WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 19/09

Linus O'Howell
Sep 20
3 min read

Brock Lesnar Starts the Show, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair VS Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre

Michael Cole was meant to be meeting Brock Lesnar for a backstage interview to start the show, but Brock instead decided to meet Cole on the ramp and carry him into the ring! Before he could beat Michael Cole up, Corey Graves came in to try and create some peace, and this only resulted in Graves being dropped by multiple F5’s! On top of this, Lesnar came across Paul Heyman and The Vision backstage, saying “we should talk”! Erm, this was all fine, I’m happy for Corey that he can start taking some bumps again!

Grade: C+

The show then moved swiftly into the opening contest of the night as Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair put their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre! It’s very much unclear as to where Piper Niven has gone; she’s completely disappeared, but to be fair to Alba and Chelsea, they did work well together! This was never going to be a barnstormer; there simply wasn’t enough time for that, but it did result in a successful Title retention following a pair of Natural Selections!

Grade: C+

FRAXIOM VS The Vision, Tiffany Stratton Interrupts Nia Jax, Sami Zayn VS Carmelo Hayes: United States Championship

B-Fab was trying to get The Street Profits back on the same page before Michin walked in to say that Nick Aldis wanted to talk to them (them being her and B-Fab)! Bo Dallas then tried to get into the head of Angelo Dawkins, angering Montez Ford before Erick Rowan laid both of them out! R-Truth then showed Los Garza how to access Wrestlepalooza on ESPN before The Vision attacked FRAXIOM! This was so Paul Heyman could cut a promo on The Usos, but FRAXIOM fought back, resulting in Nick Aldis booking a Tag Team match! Now, the action here was good for what it was, but this match was way too short, Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed completely destroyed Axiom and Nathan Frazer, and I don’t like it! After a ridiculous Spear from Breakker to Axiom, Reed nailed Frazer with the Tsunami to get the win before The Usos appeared on the titantron!

Grade: C+ (because of the talent involved)

After more ESPN propaganda, Nia Jax was in the ring as The Irresistible Force called herself the alpha female of the Women’s Division! Nia also called Tiffany Stratton annoying whilst taking shots at Jade Cargill’s in-ring ability, and this just resulted in Tiffany coming out to cut a promo of her own! Jade Cargill also then arrived and attacked some officials on her way down to the ring, but this is when Nick Aldis came out to book a Triple Threat match for the WWE Women’s Championship for next week’s SmackDown! I won’t be smiling if Jade pins Nia!

Grade: C+ (because Nia is good)!

R-Truth was once again back, this time teaching Rey Fenix and the Motor City Machine Guns how to watch Wrestlepalooza before Carmelo Hayes went one-on-one with Sami Zayn for the United States Championship! This was a good match, probably not as good as Sami’s match with Rey Fenix last week, but it was still good! Melo definitely went all out here, hitting most of his big manoeuvres, and the crowd were starting to get behind him, too! However, Hayes wasn’t able to connect with his finishing move “Nothin’ but Net”, and this opened the door for Zayn to win with a Blue Thunder Bomb in what was a surprising finish! The Miz, who was on commentary for this show (following Corey Graves’ assault), was not impressed with Melo in the slightest!

Grade: B-

Undisputed WWE Championship Contract Signing

After Damian Priest sent Kit Wilson crashing through an office wall (poor Kit), it was time for the final segment before Wrestlepalooza as Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre signed the contract for their Undisputed WWE Championship clash! Cody was pretty fired up; you can tell he doesn’t like Drew, whilst McIntyre thanked Rhodes for finally giving him a fair Title shot! However, Drew also made it clear to Cody that eventually, people will turn on him and will move on to someone else, and this resulted in a brawl breaking out, with McIntyre standing tall! I just hope Drew wins, please!