WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 13/06

John Cena Starts the Show, Randy Orton VS LA Knight VS Aleister Black VS Carmelo Hayes: King of the Ring (Round 1)

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with John Cena as the history-making, record-breaking, 17-time World Champion wasn’t in the best of moods following Money in the Bank! John was very annoyed by R-Truth returning and attacking him, but that didn’t stop Cena from cutting a great promo about how all of this has been calculated! See, all Cena is doing right now is giving himself the best possible opportunity to succeed, he did at Elimination Chamber, he did at WrestleMania, he did it at Backlash, he aligned himself with Logan Paul so that The Maverick never becomes a threat, and he also knows that Seth “Freakin” Rollins will never cash in on him because Seth wants to be the only World Champion around! This brought out Cody Rhodes who brought up the fact that Cena ignored the result of MITB’s Main Event, and that he will take back the Undisputed WWE Championship! Randy Orton then interrupted proceedings to say that he will do whatever it takes to win Number 15 before LA Knight cut a great promo on all three men, saying his time to become World Champion is here! John Cena then left, only to be attacked by R-Truth on the ramp! This was a strong opening segment!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

Credit: WWE

This then led straight into the opening match of the night as Randy Orton, LA Knight, Aleister Black, and Carmelo Hayes battled in the First Round of the King of the Ring Tournament! This was the best match of the night, this was a good start to the show between 4 major talents! Randy Orton is a veteran, LA Knight is a Megastar, Carmelo Hayes is the future, and Aleister Black is just damn good! Melo was definitely the best here, why he isn’t doing more I’ll never know, but it was Knight who was looking good to win until Bron Breakker nailed him with a Spear! This opened the door for Hayes to go for a Frog Splash, but he got met mid-air by a Randy Orton RKO as The Viper pinned LA to get the win! I guess no one new is winning this Tournament!

Grade: B

Jacob Fatu Speaks, Nia Jax VS Jade Cargill VS Michin VS Piper Niven: Queen of the Ring Tournament (Round 1), Naomi Promo

Jacob Fatu was out next to talk about the way Solo Sikoa has been acting recently, and that he’s fine with it just being him against the world from now on! Solo then appeared on the screen, saying he can forgive Jacob as long as he tells him that he loves him next week! Sikoa also reminded Fatu that whilst he brought him into this world, he can easily take him out of it! This was totally fine, it just set up another segment for next week!

Grade: C

Chelsea Green had no interest in going to Lexington, Kentucky so she asked Nick Aldis to reschedule her Queen of the Ring First Round match! Aldis said no, giving Alba Fyre the spot instead before Zelina Vega walked in and said she wants to get her hands on Giulia! This then led into a Queen of the Ring First Round matchup as Nia Jax looked to retain her crown in a Fatal 4-Way against Jade Cargill, Michin, and Piper Niven! A lot of this match was Nia and Piper working together to wear down Jade, it actually made a lot of sense given the size and power of both women, and they did a pretty good job together! At one point, they even wiped out Wade Barrett! Michin didn’t do much here, she got dropped for the most part, but towards the end of the match, it was Niven who was going wild, sending Jax crashing through the barricade before she delivered her finishing move onto Michin! However, this just opened the door for Cargill to deliver Jaded to get the win and advance to the Semi-Finals!

Grade: C+

Naomi was out next to cut a promo after her big win at Money in the Bank, and she said a couple of important things, most notably how she only has eyes on Tiffany Stratton! This brought out Tiffany who could Naomi weak for not cashing in now, but Naomi rightly responded by saying she’ll cash in when the WWE Women’s Champion least expects it! Speaking of, Nia Jax then attacked Tiffany from behind, delivering an Annihilator which potentially opened the door for The Glow, but Nia wouldn’t allow it! Whilst stuff was said, this wasn’t a great segment!

Grade: C

The Wyatt Sick6 VS Motor City Machine Guns, John Cena Calls Out R-Truth, Alexa Bliss VS Charlotte Flair VS Alba Fyre VS Candice LeRae: Queen of the Ring Tournament (Round 1)

Nick Aldis decided that the Motor City Machine Guns should be the ones to get the first crack at The Wyatt Sick6, and so that’s exactly what happened in the next match! Unfortunately, this didn’t really work at all, it never clicked, it was quite scrappy, and the whole ending just felt off! For some reason, Dexter Lumis let go of a pinning combination to then go and hit a leg drop before he did then make the cover to score the win! This didn’t look great at all!

Grade: C-

After John Cena asked Jimmy Uso if he’d seen R-Truth, Cena made his way down to the ring to do one simple thing, call out Ron Killings! However, the call was answered by CM Punk which led to a great promo exchange where Punk called out the irony of all of this! See, John Cena currently sounds a lot like the CM Punk, and CM Punk sounds a bit like “PG John Cena”! Punk then fired more shots at Cena, saying he could never beat him at his best, and that’s just the “truth”! Speaking of Truth, Ron Killings then attacked John from behind, locking in an STF to stand tall!

Grade: B+

It was then time for another match in the Queen of the Ring Tournament as Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair, Candice LeRae, and Alba Fyre looked to advance to the Semi-Finals! All four women are talented in-ring competitors, they’ve all held Gold at some point in their WWE careers, but the winner here was only going to come down to 2! Interestingly, Charlotte Flair locked in the Figure 8 onto Alba Fyre, but before she tapped, Alexa nailed Candice with a Sister Abigail to get the 3 count just in time! This was actually a very unique way to finish a match, and I liked it a lot!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

King of the Ring Tournament (Round 1): Cody Rhodes VS Damian Priest VS Shinsuke Nakamura VS Andrade

Credit: Fightful

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Cody Rhodes, Damian Priest, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Andrade battled in another King of the Ring First Round clash! What I liked about this match is Cody Rhodes and Damian Priest are two of SmackDown’s Top Babyface stars, they both left last year’s WrestleMania as World Champions, and they both get reactions from the crowd! I also found it very interesting that they worked together a bit, but they were also very happy to go at it! Andrade was great as always, he’s such a great in-ring performer, and Shinsuke’s just here to make others look good! That proved to be true here as it was in fact The American Nightmare who scored a win following a Cross Rhodes to Nakamura, and I honestly expect Cody to win this whole thing!

Grade: B-