WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 20/03

Drew McIntyre Starts the Show, MFT VS R-Truth and Damian Priest: WWE Tag Team Championships

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown started with a literal car crash, as Drew McIntyre had smashed his car into Jacob Fatu’s vehicle! Drew then stormed into the ring to say that he should be the one Main Eventing this year’s WrestleMania, before Nick Aldis arrived to warn McIntyre that he could soon be unemployed! Jacob Fatu was miraculously back on his feet next, starting another brawl which ended with Fatu diving onto McIntyre through the announce table! This was a pretty effective way to start the show; it just should be for the World Championship!

Grade: B

Credit: WWE

Speaking of Championships, MFT were out next to defend their WWE Tag Team Championships in the opening match of the night against the duo of R-Truth and Damian Priest! This whole match was centred around MFT beating up Damian Priest, leading to an R-Truth hot-tag! I really do not understand any of this; why is Priest secondary to this guy?! Anyway, as expected, The Wyatt Sick6 showed up to take out the rest of the MFTs, opening the door for Truth to pin JC Mateo to get the win, meaning yes, R-Truth and Damian Priest are the new WWE Tag Team Champions! Deary me!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C

FRAXIOM VS Motor City Machine Guns, Randy Orton Explains His Actions, Aleister Black VS Sami Zayn

The Bella Twins called themselves “real legends” in comparison to Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, whilst Danhausen decided that it was okay to rob Johnny Gargano! What?! Anyway, Sami Zayn explained that it’s very difficult for him to know what to think in regards to Randy Orton’s assault on Cody Rhodes last week, whilst Trick Williams told Sami that he may pay attention to his match with Aleister Black later tonight! The Motor City Machine Guns were then making their way down to the ring as they were ready to take on FRAXIOM! As expected, this was a good match, but unfortunately, the crowd were also pretty flat (which was also to be expected)! WWE has failed in making FRAXIOM feel like the stars that they were in NXT, whilst the Motor City Machine Guns have been made to feel like “warm-up acts”, a title that doesn’t reflect their talent! However, what we do have going on here is a story, with Candice LeRae showing up at ringside to cost Nathan Frazer, allowing Chris Sabin to get the victory for his team! What was great about this is that Sabin didn’t see anything, whilst Alex Shelley saw everything! Interesting!

Grade: B-

The next segment was all about Randy Orton, as The Viper needed to explain his actions as to why he attacked Cody Rhodes last week! As I expected, Randy simply said that he needs to be a killer again, and that he wants his legacy to be about how many World Championships he wins, not shaking the hands of children! Randy said that he still loves Cody, but that it would’ve been so much easier had Drew McIntyre remained as his WrestleMania opponent! The funniest part about all of this was the fact that the crowd kept cheering Randy Orton; the exact opposite reaction of what Orton should be getting!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

Matt Cardona questioned Randy Orton’s actions towards Cody Rhodes backstage, which resulted in Orton flooring Cardona! Aleister Black was then out next as he was set to go one-on-one with Sami Zayn! Before the match could even begin, Trick Williams arrived to another thunderous reception, but unfortunately for us, Trick is too good to join commentary! The match itself between Aleister and Sami was decent; it flowed quite well, and I was very intrigued by the fact that the crowd were slowly beginning to boo Zayn as this match went on! Booing Sami Zayn feels so odd to me, mostly because he’s never won a World Championship before, but yet they still seem to be turning against him! This might actually work for Zayn’s eventual Heel turn, but it will be interesting to see what WWE does with Trick Williams, given that Trick throwing water at Sami brought a cheer from the crowd! Eventually, Zayn snapped, attacking Williams on the outside, but all this did was open the door for Aleister Black to nail Sami with a Black Mass to get the win! Another win for Black: nice!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley Come Face-to-Face, Carmelo Hayes VS Ilja Dragunov: United States Championship

Nick Aldis refused to give Matt Cardona a match with Randy Orton, which Aldis also told Carmelo Hayes that he’ll be defending his United States Championship tonight against none other than Ilja Dragunov! So, despite everything over the past few weeks, Ilja’s changed his mind! Anyway, The Irresistible Forces hyped themselves up in a pre-recorded video promo before Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley once again came face-to-face! Jade said that she doesn’t need wrestling, that she’s a star without it, whilst Rhea needs the WWE Women’s Championship! Ripley then responded by saying that it’s actually the Title that needs her, and this is when Cargill exited the ring as she’ll only do things “on her time”! For some reason, Michin and B-Fab showed up after this and sided with Cargill, starting a 3-on-1 assault on Rhea Ripley! I’m not sure this makes any sense from a storyline point of view, but good for Michin and B-Fab (I guess)! Still, this feud sucks!

Grade: C-

The Miz was trying to give Kit Wilson some pointers, but he wasn’t doing a very good job as Danhausen’s curse is really starting to affect him! Solo Sikoa then snapped at MFT for losing their WWE Tag Team Championships, to the point where Tama Tonga told Solo to give the lantern back as he’s “starting to sound like Roman”! This was great! Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu’s brawl then continued before Carmelo Hayes put his United States Championship on the line against Ilja Dragunov! There comes a time when having these two face each other every week creates staleness; that’s a natural thing in the world of professional wrestling, and I think that might be the case the next time these two fight! However, speaking just about this match, it was super good! Hayes and Dragunov have such amazing chemistry together, with both guys more than capable of getting the job done! In fact, Wade Barrett said that both men deserved to end the night as Champions, but in the end, it was Melo who scored another successful retention via a quick roll-up! I don’t want to keep seeing these two fight, so this would be the perfect ending to their feud/story!

Grade: B+

Kit Wilson Calls Out Jelly Roll, The Irresistible Forces VS The Bella Twins: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships

Jelly Roll congratulated R-Truth and Damian Priest on becoming the new WWE Tag Team Champions, before Jelly told Randy Orton that he didn’t recognise him last week! Randy apologised, saying that he’ll make things right to both Matt Cardona and Cody Rhodes! Kit Wilson then arrived next to call out Jelly Roll, saying that he wanted to punish him for last week’s antics! Jelly then arrived to challenge Kit to a match, but Wilson stated that he fights with his words, not his fists! So, as a result, Kit Wilson read out another poem that he’d written, this time for Jelly Roll, and I’ll tell you what, this was very good! Jelly then fired back with one of his own, before a brawl broke out, ending with Wilson nailing Roll with a great-looking elbow drop! This was fun; Kit Wilson is very good!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

Credit: WWE

After Jelly Roll demanded that Nick Aldis gives him a match with Kit Wilson for next week’s SmackDown, the Main Event match of this week’s SmackDown saw The Bella Twins challenge The Irresistible Forces for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships! I honestly have no interest in seeing any of these teams fight; The Bellas are so hard to watch, whilst Lash Legend and Nia Jax never seem to win (despite being the Champions)! As expected, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair also got involved here, causing the DQ finish, and that’s another problem with all of this! If all of these matches are going to end in disqualification, what is the point in investing in them to begin with?

Grade: C-

Randy Orton Ends the Show

The final segment on this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown saw Randy Orton come down to the ring to apologise to Matt Cardona! However, as expected, this was a terrible apology as Randy decided to destroy Matt even further, assaulting him on the announce table! Nick Aldis and a bunch of referees/security tried their best to stop Orton, but The Viper didn’t care, stomping on the arm of Cardona (which was wrapped around a steel chair)! To make matters worse for Aldis, Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu were shown to still be brawling outside of the arena, with the show going off the air with both men crashing onto the floor! This was well shot!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-