WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 08/05

Linus O'Howell
17 minutes ago
7 min read

Jacob Fatu Starts the Show, Tiffany Stratton VS Kiana James: Women’s United States Championship

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Jacob Fatu coming down to the ring for one final address ahead of his World Heavyweight Championship showdown against Roman Reigns at Backlash! Before Jacob could say much of anything, though, The Usos interrupted as Jimmy Uso asked Jacob if he’d thought about what’s going to happen when he loses to The Tribal Chief at Backlash! Jey Uso then butted in to say that Fatu hasn’t been thinking, before The Usos confirmed that Jacob’s family is going to be in attendance tomorrow! Why did they know that?! Anyway, the segment then ended with Jacob Fatu warning Jimmy and Jey of what’s going to happen to them if they cost him the match against Roman Reigns, and honestly, this was pretty basic!

Grade: C

Ricky Saints wasn’t very impressed with his treatment from Nick Aldis, feeling that going from facing “QB1 to QB4” was a sign of disrespect! Matt Cardona wasn’t having any of that, however, before Royce Keys once again hyped up Jacob Fatu! Solo Sikoa then failed at trying to recruit Keys to his Family Tree (also once again), before Kiana James challenged Tiffany Stratton for the Women’s United States Championship in the opening match of the night! Chelsea Green appeared from her bed before the start of this match, sending in a video for Tiffany Stratton after Tiffany hadn’t returned any of her messages or calls! The fact that Chelsea recently had heart surgery is insane! Anyway, I thought the match itself was pretty decent, with Tiffany and Kiana gelling well together. It does feel like that little bit of momentum that Kiana James was starting to build has died down, but I think that’s mostly down to WWE’s terrible booking of both her and Giulia! Even the ending to this match was booked weirdly, with KJ more annoyed at the referee for not counting, rather than her being annoyed at The Beautiful Madness for jumping on the apron to begin with! This just opened the door for Stratton to floor James, with a single Prettiest Moonsault Ever enough to earn a successful US Title defence for The Centre of the Universe!

Grade: C+

Damian Priest VS Talla Tonga, Cody Rhodes Steals Gunther’s Time, Matt Cardona VS Ricky Saints

Sami Zayn was beside himself with all of the stuff that Nick Aldis was doing for the Funeral of The Gingerbread Man, whilst R-Truth then gave Sami some flowers as he thought that they were family! Moving on, Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, and Charlotte Flair then followed that segment up with an even-worse backstage promo, with Charlotte and Rhea just acting like school children! Despite R-Truth’s offer, Damian Priest asked Truth to please stay in the back so that he could handle Talla Tonga by himself! The logic behind this made sense, with R-Truth not nearly 100%, whilst Damian said himself that he and The Judgment Day wrote the book on the numbers advantage (which maybe isn’t strictly true, but I see his point)! Anyway, the problem for DP was the arrival of Tama Tonga, as that resulted in Truth running down to make the save! However, this then meant that Priest had to save his Tag Team partner, meaning he took his eyes off the prize, opening the door for Talla Tonga to hit a T-Bone Chokeslam to get the win! Surely MFT aren’t going to win the WWE Tag Team Titles, right?!

Grade: C+

After Kit Wilson accidentally gave Danhausen the idea of teaming with himself to face Miz and Kit at Backlash, Gunther was ready to sign a contract to sign for Friday Night SmackDown, only to walk off after Cody Rhodes interrupted him on the TV in Nick Aldis’ office to do his entrance! This resulted in Paul Heyman having to come down to the ring to tell Cody that, whilst he’s not Gunther’s advocate, he does owe him a favour! That favour isn’t just getting Gunther a shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship, but potentially more importantly, to have that match in Europe! Clash in Italy, to be precise, and that’s a much better favour than just getting The Ring General a match against Cody Rhodes (because he can get that anyway)! Heyman then walked off with an interesting line about how everyone needs The Wiseman in the end, before Gunther attempted to once again jump Rhodes from behind, only for The American Nightmare to send the big Austrian packing! I appreciate that WWE has started building this feud whilst other feuds are being built for Backlash; that feels different!

