Bayley Interrupts “Team Bianca”, The Judgment Day VS The Street Profits: Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships
Becky Lynch’s music kicked off this week’s Friday Night SmackDown as Becky, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, and Shotzi all had a few words to say. Becky said that the main reason she’s on this team at WarGames is because she wants a fight whilst Shotzi talked about how unhinged she is. Bayley then interrupted the Babyface team to try to stir the pot between Lynch and Flair before a Tag Team match was agreed for the Main Event. Whilst this segment did set up the running theme of the show, that doesn’t mean that it was any good.
Grade: C
After a backstage segment where Bayley and Asuka agreed to team up to take on Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair (I really don’t know what happened because the audio cut off), it was time for the first match of the night as The Judgment Day put their Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships on the line against The Street Profits. Due to Montez Ford being from Chicago, The Profits were cheered massively in this contest, but it certainly didn’t seem to affect the team of Finn Balor and Damian Priest. The match itself was totally fine, but it played out as expected as after the Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley caused a distraction, Senor Money in the Bank dropped Ford before Balor hit the Coup de Grace to retain the Tag Team Titles for The Judgment Day. After this, we saw Bobby Lashley and B-Fab watching backstage, and it’s fair to say that The All Mighty wasn’t very happy.
Grade: C+
The Grayson Waller Effect (Featuring Kevin Owens), A-Town Down Under VS Kevin Owens and LA Knight, Carlito Promo, The Brawling Brutes VS Pretty Deadly
Becky Lynch seemed very annoyed with Charlotte Flair for speaking to Nick Aldis about her before we got a video package highlighting Dragon Lee. It was then time for the return of The Grayson Waller Effect as The Arrogant Aussie welcomed out his guest, Kevin Owens. However, it was actually Austin Theory just wearing a Kevin Owens t-shirt which was quite amusing before KO came out and cut a genuinely funny promo. Austin and Grayson then started to talk about LA Knight which of course meant The Megastar had to make an appearance and this set up a Tag Team match which was also good fun. LA Knight was the most-over guy on this show whilst Owens is so fun to watch. It also helps that they were in the ring with two incredibly talented competitors in the form of Theory and Waller. In the end, after KO delivered the Stunner to Mr. Waller, Knight dropped Theory right on his head with the BFT to get the victory. I definitely think all of this was the best part of the show.
Grade: B+ for The Grayson Waller Effect, B- for the Match
After Bianca Belair asked Becky Lynch to please trust Charlotte Flair this weekend, Carlito made his way down to the ring as he wasn’t at all happy with Santos Escobar. Carlito mostly spoke in Spanish before Santos Escobar made his way down to the ring to make it clear to his rival that he’s the reason why Rey Mysterio’s never coming back. This led to a brawl and after Santos was originally pulled away, The Emperor of Lucha Libre just magically appeared again and whipped out the arm of Carlito. Then, when Carlito was being helped to the back, Escobar attacked him again before Dragon Lee appeared to make the save. This was a good segment as it once again established Santos Escobar as a top-quality Heel.
Grade: B-
It was then time for some more Tag Team action as The Brawling Brutes faced Pretty Deadly for the 65,000th time. However, Ridge Holland clearly wasn’t interested in being there as after about two minutes, he just stormed off for no real reason which allowed Kit Wilson and Elton Prince to take over. Whilst Butch was able to get some offense in (including a Bitter End on Elton), Wilson was able to score the win with a roll-up and PD celebrated like they’d won the World Cup because they’re the best!
Grade: C+
Charlotte Flair and Shotzi had a nice interaction backstage before Nick Aldis announced that Carlito wouldn’t be cleared to compete at Survivor Series. However, Dragon Lee then walked in and demanded that he take Carlito’s place and that was something the SmackDown General Manager was more than happy to authorise. Lee-Escobar should be a really fun match if given time, but it’s also one that neither can really afford to lose. We then saw The Judgment Day hanging out in their Clubhouse and they had some final warnings for their opponents at WarGames.
Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair VS Damage CTRL (Bayley and Asuka)
It was then time for the Main Event of the evening as Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair teamed up to take on Damage CTRL’s Bayley and Asuka. Given that you can make a strong case that these are the four greatest female Wrestlers/Superstars in WWE history, it was cool to see them having a match in the Main Event and I thought it was a decent showing with a good story. Whilst it’s not clear whether Asuka likes Bayley or not, it’s very clear that Becky Lynch doesn’t like Charlotte, and that showed when Flair accidentally speared Asuka onto Lynch who was covering The Role Model. This then led to a tense confrontation between the two Babyfaces which allowed Bayley to roll up The Man for the victory. This was pretty strong stuff from a storyline point of view. However, given Bayley won this match, I’m now very worried that Damage CTRL are going to lose in WarGames which would not be a very good idea.
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