WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 07/11

Linus O'Howell
3 days ago
4 min read

Cody Rhodes Starts the Show, Ilja Dragunov’s United States Championship Open Challenge

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown started with Cody Rhodes, as the Undisputed WWE Champion made it clear that he is moving on from Drew McIntyre! In fact, Cody’s only focus is finding a new challenger for him to face, and that’s why he wants to sit with the crowd and watch the show as a fan/observer! However, this is when Aleister Black’s music hit, with Black stating that he has his eyes firmly set on the WWE Title, before Zelina Vega decided to slap Rhodes because why not, I suppose! This brought out Nick Aldis to book a match for the Main Event, and I guess this is quite cool!

Grade: B-

The first match of the night was all about Ilja Dragunov as The Mad Dragon hosted another Open Challenge for his United States Championship! Tommaso Ciampa once again answered the call, but he once again got tossed aside by Ilja as Dragunov handed the opportunity to Johnny Gargano instead! This led to a pretty fun match between two of the greatest NXT Superstars of all time, and I enjoyed it! The one Superkick that Johnny delivered to the back of Ilja’s neck was nasty, but despite everything, Dragunov was able to score another successful retention with an H-Bomb!

Grade: B

Charlotte Flair VS Nia Jax, Giulia VS Chelsea Green: Women’s United States Championship, Rey Fenix VS Talla Tonga

Sami Zayn made it clear to Nick Aldis that he won’t stand by and watch the MFT’s actions for much longer, before R-Truth told Aldis that he needs to be in John Cena’s Last Time is Now Tournament! FRAXIOM’s backstage antics then only furthered Tommaso Ciampa’s rage, before Jade Cargill came down to the ring to cut a 15-second promo! I have nothing to say on this matter! Jade then got in the face of both Chelsea Green and B-Fab backstage, before we finally got back to the in-ring action as Nia Jax looked to get revenge on Charlotte Flair! To be honest, this match wasn’t great; Charlotte and Nia’s in-ring chemistry is pretty terrible, and most of this felt like a waste of time! However, the ending proved otherwise, as Lash Legend appeared out of nowhere to rag-doll Alexa Bliss around, opening the door for Nia Jax to nail Charlotte with an Annihilator to get the win! This could actually be quite an effective way to fully debut Lash on the Main Roster; let’s hope it works out!

Grade: C+ (because of Lash)

Nick Aldis announced Jey Uso VS The Miz and LA Knight VS a mystery opponent as next week’s matches in The Last Time is Now Tournament, before Nia Jax and Lash Legend celebrated their brand-new friendship/partnership! A Title was then on the line next as Chelsea Green looked to dethrone Giulia for the Women’s United States Championship! This match was so odd, with Giulia in control of Chelsea, before Alba Fyre got involved, allowing Green to put her feet on the rope and score the win to become the brand-new Women’s United States Champion! This was so bizarre, like seriously, I’m very happy for Chelsea Green, and having her and Ethan Page as the Champions of North America is actually quite brilliant! However, this was a terrible way to book Giulia to lose the Title; I mean The Beautiful Madness’ reign hasn’t been well done at all, and this was another really poor moment for her!

Grade: C-

After Solo Sikoa told his MFTs that he wants more, Asuka and Kairi Sane dressed up as nurses to spit mist into the faces of Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair! I’m not making that up; it actually happened, and it was probably the best thing on this entire show! Anyway, MFT were then on their way down to the ring as Talla Tonga was set to go one-on-one with Rey Fenix! On one hand, this match did a very good job of making Talla Tonga look like a beast, something every member of MFT (besides Solo) really needs! However, on the other hand, this match made Rey Fenix look terrible, like I’m genuinely not sure why he was in this position! Anyway, if it wasn’t already clear, Tonga scored the win in what felt like a literal squash match!

Grade: C-

Cody Rhodes VS Aleister Black

After The Miz cut a fired-up promo about deserving to retire John Cena, it was Main Event time as Cody Rhodes faced Aleister Black in a non-title match! What I liked about this match is it was a battle between two different competitors that we wouldn’t usually expect to see fight! Yes, these two have faced each other in other promotions in the past, but this was quite a cool Main Event! As expected, it didn’t end clean, but the ending wasn’t what I expected as Drew McIntyre nailed the referee with a Claymore! Damian Priest then ran down to make the save, evening the odds, as Nick Aldis arrived to announce that Drew is officially suspended! I’m assuming this is all leading to a Tag Team match, and that should be quite exciting!