WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 07/08

Cody Rhodes Starts the Show, Baron Corbin VS Trick Williams: United States Championship

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Cody Rhodes coming down to the ring to demand an appearance from Randy Orton, after The Viper cost The American Nightmare at SummerSlam! CM Punk then arrived as Cody wanted to ask him if he knew that Randy was going to be there or not, with Punk quickly making it clear that he’s also angry! CM Punk was also happy to give Cody Rhodes another shot in the future, but before this, he has to deal with a returning Kevin Owens, who came down to the ring to make it clear to the reigning Undisputed WWE Champion that he doesn’t believe that he’s changed, and quite frankly, he can’t stand him one bit! Whilst Punk would fire back with comments about how he’s arrogant because he truly is The Best in the World, KO knows that winning the Title of CM Punk is only going to make matters sweeter! As soon as you have Kevin Owens back on your show, it automatically feels better to watch!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

After Charlotte Flair said that she’s going to punish Jade Cargill for what she did to Alexa Bliss, the opening match of the night saw Trick Williams get a rematch for the United States Championship against the new Champion, Baron Corbin! Just like their SummerSlam match, this was mostly missable; nothing of note exactly happened, and it’s also worth mentioning that shenanigans ensued once again! After Williams thought he was going to win with a Trick Shot, only for Corbin to put his hand on the bottom rope, Baron would nail Trick Willy with the US Title (again), stealing another victory as the referees are completely incompetent! Gosh, this feud sucks!

Grade: C-

Chelsea Green’s Championship Celebration, Cody Rhodes Interrupts Randy Orton

Sami Zayn wanted to congratulate Nick Aldis on his performance against Gunther at SummerSlam, but he’s none-too pleased about Aldis once again shafting him when it comes to the Undisputed WWE Championship! Sami and Kevin Owens then got into a tense chat (this was really good), before Baron Corbin was fuming with Cathy Kelley after she called Baron’s two wins over Trick Williams “upsets”! Corbin then got attacked by Carmelo Hayes, with Melo getting a US Title shot in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts next week, before Chelsea Green came down to the ring to celebrate becoming the brand-new WWE Women’s Champion! Chelsea thanked both herself and the fans for helping her get to where she is today, with Green also thanking Tiffany Stratton for being “such an amazing friend”! Before Tiffany could say anything to this, Fatal Influence interrupted them, with Jacy Jayne wanting a shot at Stratton’s Women’s United States Championship! Tiffy was happy to give Jacy this next week, but only if Fatal Influence puts their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line tonight! This was right out of the Robert Stone playbook, with this seemingly being WWE’s newest way to get to Championship matches! Anyway, the match itself was fine; I’d kind of assumed that it was going to either end in a DQ or Tiffany getting pinned, and to my surprise, neither of those things happened! Instead, after some interference by Jacy Jayne, Fatal Influence hit their finishing manoeuvre onto Chelsea Green as Fallon Henley pinned the reigning WWE Women’s Champion to successfully retain their Women’s Tag Team Titles! After the match was over, The Irresistible Forces showed up to beat up Chelsea some more, with Nia Jax standing tall with the WWE Women’s Title! Based on this booking, you’d think that WWE forgot that Chelsea Green is a World Champion, because she certainly wasn’t booked like one here!

Grade: C-

Damian Priest isn’t messing around anymore when it comes to The Tongans, whilst The War Raiders still have their eyes set on becoming double Champions! R-Truth then decided to announce that there’s going to be a Triple Threat match next week for the WWE Tag Team Championships, a piece of news that Priest wasn’t happy with in the slightest! For the first time since WrestleMania, the song “Voices” played out in the arena as Randy Orton made his way down to the ring after returning at SummerSlam! Before Randy could say anything, Cody Rhodes interrupted him straight away, with Orton quickly skedaddling back up the ramp as Rhodes got into the ring! Cody said he’s owed an explanation for everything that’s happened this year, with Randy laughing at this as he once again brought up the fact that Cody was the one who told him to be like this (I thought we’d moved past this storyline)! Orton realised at WrestleMania, however, that the best version of himself wasn’t going to be what wins him his 15th World Championship; it’s actually being the worst version of The Viper! Cody Rhodes then ended this segment with a killer line about how the only legend left to kill is The Legend Killer himself (he didn’t say it in these exact words, but this works too), and that’s actually quite an interesting story to explore!

Grade: B-

Johnny Gargano is STILL lying down backstage, whilst Sami Zayn’s “warning shot” to CM Punk didn’t exactly seem to scare The Best in the World! In fact, the Undisputed WWE Champion would much rather defend his Title against either Gargano or Candice LeRae, and I think that’s a splendid idea! Remember when Johnny Wrestling was seen as the literal best wrestler in the world?! Anyway, Michin would then laud Jade Cargill as “the greatest wrestler ever”, whilst Nikki Bella is out to punish Paige after Brie Bella suffered an injury! I don’t know why I’m still watching The Bella Twins in 2026, but at least it seems like Shinsuke Nakamura is going to be back for a bit, with The King of Strong Style cutting a pretty strong promo stating that help is coming! Naraku?

Charlotte Flair VS Jade Cargill

Credit: WWE

Finally, after years of teases, Charlotte Flair and Jade Cargill went one-on-one in the Main Event of this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown! If it feels like there haven’t been a ton of segments to review on this week’s episode of SmackDown, that’s because there really wasn’t! However, it’s still a decent article words-wise, and I have thoughts about this Main Event! On the one hand, it was actually good, with Charlotte doing a very good job of making Jade actually look like a competent wrestler! On the other hand, however, Cargill made a complete mess of each of the last 3 moves in this match, to the point where all of her hard work was basically undone! However, on a more positive note, Charlotte Flair won this match (via Natural Selection) because of two people: Alexa Bliss and a debuting Tatum Paxley! That’s right, after Alexa appeared on the ramp with Lily, the lights went out for a couple of seconds before they relit to see Paxley wipe out Michin and B-Fab with a great crossbody! I really like Tatum; I think she’s great, so I’m a big fan of this move! I’d also assume that this is leading to a 6-Woman Tag at some point, and it’s imperative that Pax doesn’t get pinned!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+