Queen of the Ring Semi-Final: Bianca Belair VS Nia Jax
Live from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with a Queen of the Ring Semi-Final as Bianca Belair and Nia Jax clashed for a spot in the Final! I thought this was a decent start to the show, the wrestling was totally fine, and it’s nice to see Nia Jax getting positioned in these roles as she’s one of the better Superstars in the Women’s Division. Bianca did sell her knee in this contest which is a good thing, and amazingly, it actually cost The EST for once as Belair wasn’t able to hit the K.O.D. and this allowed Jax to hit the Annihilator to score the win! After the match, Nia cut a promo on Lyra Valkyria (who was watching from the front row) and that should be a good one!
Grade: B-
The Grayson Waller Effect, A-Town Down and Carmelo Hayes VS LA Knight and The Street Profits, Logan Paul Interrupts Cody Rhodes, Bayley VS Chelsea Green
Bianca Belair was trash-talked by Tiffany Stratton as well as Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell backstage before Jade Cargill walked in. This actually set up a WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match for today’s Countdown Show which is certainly interesting! It was then time for The Grayson Waller Effect as A-Town Down Under were once again bragging about themselves. However, Carmelo Hayes then arrived to join in the trash-talking of older wrestlers before LA Knight arrived to cut this off. A brawl then started before The Street Profits arrived to set up a Six-Man Tag! This was a simple house show style match, with the Babyfaces getting most of the offense in whilst the Heels sold well. To be fair, Carmelo Hayes and Montez Ford had a couple of good moments together, but I did find it out that it wasn’t DIY teaming up with LA Knight. Anyway, towards the end, Knight tackled Melo over the announce table to take them both out of the equation before Ford hit a Frog Splash onto Waller to get the win.
Grade: C+ (Overall)
Blair Davenport got a video package/promo which is always a good thing before we got an interesting moment between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. Cody then headed to the ring to speak his mind, but he was very quickly interrupted by his upcoming opponent, Logan Paul! Cody and Logan both went on at each other as to who’s better before a referee found some brass knuckles in the pocket of Paul. Rhodes then said he will always be better than the United States Champion before the segment ended. I’m sorry, but this wasn’t very good, and this feud isn’t working at all!
Grade: C-
Randy Orton cut a promo on Tama Tonga before Bayley came face-to-face with Nia Jax. The Street Profits then had an interaction with DIY which resulted in Tommaso Ciampa spilling Montez Ford’s drink before it was time for Bayley to go one-on-one with Chelsea Green. This was decent to start with, with Chelsea Green getting a decent amount of offense in compared to usual, but we then went to an ad break, and when we came back, the WWE Women’s Champion hit the Rose Plant about 20 seconds later and scored the win! This came from completely nowhere, but the aftermath was good as Piper Niven flattened The Role Model with not 1, not 2, but 3 running sentons! This match was odd, but I enjoyed the post-match angle!
Grade: C+ (Match and Post-Match Angle Combined)
AJ Styles had a big conversation with Nick Aldis about wanting/needing one last shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship. Whilst Aldis clearly wanted to give it to him, the SmackDown General Manager can’t just hand out opportunities which seemed to really hurt The Phenomenal One. Andrade then had a video package which is always cool before Legado Del Fantasma watched on in disgust!
King of the Ring Semi-Final: Randy Orton VS Tama Tonga
After Paul Heyman voiced his concern to Solo Sikoa over the dangerous people Solo’s bringing into The Bloodline, it was Main Event time as Randy Orton took on Tama Tonga in the King of the Ring Semi-Finals! This was the first proper match I’ve seen Tama Tonga in, and he looked pretty decent against a veteran in the form of Randy Orton. The action here itself was decent, but what I was intrigued to see was how either guy would lose here. In the end, it was actually pretty simple as Orton just dropped Tonga with an RKO to book his place in the Final. Okay, fair enough then! After the match, Solo Sikoa attempted to attack Orton from behind before Kevin Owens returned to make the save!
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