WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 08/08

John Cena Starts the Show, MFT VS Motor City Machine Guns

After a recap package of Summerslam, John Cena arrived to kickoff this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown as John cut an emotional promo in front of the Montreal crowd! Cena said he’s worried that people will forget him when he’s gone and that he’s never going to be enough for them! Cena also said that he’ll fight Brock Lesnar whenever, as well as anyone in the back, and that’s when Logan Paul came out and challenged the 17-time World Champion to a match at Clash in Paris! Drew McIntyre then attacked John Cena from behind, but Cody Rhodes ran down to make the save, setting up a Tag Team match for the Main Event! This was all totally fine!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

After the Motor City Machine Guns cut a promo talking about them not being 100% following their Summerslam TLC Match, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley were involved in the first match of the night as they had to deal with MFT! This was totally fine, nothing really to write home about, Tonga Loa kept trying to get involved to help Talla Tonga and JC Mateo out, but they ultimately didn’t need it as they won anyway! It now seems like Solo Sikoa’s MFTs want to become WWE Tag Team Champions!

Grade: C

Solo Sikoa VS Sami Zayn, Charlotte Flair VS Chelsea Green

Following MFT’s victory, Solo Sikoa cut a promo talking about how he doesn’t want to wrestle in Montreal, which is when Nick Aldis came out to reveal that he would be having a match next, and his opponent just so happened to be hometown hero Sami Zayn! The crowd were amazing here, they absolutely love Sami Zayn, and this always gives me nice memories back to the 2023 Elimination Chamber (the good old days)! Solo also doesn’t like Sami anyway, so he was even more annoyed here, but that annoyance ultimately cost Sikoa as Zayn was able to sneak away with a roll-up victory over the United States Champion!

Grade: B-

Charlotte Flair told Alexa Bliss that she has a surprise for her before The Wyatt Sick6 had a video promo! DIY and The Street Profits once again weren’t getting on backstage, so Nick Aldis booked a Tag Team match for next week before Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair arrived for a WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships victory celebration! What this basically was was that Charlotte was the main talking point, as always, but she did give Alexa a new “Charlie” doll to go alongside Lilly! This brought out The Secret Hervice who were disgusted by all of this, with Chelsea Green particularly not impressed given it’s her home country! After a quick interruption for The Miz to tell Carmelo Hayes that he’d gotten them a match next week, it was time for Charlotte Flair to go one-on-one with Ms. Chelsea Green! This match was alright, both women are talented, the crowd were into it, so it ticked all the boxes as far as a TV match goes! For some reason, Chelsea Green wanted Alexa Bliss’ Birthday Cake to be brought into the ring, but this backfired miserably as Flair dropped Green face-first onto the cake before she locked in the Figure-8, forcing Chelsea to tap! That cake looked nice, and now it’s destroyed!

Grade: C+

Tiffany Stratton cut a backstage promo talking about how nobody is capable of beating her before Jade Cargill walked in to say that the result will be different the next time they face off! Giulia and Kiana James then walked over, with Kiana handing her business card to Jade, before Michin asked for it off Cargill! Aleister Black then had his own video promo where he basically said he’s going to kill Damian Priest (not joking) before John Cena had a fun backstage interaction with R-Truth!

Cody Rhodes and John Cena VS Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul

And just like that, it was Main Event time as Cody Rhodes teamed up with John Cena to take on the duo of Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul! This is kind of a crazy match to have on SmackDown, especially unadvertised, because these are arguably 4 Main Eventers/top stars! I think Drew and Logan work well together, their characters gel together well, but if I’m being honest, I don’t like how quickly Cena has become a hero again, that doesn’t make any sense after everything he’s done the past 5 months! As for the match itself, it was fine, but it didn’t end clean as Logan Paul went low to cause a DQ finish before Paul and Cena brawled to the back! Meanwhile, back at ringside, Drew McIntyre nailed Cody Rhodes with his Undisputed WWE Championship before he sent Rhodes crashing through the bottom of the announce table via a Claymore! This was actually an insane spot, but incredibly cool at the same time!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-