WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 09/05

Linus O'Howell
4 days ago
4 min read

The Bloodline VS Damian Priest and LA Knight

After Damian Priest and LA Knight talked backstage, this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Priest and Knight teaming up to take on The Bloodline! A lot of this match was contested between Damian and Solo Sikoa as Jacob Fatu was more than happy to watch on from the apron, but the United States Champion did become more involved later on as he went at it with LA Knight! Towards the end of the match, Damian Priest tagged himself in when LA was getting ready to hit the Megastar elbow, but Knight then returned the favour later on when Priest was looking for South of Heaven! Despite the lack of cohesion, though, Knight and Priest were able to get the win after The Megastar dropped Sikoa with a BFT before Jacob Fatu jumped them both, only for Drew McIntyre to nail Fatu with a Claymore to stand tall!

Grade: B-

Zelina Vega and ? VS Chelsea Green and Piper Niven, Charlotte Flair Promo, Jade Cargill VS Nia Jax: WWE Women’s Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match

R-Truth was waiting for John Cena to arrive at the building before Drew McIntyre cut a great promo on why he should be facing Jacob Fatu one-on-one at Backlash, not in a Fatal 4-Way! Honestly, Drew was spot on! Aleister Black then cut a promo talking about how he rediscovered himself before Zelina Vega interrupted Chelsea Green’s moaning session! This then led into a Tag Team match as Chelsea claimed that Zelina didn’t have any friends, but Vega’s partner was soon to be revealed as none other than Alexa Bliss! As expected, the crowd popped for this because Alexa is super popular, and she looked decent here! There wasn’t much to this other than the return, but it was still fine for what it was! After Vega dealt with Piper Niven, Bliss was able to drop Green with a Sister Abigail to get the win, and I fully expect her to win the Women’s United States Championship fairly soon!

Grade: C+

After Legado Del Fantasma attacked Rey Fenix, Charlotte Flair made her first appearance since her loss at WrestleMania 41! Charlotte said she was going to announce her plans to get back to winning the WWE Women’s Championship, but she then stormed off after the crowd continued to boo her! Backstage, Flair tried to leave early, but she was stopped by Alexa Bliss! There’s really nothing to note here! Anyway, it did lead into the next match as Jade Cargill and Nia Jax clashed for the right to be next in line for Tiffany Stratton’s WWE Women’s Title! This was an alright match, there wasn’t really anything wrong with it, it flowed fine, and the crowd were into it! Tiffany was watching on the outside, cheering on Jade throughout, but she then got wiped out by Naomi which distracted Cargill, opening the door for Jax to hit the Annihilator to get the win!

Grade: C+ (Overall)

The Street Profits VS FRAXIOM, Aleister Black VS Carmelo Hayes, Andrade and Rey Fenix VS Los Garza

After Michin and B-Fab praised The Street Profits backstage, Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins cam down to the ring to talk about their terrific TLC Match from two weeks ago! However, they were quickly interrupted by FRAXIOM as Axiom and Nathan Frazer wanted to take a shot at the WWE Tag Team Champions! This led to a non-Title match between the two teams, and this was definitely the match of the night! Both teams really went for it here, you could tell they wanted to put on a show, and the crowd was well into it too! Both teams came close to winning at separate points, with both Axiom and Montez Ford doing great jobs at breaking up pinfalls, but in the end, it was FRAXIOM who delivered the high-low combo to Ford to pick up the biggest win on the Main Roster yet!

Grade: B

Nia Jax tried to get into the head of Tiffany Stratton before The Miz hyped up Carmelo Hayes as it was time for Melo to go one-on-one with Aleister Black! This was a decent match, it had some good moments and transitions, but it wasn’t nearly as good as it could’ve been! It felt like both men were holding back because I know that these two are capable of putting on a classic, but this wasn’t that! After a distraction from The Miz, Aleister Black was able to beat Carmelo Hayes via roll-up before Aleister nailed Miz with a Blackmass to end the segment!

Grade: C+

Jacob Fatu wasn’t particularly impressed by Solo Sikoa’s instructions before FRAXIOM and the Motor City Machine Guns had a little chat, only for DIY to attack both teams! It was then time for the Main Event match of the night as Andrade and Rey Fenix teamed up to take on Los Garza! This was another good match on this show, all four men are very talented, I’m very impressed with Rey Fenix, he is definitely The Lucha Brother I prefer more, and Andrade is just superb at what he does! Angel and Berto also don’t get the credit they deserve, they put on another good showing here, but in the end, it was Santos Escobar’s distraction that accidentally cost Berto as Andrade delivered the Message to get the win! After the match, Santos berated Berto, leaving Berto to just walk off!

Grade: B-

John Cena Ends the Show

The final segment before Backlash saw John Cena come out to cut a promo on Randy Orton! John trash-talked Randy, calling him a failure and a liar, and he listed all the reasons that makes Cena the GOAT, not Orton! Whilst this promo started off slow, Cena really got into it the more it went on, it was actually a pretty decent segment, and it ended with Randy Orton once again dropping the 17-time World Champion with an RKO to stand tall! I’m not that excited about the match tonight, but at least this segment was alright!