WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 10/04

Rhea Ripley Starts the Show, Alexa Bliss VS Bayley

After Jelly Roll gave Cody Rhodes something to think about, the penultimate Friday Night SmackDown before WrestleMania kicked off with Rhea Ripley coming down to the ring to explain that Jade Cargill has officially made things personal with her attack on Iyo Sky! Rhea called out Jade, only for Iyo to answer the call, making it clear to Ripley that she wants to get her hands on Cargill first! Nick Aldis seemed to like this idea so he booked Cargill-Sky for the show’s Main Event, but I’m not sure that Rhea seemed as keen on the idea!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C

After we saw both teams arrive at the arena, San Jose’s own Bayley took on Alexa Bliss in the opening match of the night! Like I have consistently said throughout this whole feud: Bayley and Lyra Valkyria are by far the best part about it! The difference in quality between Bayley and the rest (particularly The Bellas and The Irresistible Forces) has been seismic, with this match actually flowing quite well due to the lack of interference from others! However, Charlotte Flair tried her best to ruin it by once again using her jacket as a weapon, but all this did was allow Bliss to steal a roll-up win! Alexa and Charlotte definitely aren’t winning at Mania!

Grade: B-

Royce Keys’ SmackDown Debut, Pat McAfee Speaks, Jacob Fatu VS Tama Tonga

Credit: WWE

Trick Williams found Carmelo Hayes in the trainers’ room to tell his former buddy that he was surprised to see him lose to Sami Zayn last week, whilst Hayes hopes Williams wins at WrestleMania so he can take his United States Championship back off Trick in the future! Lil Yachty then talked Trick into a match with Matt Cardona, before Drew McIntyre exposed “The Real” Jacob Fatu by cutting a promo from a prison cell! In fairness, this was well produced! Fatu then found himself coming face-to-face with Solo Sikoa and the MFTs, with Solo getting Tama Tonga to step up, before a nice video package led into Royce Keys finally making his SmackDown debut! Royce’s opponent here was Berto, a wrestler very capable of bumping around for others, and that’s exactly what he did! Keys was made to look like an old-school powerhouse (mind the pun) here, and I guess that’s kind of cool as SmackDown needs more variety! I also liked that Keys won this match with a Spinebuster, as nobody else wins like that!

Grade: C+

Pat McAfee arrived at the arena to make sure that nobody in the WWE is allowed to touch him, but of course, that doesn’t apply to Jelly Roll, who’s not impressed with McAfee’s involvement in the Cody Rhodes-Randy Orton storyline! Royce Keys then got an interesting offer from Solo Sikoa, potentially setting up a post-WrestleMania storyline, before Pat McAfee came down to the ring to a chorus of boos! Pat cut quite the promo, seething over CM Punk and all the terrible “IWC” fans, whilst also helping them out by getting fans 25% off their tickets for WrestleMania Saturday! The reason why it’s just Saturday and not Sunday is that, according to McAfee, WrestleMania Sunday sucks! Cody Rhodes then came out to say that he views the fans as family, whilst Pat continued to rip into everyone by reminding Cody of his past! Randy Orton then appeared on the titantron to show Rhodes that he’d beaten up Jelly Roll, before McAfee and Orton jumped The American Nightmare to close the segment! Whilst this segment was very long, I thought Pat McAfee delivered his lines very well, with him playing his Heel role perfectly! I understand why people are so annoyed, and there’s definitely an argument that this shouldn’t be a part of the Main Event of WrestleMania, but at least it’s keeping me intrigued!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

After Pat McAfee drove off with the Undisputed WWE Championship, Nick Aldis surprised us all by booking Danhausen to face Kit Wilson in his WWE in-ring debut! Before that, though, two former Tag Team partners collided as Tama Tonga looked to teach Jacob Fatu a lesson! I say teach Jacob a lesson, but I’m not exactly sure that Tama even wanted this match to begin with, with Solo Sikoa just putting it on him! I suppose that that’s all to build to the moment where Tonga finally floors Sikoa, but that just meant that Tonga was set up to lose to Fatu here! After the match was over, Drew McIntyre assaulted Jacob Fatu from behind, destroying his WrestleMania opponent by beating him up in handcuffs! Unfortunately, the handcuffs kept breaking on the ring post, but McIntyre still made sure to deliver a clear message with a Claymore! Why wasn’t this feud for the World Title?!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

Sami Zayn Promo, Trick Williams VS Matt Cardona, Danhausen VS Kit Wilson

R-Truth was showing Danhausen how to use the ESPN app ahead of next week’s WrestleMania, whilst Damian Priest was getting annoyed over Truth not admitting that he thought Danhausen was Asuka! Rhea Ripley then destroyed B-Fab in the background before Sami Zayn came down to the ring to address his recent crowd reactions! Whilst Sami doesn’t understand why the crowd is booing him, it doesn’t really matter to him as he knows that his real fans will always support him no matter what! In fact, that’s the reason why he won’t change, no matter what reaction he gets, and I’m sorry, but Sami needs to turn Heel now! Trick Williams then came out to get hyped up by Lil Yachty before Trick went one-on-one with Matt Cardona! Matt Cardona feels very much like the “midcard man” on SmackDown right now; he wrestles plenty of matches, and yet he pretty much loses them all! You can’t say that Matt hasn’t been used since he returned to WWE at the start of the year, but he definitely feels secondary, especially in comparison to Trick Williams! At one point, Lil Yachty pulled Sami Zayn off the apron, so Zayn followed it up with a wicked Helluva Kick to the rapper! However, despite all of this causing a major distraction to Trick, he didn’t care as Williams nailed Cardona with a Trick Shot to get the win!

Grade: C+ (Overall)

After a month of backstage antics, Danhausen was finally ready to make his WWE in-ring debut when he faced Kit Wilson! This was a very odd choice to have this match here; I thought they would’ve saved Danhausen’s big debut for WrestleMania, but that whole storyline between The Miz, Kit Wilson, and Jelly Roll has seemingly been dropped! The match itself was simple comedy, with DH cursing Kit by having the pyrotechnics set off just when Wilson was about to hit “Men Cry Too”! This opened the door for Danhausen to deliver the worst kick you’ve ever seen to get the win, but I guess that fits perfectly with his goofy persona! What a strange 5 minutes this was!

Grade: B-

Jade Cargill VS Iyo Sky

After Jade Cargill found Michin laid out in the back, and Iyo Sky asked Rhea Ripley to stay in the back, it was Main Event time as Iyo looked to get her revenge on Jade! This match didn’t last very long, but I guess it benefited from that, given Cargill’s lack of move set! What I don’t like about all of this is that Iyo Sky is arguably the best female wrestler in the world, and yet heading into WrestleMania, she’s losing to further a storyline between two other women! That isn’t good enough, but that’s exactly how it is right now, with Cargill scoring a relatively straightforward win following Jaded! After the match was over, Rhea Ripley ran down to make the save, as the WWE Women’s Champion decided that it would just be better if she walked off! Only one more week of this!

Grade: C