WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 05/09

Linus O'Howell
Sep 6
3 min read

John Cena Starts the Show, Sami Zayn VS John Cena: United States Championship

The first SmackDown after Clash in Paris started with John Cena as the 17-time World Champion cut a promo simply thanking the fans of Chicago for everything they’ve given to him over the years! John confirmed that this would indeed be his final SmackDown appearance, and this is when Sami Zayn came out to thank him for everything he’s done for his career! Sami then asked John for his permission to start doing his own United States Championship Open Challenge, and his first opponent ended up being Cena himself! This was a little bit silly in the sense that Cena’s open challenge was all about underappreciated talent getting a shot, but the actual match itself was good! John Cena was once again busting out all sorts of moves, from GTS to Spears, and Sami Zayn kept kicking out like he was performing on NXT Takeover! As expected, this match didn’t end clean, and that was down to the arrival of Brock Lesnar, as The Beast Incarnate dropped both Cena and Zayn with multiple F5’s!

Grade: B

Aleister Black VS Damian Priest, Giulia VS Michin: Women’s United States Championship

Carmelo Hayes was trying to get himself an opportunity at the United States Championship, but The Miz interrupted and got them a WWE Tag Team Titles shot instead, before Becky Lynch arrived at the All-State Arena! It was then time for the second match of the night as Aleister Black went one-on-one with Damian Priest! Before the match even started, Aleister attacked Damian from behind, giving him a key advantage during the contest, and that’s exactly how it played out, with Priest struggling to stand! Damian did have plans to drop his rival with a South of Heaven, but Black decided to hold onto the ref, allowing him to then hit a Black Mass to score the win! I very much expect there to be another match between these two; I’d be surprised if it ended this way!

Grade: C+

Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton had a quick back-and-forth video promo before Tiffany Stratton cut her own promo on Jade Cargill! Cargill and Nia Jax then got into a war of words backstage before Nick Aldis kindly asked Becky Lynch not to ruin his show tonight! It was then already time for the show’s Main Event as Giulia put her Women’s United States Championship on the line against Michin! This was totally fine, nothing really wrong with it, but I’m not sure having Michin consistently fighting for the US Title is exactly a good idea! Kiana James also got involved plenty of times, and she ultimately distracted Michin enough for Giulia to deliver an Arrivederci Knee to score the 1,2,3!

Grade: C+

A Welcome Return

After a terrible backstage segment between Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, the final segment on this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown saw Seth “Freakin” Rollins appear in the crowd as he gave a grand entrance to his wife, Becky Lynch! Becky talked trash about Chicago, saying their sports teams suck (but not The Bears, that’s important!), and this brought out CM Punk to a raucous reaction from his home fans! After more mockery by Lynch, Punk made it clear that whilst he wouldn’t attack a woman, he knows someone who would! This then brought out the big return of AJ Lee, someone who hasn’t been in the company for well over 10 years, and she got a massive reaction as she beat up Becky to close the show! This was a pretty big moment, especially for AJ Lee herself, and that’s a pretty massive Mixed Tag Team match that we’re set to get!