WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 14/11

Rhea Ripley Starts the Show, Jey Uso VS The Miz: The Last Time is Now Tournament (Round 1)

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown started with Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky as they talked about how they were going to make The Kabuki Warriors pay inside WarGames! This is when Rhea brought out Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, with everyone hugging except Rhea and Charlotte! There was a reason for this, as Flair made it clear that she doesn’t like or trust Ripley, and that she can’t put past feelings behind them, meaning she is out of the WarGames Match! To be fair, this did make total sense; I’m very glad that Charlotte didn’t just ignore all of the history she has with Rhea Ripley! However, in the end, we all know that Flair will end up being in the match!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

We then headed straight into the opening match of the night as Jey Uso and The Miz clashed in the First Round of The Last Time is Now Tournament! This was easily the least inspiring match in this tournament; it lacked any sort of intrigue or excitement, mostly because either guy winning the whole thing would be a pretty lacklustre decision! However, this match was better than expected, with some good back-and-forth action that gave off real house show vibes! Despite The Miz coming close to winning with the Skull-Crushing Finale, in the end, Jey Uso was able to pin Miz with a Spear to advance to the Quarter-Finals!

Grade: B-

Ilja Dragunov’s United States Championship Open Challenge, Sami Zayn Promo

Tommaso Ciampa continues to question Ilja Dragunov’s reluctance to give him a shot at the United States Championship, with Ilja confirming that Axiom will receive his Open Challenge shot tonight! Paul Heyman then confirmed with Nick Aldis that anyone from either Raw or SmackDown is available for him to pick when it comes to teaming with The Vision in WarGames, before a fired-up Cody Rhodes agreed to face Bronson Reed with his Undisputed WWE Championship on the line! It was then time for another United States Championship Open Challenge as Ilja Dragunov put his Title on the line against Axiom! This was another good match in Ilja’s list of strong performances since returning from injury, and let’s be honest, it was always going to be good with Axiom involved! The one tornado DDT that Axiom hit was absolutely ridiculous, and Dragunov absolutely nailed his attempt at Torpedo Moscow! This actually played perfectly into the finish, with The Mad Dragon wrecking Axiom with an H-Bomb to get the win, before Ciampa attacked the Spanish Superstar after the match was over!

Grade: B

R-Truth was still bugging Nick Aldis over being in The Last Time is Now Tournament, and Chelsea Green wasn’t too pleased with Aldis cancelling her Championship Celebration! Thankfully for us, that will happen next week, and Sami Zayn then arrived to cut a promo talking about how he’s been so annoyed having to sit back and watch Solo Sikoa and the MFT’s attack his friends over recent weeks! Sami also said that all that stops now, with Zayn calling it Solo before The Bloodline arrived! After saying some things, Sikoa got into the ring, but told Zayn that he’d wait for him to be medically cleared before attacking! However, Sami quickly revealed that he is indeed cleared, and that’s when backup arrived in the form of Shinsuke Nakamura, Rey Fenix, and the Motor City Machine Guns! Afterwards, Nick Aldis confirmed to Solo Sikoa that there will be a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series matchup on the SmackDown before Survivor Series between all 10 men, and I actually quite like that idea!

Grade: C+

The Last Time is Now Tournament (Round 1): LA Knight VS ?, Jade Cargill VS B-Fab

After Jimmy Uso confirmed to Cody Rhodes that he is officially on their team at Survivor Series: WarGames, LA Knight made his way down to the ring to face a mystery opponent in The Last Time is Now Tournament! That mystery person was revealed to be none other than Matt Cardona, or should I say, Zack Ryder! This was a pretty cool surprise; I expected someone else, and the crowd popped for it! The match itself was also pretty decent, with both men working to a pretty decent pace that was easy to follow! However, the problem with all of this is Zack Ryder’s supposed to be dead, that’s the whole point that Cardona has been making the past 5 years, so I’m not sure I like the fact that he didn’t come back as himself, given how the end of Ryder’s WWE career went! Anyway, it doesn’t matter as far as this tournament goes, as a BFT was enough for Knight to advance over the Internet Champion!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

Alexa Bliss, Rhea Ripley, and Iyo Sky were talking about potentially having to find another 2 members for their WarGames team before they got massively assaulted backstage by The Kabuki Warriors, Nia Jax, and Lash Legend! Lash looked awesome here! After this, Jade Cargill arrived for her first match as Champion as The Queen of the Ring went one-on-one with B-Fab! As expected, this match barely lasted 90 seconds, with Cargill dominating B-Fab before she delivered Jaded to get the win! I’ll keep saying this; nothing about this or Jade Cargill is interesting, like what on earth did this achieve?!

Grade: C-

Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes VS Bronson Reed

After Carmelo Hayes called his shot towards John Cena, and Aleister Black sent out a warning to anyone holding a World Championship, it was Main Event time as Cody Rhodes put his Undisputed WWE Championship on the line against Bronson Reed! I can’t lie, I really wanted to see Bronson Reed win here, not that that was ever going to happen, but I would’ve loved to have seen Bron Breakker’s reaction! To be honest, I think Breakker hated the idea, and that’s why, after just 2 minutes, Bron already showed up and attacked Cody to cause the DQ finish! Logan Paul was also there getting his shots in before The Usos ran down to make the save! However, the numbers game again came to play in favour of The Vision, as Drew McIntyre arrived and delivered a massive Claymore to Cody Rhodes, with McIntyre’s suspension being lifted due to the fact that Paul Heyman has picked him for WarGames! I actually find that to be a really smart way to bring Drew back, and there’s no way that The Vision should be losing that match now!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-