Grade: C+

Whilst Solo Sikoa wants to be patient with regards to Royce Keys, the same could not be said about Tama Tonga, who wanted to get his hands on Keys immediately! Ricky Saints was then back in Florida as he was set to go one-on-one with Matt Cardona! I actually think this might have been the best match of the night in-ring-wise, but it was very much held back by the lack of crowd reaction! I feel like Oba Femi and Trick Williams tricked us (no pun intended) into thinking that everyone knows who NXT’s top stars are now, as the reactions for Ricky Saints since he debuted last week haven’t been particularly great! I find it especially worrying, however, that he didn’t get much of a reaction in Florida, the home state of NXT, but on the flip side, Saints did at least win here with a Rochambeau!

Grade: C+

Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, and Charlotte Flair VS Fatal Influence, Royce Keys VS Tama Tonga

Sami Zayn was once again losing his mind, this time to Johnny Gargano, whilst Rey Fenix told Sami to have a little respect for The Gingerbread Man, and that this isn’t the place to be having these feelings! Sami agreed, but why was he there for so long to begin with?! After another Blake Monroe hype video (she really needs to debut soon), Brie Bella and Paige arrived to talk about how they aren’t just some nostalgia act, that they’re the very best version of themselves, and that they welcome all challengers! This led to both Fatal Influence and The Irresistible Forces calling their shot, with Lash Legend and Nia Jax laying out the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions! This then led into the next match as Rhea Ripley teamed up with both Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair to take on Fatal Influence! I think Fatal Influence have made a really great impact since they joined the Main Roster a couple of weeks ago, with Jacy Jayne feeling like a genuine threat in this division! I will also echo what I said two weeks ago that Lainey Reid has really impressed me, also; she’s massively stepped up, and this whole group feels like a breath of fresh air on a show that’s been really struggling for a while! I could do without them facing Rhea, Alexa, and Charlotte, though, as Ripley and Flair are just awful together, at least when they’re not facing each other (anyway)! Interestingly, Jade Cargill made her first appearance since WrestleMania 42, attacking Ripley from behind, which opened the door for Jacy Jayne to nail Alexa Bliss with a Rolling Encore to get the win! After the match was over, Cargill and her Lackies (being Michin and B-Fab) attacked the three Babyfaces to stand tall! This Women’s Tag Team Division is something else!

Grade: C+

After The Usos “politely” told Royce Keys to stay out of family business in order to not catch the attention of The Tribal Chief, Royce headed down to the ring to take on Tama Tonga in the Main Event match of the night! The crowd also aren’t getting behind Royce Keys, which is potentially even more concerning given that this show was held in Jacksonville, but you know what, WWE should remain patient for now! The actual match itself was fine; it wasn’t the most interesting or engaging contest, but I do like what Tama Tonga brings to the table! The other thing that I liked was that Solo Sikoa kept stopping Talla Tonga from getting involved, almost like he was punishing Tama for going after someone that Solo told him not to! Eventually, Keys took advantage of this, delivering the Ultimate Spinebuster to get the win, with the post-match angle seeing Royce once again walk away from Sikoa!

Grade: C+

The Funeral of The Gingerbread Man

After Danhausen attempted to clone himself, and Shinsuke Nakamura continues to get in the ear of Tama Tonga, the final segment of this week’s Friday Night SmackDown, the final show before Backlash, saw a Live Funeral take place in order to honour the life of The Gingerbread Man! Throughout the night, we’d seen photos of The GBM being at all of the iconic WWE moments, including “Milk O’Mania” and Cody Rhodes dethroning Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 40 (there were plenty more, too)! We even got a video package to highlight some of Gingie’s great accomplishments, including climbing Mount Everest with both Trick Williams and Lil Yachty, before Trick sang a song to honour the life of his great friend (this song even included a choir)! Eventually, Sami Zayn stormed out, rightly fuming over the fact that this is the Main Event segment on SmackDown, a position that used to be sacred (something Sami knows very well about)! Sami then said that he was going to punish Trick for disrespecting him all this time, before Zayn attacked Williams for no good reason, to a chorus of boos! However, this is when The Gingerbread Man “rose from the dead”, with Lil Yachty getting out of the casket to smash Sami in the back with a candy cane kendo stick! Trick Williams then followed it up with a Trick Shot to stand tall, and my goodness me, how on earth do I grade this?! Honestly, Trick should be doing an awful lot better than this, but I still found it to be entertaining!