the win as Grayson Waller held Theory’s feat on the ropes. I hope these two get on WrestleMania, but I don’t think it’s going to happen unfortunately.
Grade: C+
We got a pretty good video package highlighting Bron Breakker’s talents before we saw Roman Reigns on The Pat McAfee Show. I may have to watch that later! It was then time for another match as Iyo Sky was about to go one-on-one with Naomi. However, before the match could start, cameras cut to the back to see Iyo beating up Bayley which was a nice twist I wasn’t expecting. Anyway, the match itself was fun I thought, I thought they both did a good job. There’s no doubt that Iyo Sky’s one of the best wrestlers in the world, but it was nice to see Naomi step up her game a bit. The former 2-time SmackDown Women’s Champion probably would’ve won the match if it wasn’t for Damage CTRL, as they arrived at just the right time to cause a distraction which allowed the WWE Women’s Champion to hit Over the Moonsault to score the victory. After the match, Asuka spit blue mist in the eyes of Naomi before Bianca Belair ran down and ultimately failed to make the save. A part of me wants Damage CTRL to keep all the Gold for a while yet!
Grade: B-
We got a good video package telling us that Jade Cargill has officially signed with SmackDown before we saw Bianca Belair pouring water in the eyes of Naomi. I don’t think this was helping Naomi, but Tiffany Stratton walking past to poke fun definitely was! Pretty Deadly then interrupted Kevin Owens’ meeting with Nick Aldis because they’re not happy about not being on WrestleMania (I feel exactly the same way). This ultimately resulted in a Tag Team match being booked for next week with Randy Orton teaming up with KO. LA Knight was then arrested for attacking AJ Styles at his house in a rather strangely shot video before The Authors of Pain and The Street Profits collided in an attempt to move a step closer to appearing at WrestleMania 40. I’ll be honest, this feud has really bored me, and I’ve been fed up with/of The Street Profits for a lot longer. A.O.P dominated here, but in the end, it was Montez Ford who was able to steal the victory with a crucifix roll-up.
Grade: C
Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes Come Face-to-Face
And in the final segment of the evening, Roman Reigns called out Cody Rhodes as it was time for a bit of face-to-face action between WrestleMania Night 2’s Main Event. Roman called Cody stupid for trusting Seth “Freakin” Rollins given his past before Rhodes responded by reminding Reigns of who the first team were to defeat The “undefeated” Shield. The American Nightmare then questioned whether The Tribal Chief can trust The Rock before Cody offered out a handshake, something The Head of The Table refused. Before the show went off the air, though, Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa arrived to stand alongside the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion before Jey Uso and the World Heavyweight Champion Seth “Freakin” Rollins appeared to back up Cody Rhodes. This was a pretty good segment, I thought both guys delivered their lines well, but the ending did look a bit odd.
Comments