AJ Styles Starts the Show, Damage CTRL VS Bianca Belair, Michin, Shotzi, and Zelina Vega: Holiday Havoc
AJ Styles came out to start this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown where he made it clear that he wants Roman Reigns more than either LA Knight or Randy Orton. This brought out LA Knight who questioned why AJ attacked him last week before Randy Orton came out to say he’s got a receipt coming for The Tribal Chief. This brought out Nick Aldis who announced that in two week’s time at SmackDown: New Years Revolution, there will be a Triple Threat match between Styles, Orton, and Knight and the winner of that match will get Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. This was a pretty basic segment, but it did what it needed to do in terms of laying the foundations for Roman’s next challenger.
Grade: C+
It was then time for the first match of the night as Damage CTRL took on the team of Bianca Belair, Michin, Shotzi, and Zelina Vega in an 8-Woman Holiday Havoc Match. This was alright, but I’ve seen plenty more enjoyable and creative matches that have similar stipulations to this. However, at least this match had a storyline as Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn made their return to TV to take out Asuka and Kairi Sane of The Kabuki Warriors before Michin ultimately won the match by pinning the WWE Women’s Champion Iyo Sky. Whilst Damage Control shouldn’t have lost this match, at least Mia Yim is someone different for The Genius of the Sky to face.
Grade: C+
NXT North American Championship: Dragon Lee VS Butch, Carmelo Hayes VS Kevin Owens, Bobby Lashley VS Santos Escobar: United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament (Semi-Finals)
Roman Reigns told Paul Heyman to get him Nick Aldis before we had an NXT North American Championship match as Dragon Lee put his Title on the line against Butch (of The Brawling Brutes). This match started off a little slow as Butch worked on the digits of Lee, but once this contest got going, it was really good. Both guys are really good in the ring and there were a couple of great sequences where both guys ended up on top. In the end, Dragon Lee was able to retain his NXT North American Championship after dropping Butch with Operation Dragon, and yeah, this was good stuff.
Grade: B-
Roman Reigns met Nick Aldis for the first time and told him that every idea goes through him. However, Aldis didn’t agree with this and told The Tribal Chief that he can’t wait to see him put his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship on the line at the Royal Rumble. This was really good stuff from both guys. It was then time for the first Semi-Final in the United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament as Kevin Owens took on NXT’s Carmelo Hayes. Both Melo and KO are two of my favourites in WWE so it was great to see them go at each other. This was also arguably the best match of the tournament so far as both guys looked like they could win at different points. However, in the end, Owens was able to score the victory after dropping Hayes with a Stunner, but it’s fair to say that KO had to work for this victory.
Grade: B-
Karrion Kross cut another fantastic video promo where he alluded to the fact that Superstars change after facing him. Kross also teased being joined by The Authors of Pain which would be pretty cool before it was time to see who would face Kevin Owens in the Final of the United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament as Bobby Lashley went one-on-one with Santos Escobar. I expected Santos to put up a good fight in this one, but he would ultimately lose to Bobby because Lashley is just too good. However, that didn’t happen as after a decently competitive match, two masked men appeared from nowhere to take out The Street Profits before The Emperor of Lucha Libre rolled up The All-Mighty for a surprise 3-count. After the match, the masked men were revealed as Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo which is very cool.
Grade: C+
AJ Styles VS Solo Sikoa
After Butch attacked Pretty Deadly and Logan Paul cut a video promo on both Kevin Owens and Santos Escobar, it was Main Event time as AJ Styles looked to get revenge on Solo Sikoa. This was very similar to pretty much every SmackDown Main Event over the past year where it never truly gets going like it should because that isn’t the point. The point here was after AJ dropped Solo with the Phenomenal Forearm, Roman Reigns arrived and attacked Styles to cause the disqualification before Randy Orton ran down to make the save. However, The Bloodline then took over the numbers advantage again thanks to Jimmy Uso before LA Knight showed up to (fully) make the save. However, before SmackDown went off the air, Styles, Orton, and Knight all started to brawl with one another as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion watched on with a smile on his face.
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