WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 06/06

Seth “Freakin” Rollins Starts the Show, Jimmy Uso VS JC Mateo

Seth “Freakin” Rollins arrived to kick off this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown as Seth, flanked by Paul Heyman, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed, wanted to address Money in the Bank! Seth Rollins made it very clear that he’s going to be the one leaving tomorrow night as Mr. Money in the Bank and that anyone who steps in front of them will get dealt with! This brought out The Bloodline as Solo Sikoa questioned this, asking Seth about his “new Bloodline” before we got an awesome face-off between Bron Breakker and Jacob Fatu! What I loved about this segment is Rollins defended Paul Heyman as soon as Solo Sikoa started “threatening him”, and that’s something Roman Reigns never did! This actually then led into the first match of the night as Jimmy Uso took on JC Mateo! This was fine, I’ve not been particularly wowed by anything that JC Mateo has done so far, and Jimmy Uso is pretty average! However, I did like the bits between JC and Jacob Fatu as after Mateo bumped Fatu off the ring apron, Big Jim took advantage to sneak away with a roll-up win before JC blamed Fatu for his loss! This isn’t going to end well!

Grade: B- for the Promo Segment, C for the Match

Zelina Vega VS Piper Niven, Aleister Black VS LA Knight

Zelina Vega and Giulia had a war of words backstage before Damian Priest made it clear to Jacob Fatu that their paths will cross again down the line! It was then time for a “Bakersfield Brawl” as Zelina Vega clashed with Piper Niven! This was a decent match that benefited from the stipulation, it was good to see some weapons being used to add a little bit more entertainment! Unfortunately, we’ve seen Zelina Vega fight The Secret Hervice so much recently that it’s becoming a little stale, everyone involved needs to do something different! Interestingly, Giulia showed up towards the end of the match to attack Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre before she assisted Vega in sending Niven crashing through a table to get the win! However, after the match was over, The Beautiful Madness laid out the Women’s United States Champion!

Grade: C+

Jey Uso made it clear to both Cody Rhodes and Jimmy Uso that he is okay before Aleister Black cut a promo saying LA Knight stealing a win from him just doesn’t sit right! LA Knight then came out to cut a promo of his own on the Men’s Money in the Bank field before it was time for The Megastar to go one-on-one with Mr. Aleister Black! This was a pretty decent match, both guys put a lot of effort in, you could tell by the end that both guys were knackered, but that’s a good thing! This was a strange match to book the night before MITB on the basis that you wouldn’t really want to see either man lose right now, so WWE worked around it by having Seth “Freakin” Rollins show up and deliver a Stomp to cause the DQ! Black tried his best to make the save, but he got floored by a Bron Breakker Spear as The Visionary stood tall!

Grade: B-

Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, and Stephanie Vaquer VS Naomi, Giulia, and Roxanne Perez, American Made VS Penta and Andrade

Credit: PWMania

Both Jade Cargill and Charlotte Flair said they’re going to win this year’s Queen of the Ring tournament before Legado Del Fantasma cut a promo in Spanish, hyping themselves up ahead of World’s Collide! Chad Gable then got interrupted by both Andrade and Penta, leading to a Tag Team Match against American Made for later in the show before Tiffany Stratton came out to cut a promo on Money in the Bank! Tiffany said that the winner of the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match’s world will revolve around her, and this brought out Rhea Ripley who pointed out that the MITB Briefcase is basically the only thing she hasn’t won in her stacked career! Rhea was then accompanied by both Alexa Bliss and Stephanie Vaquer as it was time for those three to team up to take on the trio of Naomi, Giulia, and Roxanne Perez! All 6 of these women will enter what is an incredibly stacked Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, and there’re cases for a lot of these women to win tomorrow! As for this match, it was good, the bits between Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer were strong, they have a massive history together whilst Rhea VS Roxanne was also an intriguing battle! Towards the end of the match, Naomi left when Perez attempted to tag in, leaving the 3 Babyfaces to beat up The Prodigy before Ripley scored the win with Riptide! What a great strategy from Roxanne Perez!

Grade: B-

Solo Sikoa told JC Mateo that Jacob Fatu isn’t very smart, and Fatu overheard this! Oh my! Uncle Howdy then claimed that The Wyatt Sick6 are coming for the SmackDown Tag Team Division before The Street Profits, FRAXIOM, and the Motor City Machine Guns all said they wanted a piece of them! DIY were delighted about this, mainly because they’re scared! It was then time for the Main Event match of the night as American Made took on the pairing of Penta and Andrade! This was another decent match, Andrade and Penta worked well together, I could watch Andrade wrestle every day, and American Made are so underrated! Like honestly, The Creed Brothers have to become Tag Team Champions sooner rather than later, they’re far too good not to be! Chad Gable was attempting to support his team at ringside, but he got dealt with by El Hijo del Vikingo (who once again jumped the barricade) before Penta took advantage with a Mexican Destroyer to get the win! After the match, Seth “Freakin” Rollins and his crew once again showed up to take out more names in the Men’s Money in the Bank field!

Grade: B-

Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes Close the Show

Paul Heyman tried to cut a promo to put over the fact that everything Seth “Freakin” Rollins has said is going to happen, has happened! However, he was interrupted by both Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso, and whilst Seth decided to leave the ring with the rest of his crew, Cody and Jey were ready to cut a promo on their opponents at Money in the Bank, John Cena and Logan Paul! Honestly, Jey and Cody didn’t really say anything of note before John Cena’s music hit, opening the door for Logan Paul to nail Uso with the One Lucky Punch! John then dropped Cody with an AA before Cena and Paul cut a promo on how great they are and why they’re going to be victorious at MITB! The best part of this entire segment was when the crowd started to chant for R-Truth, Cena responded “you can’t handle the truth”, and my oh my, was that a killer line! The segment then ended with Cena flooring Rhodes with another AA as the crowd booed heavily! Whilst this is definitely not the most exciting match tomorrow, I do enjoy this Cena-Paul pairing!

Credit: WWE on YouTube

Grade: B