WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 03/07

Sami Zayn’s Championship Celebration, Tiffany Stratton, Charlotte Flair, and Chelsea Green VS Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab

After a recap of Night of Champions, this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Sami Zayn celebrating finally becoming a World Champion! Sami is delighted to have finally won the Undisputed WWE Championship, with him proving all the doubters wrong whilst also establishing himself as one of the all-time greats! This brought out Cody Rhodes, who wanted to congratulate “his friend” on becoming Champion, but it was pretty clear to Zayn that Cody just wants his Title back! Jey Uso also then appeared to congratulate Sami, but he too made it clear that he needs to bring more gold back to the family! This is when Sami Zayn rightly pointed out the fact that both World Championships are already in the family (something I’ve been saying for ages), before Zayn ended things by telling both Jey and Cody to leave him alone, that this is his time now! However, one person who didn’t agree with that statement was Adam Pearce, who decided to book a Number 1 Contender’s match for the Main Event, where the winner would challenge Sami for his Undisputed WWE Championship this Monday! What?! I don’t like that at all, but what I did like was Sami Zayn’s promo; he was great here!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

After Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair acted like school children, Charlotte teamed up with Tiffany Stratton and Chelsea Green to take on the trio of Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab in the opening match of the night! The positive of this match was that the crowd were actually quite into it, which is a rarity these days, although that was mostly due to Chelsea Green’s involvement! Chelsea was the one who got the hot tag, further cementing herself as a Babyface, but as expected, Green was always going to be the one who took the pin here! A Jaded to Chelsea would see Jade Cargill’s team score the win, and I really don’t need to keep seeing them every week!

Grade: C+

AAA Cruiserweight Championship: Rey Fenix VS El Hijo del Vikingo, Carmelo Hayes Interrupts Trick Williams, Brie Bella VS Lainey Reid

Sami Zayn wasn’t at all impressed with Adam Pearce’s decision to book him in a World Title match so soon after winning it, whilst Sami would then tell Johnny Gargano that he couldn’t have done this without him! Is this Gargano story ever going to be paid off, because I’m tired of waiting! Randomly, the AAA Cruiserweight Championship was on the line next as Rey Fenix put his Title on the line against El Hijo del Vikingo! This was honestly the most random match that we could’ve possibly gotten, with both guys actually carrying gold as El Hijo del Vikingo is the reigning AAA Latin American Champion! We also saw Vikingo get taken out by Keanu Carver on this week’s NXT, but clearly, he’s recovered since then, and as random as all of this was, at least we got to see a fun match! This almost felt like an advert for AAA, which if it was, hopefully it works! Due to the Championship being on the line, Fenix was victorious with a Mexican Muscle Buster, and I’m now intrigued to see whether we get a rematch for Vikingo’s Title at some point down the line!

Grade: B-

Giulia and Kiana James were going back-and-forth on the mic backstage, up until the point where Blake Monroe attacked The Beautiful Madness! Kiana thought that this was hilarious, so Blake wiped her out, too! Jacob Fatu then seemed completely disinterested in what Royce Keys was trying to tell him, before Trick Williams and Lil Yachty headed down to the ring! Those two were quickly interrupted by Carmelo Hayes, a man who wants his United States Championship back! Trick and Melo went back-and-forth, with Hayes saying that Williams has turned the US Title into an accessory, rather than being the “Match of the Night” Championship that Carmelo had made it! Eventually, Lil Yachty agreed to give Carmelo Hayes a non-Title match against Trick Williams next week, whilst Trick would then slap Melo, leading to Hayes wiping them both out with a crazy dive to the outside! I would assume that Melo’s going to win that match to set up the Title shot at Summerslam!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

Danhausen wanted Matt Cardona to test out his newest piece of equipment, but this was a bit of a disaster as it made The Miz and Kit Wilson go insane! Lainey Reid was then looking to turn the fortune of Fatal Influence around when she went one-on-one with one half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Brie Bella! Every week I’ve watched Fatal Influence lose to Brie Bella and Paige in some sort of way, with it honestly becoming a bit ridiculous! So, I fully expected that to happen again, with my interest levels pretty low anyway when it comes to this torrid WWE Women’s Tag Team Division! However, to my complete shock, chaos on the outside between Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Paige eventually opened the door for Lainey Reid to shockingly pin Brie Bella, setting up a Tag Title match at Saturday Night’s Main Event! I am stunned!

Grade: C+

Undisputed WWE Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match: Cody Rhodes VS Jey Uso

After R-Truth and Damian Priest agreed to face The War Raiders in a Winner Takes All match, the Main Event of this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown saw Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso compete for the right to challenge Sami Zayn for the Undisputed WWE Championship! This match didn’t get an awful lot of time, at least it didn’t feel that way, and it wasn’t exactly that good either! Cody and Jey have been two of WWE’s biggest Babyfaces over the past few years, but there wasn’t really any hype here; I certainly didn’t feel any anyway! The action also wasn’t that great, with the ending in particular being quite sloppy, whilst I’m also not sure that it was a good choice to have Uso kick out of a Cross Rhodes! Ultimately, though, Jey was never going to kick out of two Cross Rhodes, with The American Nightmare moving on to challenge Sami this Monday in Chicago!

Grade: C