WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 03/04

Randy Orton Returns Home, Rhea Ripley VS Michin

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Randy Orton returning home to a raucous reaction from the St. Louis crowd! Randy made it clear that he’s not going to win a 15th World Championship for them, but for himself and his family! I think this was supposed to annoy the crowd, but they just cheered even louder! This brought out Cody Rhodes, who shockingly got attacked by none other than Pat McAfee! Pat then revealed himself as the man who’s been on the phone to Randy, stating that the current WWE product is awful, and that Cody Rhodes is the face of it all! The segment then ended with Orton and McAfee walking off as Pat said that they’re going to “save Wrestling”! I certainly didn’t expect to see Pat McAfee back, but I have to say that the large majority of what McAfee said was correct; WWE has been poor recently, especially SmackDown!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

Pat McAfee clearly didn’t care about saving the rest of the show as he and Randy Orton got into a car and just left (whilst Randy’s family was in the front row), before Rhea Ripley faced Michin in the opening match of the night! This was a decent match; we know how talented Rhea Ripley is when it comes to in-ring ability, and I do think Michin goes under the radar for just how talented she actually is! There were some genuinely good bumps here, particularly when Michin fell onto the top of her shoulders, and in the end, it was Ripley who scored the victory via submission (in the Prism Lock)! After the match was over, B-Fab and Jade Cargill pulled off another post-match beatdown, only for Iyo Sky to run down to make the save! It’s almost like they should never have been split up in the first place!

Grade: B-

Uncle Howdy VS Tama Tonga, Sami Zayn Addresses the WWE Universe, Aleister Black VS Matt Cardona

After Matt Cardona had had enough of hearing Aleister Black and Zelina Vega’s nonsense, Tama Tonga was again adamant that the Wyatts’ Lantern was doing far more harm than good to Solo Sikoa! Solo then sent Tama down to the ring to try and deal with Uncle Howdy, a mission he failed! I thought the action in this match was fine, but this story has been so dull for so long that it’s practically impossible to care! Solo Sikoa came down to ringside, despite being told to stay in the back, to try and help Tonga, but this ultimately cost the MFT member as Howdy delivered a Sister Abigail to get the win! After the match was over, Tama Tonga grabbed the lantern off Solo Sikoa and gave it back to Uncle Howdy, and my goodness me, what a terrible way to end all of this! I’m genuinely at a loss for words!

Grade: D

Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky were delighted to be back together, whilst R-Truth decided to give The Miz and Kit Wilson a WWE Tag Team Championships opportunity! Jacob Fatu then delivered a well-put-together video promo before Sami Zayn was supposed to head down to the ring to address the WWE Universe! However, Trick Williams got there first, with Trick inviting his friend Lil Yachty to come to WrestleMania with him! Whilst Lil Yachty was pretty annoying, I did thoroughly enjoy that Williams stole Sami Zayn’s pyro; that was fantastic! Eventually, Sami came down to the ring to basically get booed out of the building by the St. Louis crowd, whilst Trick Williams, the clear Heel, was getting massively cheered! Carmelo Hayes also arrived to demand a rematch for his United States Championship, making it clear that he wasn’t asking, he was telling! The crowd were firmly behind Carmelo here, chanting “We Want Melo”, and I have to say that this was the most “NXT Hayes” we’ve seen on the Main Roster to date! Whilst Sami didn’t want to give Melo a rematch, Trick basically goaded him into it, with it being agreed as the show’s Main Event! This was a very effective segment; I’ve waited a long time to see Carmelo Hayes get a reaction like this!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

After Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga both agreed to refocus on what’s important, Aleister Black headed down to the ring to go one-on-one with Matt Cardona! Aleister Black is doing quite well for himself right now; he has decent matches every time he goes out there, and he tends to win a lot (too)! Matt Cardona probably is about as midcard as you can come when it comes to being a WWE Superstar, but in fairness to Matt, he’s also on SmackDown regularly (which is a testament to all of the great work he did outside of WWE since 2020)! As expected, Aleister scored the win with a pretty wicked Black Mass, and I’d assume that this is definitely leading somewhere when it comes to challenging for Championship Gold!

Grade: C+

Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair VS Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, Damian Priest and R-Truth VS The Miz and Kit Wilson: WWE Tag Team Championships, Cody Rhodes Promo

Bayley and Lyra Valkyria are more determined than ever to win Tag Team Gold after the past year that they’ve had together, whilst Johnny Gargano made it clear to R-Truth that at NXT Stand and Deliver, Johnny Wrestling’s Back! Damian Priest was then mightily confused as to why The Miz and Kit Wilson were getting a shot at their WWE Tag Team Championships, to which Truth responded by explaining that both men had been cursed by Asuka! At least his reasoning made sense! Anyway, after Drew McIntyre said that he’s going to expose “the real” Jacob Fatu next week, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair took on the duo of Bayley and Lyra Valkyria! Once again, Bayley and Lyra are the only ones who are worth watching in this WWE Women’s Tag Team Title storyline, and that’s simply because they’re both so good in the ring! I’ve said it many times that I don’t enjoy the partnership of Alexa and Charlotte, but at least they were also able to wrestle a clean match here! Ultimately, it was Bliss and Flair who managed to score the win following a Sister Abigail to Valkyria, but they wouldn’t stand tall for long as The Irresistible Forces showed up to floor them all!

Grade: B-

Whilst Danhausen did offer to reverse the curse if The Miz and Kit Wilson let him come down to ringside with them, Miz quickly refused, which quickly proved to be the wrong decision as Miz and Kit were just about to challenge R-Truth and Damian Priest for the WWE Tag Team Championships! This was mostly just a nothing match for the large majority, with not much happening up until the arrival of Danhausen! See, for some reason, Danhausen wanted The Miz to tag him in, something that’s definitely not allowed, but instead, R-Truth tagged him in! The Miz was furious about this, so Danhausen went to curse him, only to strike the referee instead! This then played into the finish as just when The Miz was about to get the win, the referee pulled his shoulder! This then opened the door for Damian Priest to drop Miz with a South of Heaven to get the win, successfully retaining his and Truth’s Tag Team Titles! As far as creativity goes, this was impressive!

Grade: B-

Following the conclusion to the previous match, Cody Rhodes decided that it was okay for him to attack Kit Wilson, before Cody cut a fired-up promo trashing Pat McAfee! Rhodes also brought up the fact that he’s not sure if he can be a killer anymore, and I’m sorry, but I’m sick of this story; Rhodes has been telling this same story for donkeys now! In fairness, Cody delivered his promo very well, with his line referencing what happened the last time he got released being pretty damn strong! However, please stop with the “Can Cody pull the trigger” narrative!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

United States Championship: Sami Zayn VS Carmelo Hayes

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Carmelo Hayes looked to recapture his United States Championship in a rematch with Sami Zayn! The crowd clearly weren’t too excited to see Sami again, whilst they were cheering for Carmelo to win his gold back! Zayn and Hayes have had some pretty good matches in the past; this wasn’t to that level, though! However, that was mostly down to the story that was being told, with Melo injuring his leg after nailing a dive to the outside! Eventually, the pain would become too much for the former A-Champion, with the referee having to make sure that he was still able to compete on a number of different occasions! However, Sami Zayn didn’t care about this as he just nailed Hayes with a Helluva Kick to get the win! After the match was over, Trick Williams beat up Sami as Lil Yachty talked even more nonsense! We wanted Melo to be the third person in this WrestleMania feud, not Lil Yachty!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C