Trish Stratus Starts the Show, Tiffany Stratton VS Chelsea Green
After Cody Rhodes was taken to his fancy locker room (courtesy of The Final Boss), Friday Night SmackDown this week kicked off with Trish Stratus as the hometown hero talked about how crazy it is for her to be wrestling alongside Tiffany Stratton tomorrow! Tiffany then made her way down to the ring to cut a not great promo before Chelsea Green and Piper Niven interrupted as Chelsea made it clear that Canada sucks! This then led into the first match of the night as the WWE Women’s Champion clashed with the Women’s United States Champion in what on paper is quite a cool match. In terms of the action thing, however, whilst there were some decent moments, it ended in a Disqualification as Nia Jax and Candice LeRae arrived to take out Tiffany and Trish, only for the good guys to stand tall by the end! This wasn’t the best start to the show in my opinion, which is a shame because there were plenty of talented people involved!
Grade: C
Andrade VS Jacob Fatu: United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Qualifying Match, Los Garza VS The Street Profits, Men’s Elimination Chamber Promo Segment
After Solo Sikoa gifted Jacob Fatu his spot in the United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament and R-Truth was hanging out in Cody Rhodes’ new locker room, Andrade took on Jacob Fatu in the first match of the mini US Title Tournament! This was a good match, I thought both men did well, Andrade looked really good whilst Jacob Fatu is simply a Superstar! The one dive that Andrade did was particularly impressive, but despite that, Fatu was too strong for El Idolo as he delivered a Moonsault to get the win!
Grade: B-
After Nick Aldis calmed down a potential backstage brawl between The Street Profits and Legado Del Fantasma, Aldis booked a Tag Team match between The Profits and Los Garza, but that match never actually happened as DIY attacked Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins during their entrance! Pretty Deadly and Motor City Machine Guns also joined the chaos, causing a mass brawl that was almost impossible to stop! It’s safe to say that the SmackDown Tag Team Division is utter chaos, but the WrestleMania match should be great!
Grade: C+
During a John Cena video package, Drew McIntyre interrupted to say he’d had enough of that as Drew took shots at Cena for failing to show up to work! Damian Priest then interrupted to remind McIntyre of what happened the last time these two men were in this arena together before Seth “Freakin” Rollins came out to make it clear that he only cares about the future and his future is Main Eventing WrestleMania! Speaking of Main Eventing WrestleMania, CM Punk came out to give us the full Mania 40 quartet as Punk said that no one’s on his level, including John Cena, and that he’s going to headline WrestleMania this year! John Cena’s music then hit, but it was actually Logan Paul (which was pretty great) as Logan said his piece before Punk chased him off! This was a well done segment, it got all the Men’s Elimination Chamber participants (minus Cena) in the same segment together, and I particularly enjoyed the bit between McIntyre and Priest!
Grade: B-
LA Knight VS Santos Escobar, Sami Zayn Calls Out Kevin Owens, Braun Strowman VS Carmelo Hayes: United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Qualifying Matches
It was then time to go straight into another match as LA Knight took on Santos Escobar in the next match in the United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament! This was another good match, Santos Escobar is so damn talented, and it was nice to see the crowd reacting to him a little more here! LA Knight is also still over with the crowd which is great to see, and even though the result was pretty obvious, the action itself made up for that! Also, the finish was amazing as Knight caught Escobar with a BFT mid-air to get the win, and that was super cool!
Grade: B-
Sami Zayn came out next to a lovely reaction as the Canadian Superstar talked about his history with Kevin Owens which is why he’s inviting Kevin out to have a conversation! However, KO appeared on the big screen as he was already at the Rogers Centre, and Owens made it very clear that when he ends Sami’s career tomorrow, he won’t help his Family, and instead will happily watch them suffer! Zayn then ended the segment telling KO that he’s nervous for what he's going to do to him tomorrow, and yeah, this was simple, but Kevin’s line was very effective!
Grade: B-
The Miz was trying to teach Carmelo Hayes a few things before The Miz had an interesting interaction with Cody Rhodes where he told Cody that if he doesn’t take The Rock up on his offer, there’s a chance that someone else will! Braun Strowman then made his way down to the ring as it was time for him to go one-on-one with Carmelo Hayes! Braun beat up Carmelo in the early stages, but Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga arrived to try and take out Strowman, and after a genius move by Hayes, the referee called for the bell to disqualify Braun, meaning Melo picked up the win and advanced to the United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match! Nicely done Melo!
Grade: C+
Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, and Roxanne Perez VS Bayley, Bianca Belair, and Naomi, Carmelo Hayes VS LA Knight VS Jacob Fatu: United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match
After Bianca Belair, Naomi, and Bayley all said that they’re going to WrestleMania, it was time for some 6-Woman Tag Team action as Bayley, Belair, and Naomi teamed up to take on the trio of Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, and Roxanne Perez! This was a solid match, I thought Bayley did pretty well here, and it was totally fine! As always with these types of matches, you don’t want to win them because it lowers your chances of winning at the Premium Live Event, and unfortunately for Roxanne Perez, she clearly wasn’t aware of this as The Prodigy nailed Bayley with Pop Rox to get the win! After the match, Alexa Bliss dropped Perez with a Sister Abigail, and that probably means that she’s not winning either!
Grade: C+
After a Shinsuke Nakamura video package, it was time for the Main Event match of the night as Carmelo Hayes, LA Knight, and Jacob Fatu collided for the right to be the Number 1 Contender for Shinsuke’s United States Championship! This was probably the best match of the night, I thought all 3 men did really well, Carmelo in particular, and it wasn’t fully clear who was going to get the win which was pretty cool! I mean, Jacob Fatu would be in control plenty of times, but I also bought Melo winning following Nothin’ but Net (Fatu broke it up with a dive)! Ultimately, Fatu had Hayes beat following a Moonsault, but Knight pulled out The Samoan Werewolf out of the ring and stole the victory, meaning The Megastar will take on Shinsuke Nakamura down the line!
Grade: B
Cody Rhodes Ends the Show
After CM Punk gave him some advice, Cody Rhodes came out to end this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown as the Undisputed WWE Champion was set for an interview with Michael Cole! However, that didn’t really happen as Cody didn’t say much before a brand-new truck was brought out, custom made for Cody from none other than The Final Boss! The Rock then appeared on the titantron to try and influence Rhodes’ decision, making it clear that he can give him whatever he wants as long as he does the right thing! The segment then ended with Rocky getting into his private jet to fly to Toronto, and yeah, this was alright, but it didn’t further the story much!
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