WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 20/06

Linus O'Howell
Jun 21
5 min read

LA Knight Starts the Show, Alexa Bliss VS Asuka: Queen of the Ring Tournament (Semi-Finals)

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with LA Knight as The Megastar talked about how he keeps costing Seth “Freakin” Rollins’ squad because they keep costing him! LA said the only way to finish this is for him to have a match with Seth Rollins, but this brought out Paul Heyman instead who made it clear that if Knight doesn’t leave the arena early, his night will turn out very badly! Knight then decided he wanted to have a match with Heyman, but this just led to Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed making their presence known, only for LA Knight to run them off with a steel chair! This set up a match between Knight and Reed for later in the show, so it served its purpose!

Grade: C+

It was then time for the first match of the night as Alexa Bliss and Asuka collided in a Queen of the Ring Semi-Final matchup! This was a good match between two top female talents; it felt like it was 2017/18 all over again! This was one that could’ve gone either way, given that both women have only recently returned, and they would be great additions to the Final! Ultimately, it was Asuka who took advantage of Bliss’ hesitance to hit a Twisted Bliss as Asuka nailed Alexa with the hip attack to get the win! Asuka will now face either Jade Cargill or Roxanne Perez at Night of Champions!

Grade: B-

Cody Rhodes Gets Interrupted, Randy Orton VS Sami Zayn: King of the Ring Tournament (Semi-Finals), Nia Jax Promo

B-Fab and Michin talked about wanting to go after the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships as Jade Cargill said the Queen of the Ring Tournament was made for her! The Secret Hervice then tried to trash-talk Alexa Bliss which led to Charlotte Flair getting herself a match with Chelsea Green before Aleister Black was set to have a match against Kit Wilson! However, that never happened as R-Truth attacked Wilson from behind for some reason, resulting in Black being annoyed at Truth backstage! Damian Priest did his best to calm down the situation! Cody Rhodes then came out for what was meant to be his own talking segment, but he didn’t actually say anything as Jey Uso interrupted straight away to show his respect to The American Nightmare! Jey said that on Monday, they will have to put their friendship aside because they both need to win King of the Ring, and this is when Sami Zayn came out to basically say the same thing! Randy Orton then also showed up and said that whilst he likes all 3 of them, he will take them all out in order to get back to John Cena at Summerslam!

Grade: C+

The next match between Randy Orton and Sami Zayn was a King of the Ring Semi-Final, and it felt like an important match given how over both men are! It was pretty even too, with both guys coming close to winning as neither guy could quite nail their finishing manoeuvre! However, the man who was able to land his finisher first was Randy Orton as The Viper delivered an RKO to get the win! I really wish Sami would’ve won here!

Grade: C+

Nia Jax was out next as she wanted a proper rematch for the WWE Women’s Championship, and this brought out Tiffany Stratton who said Nia can get said rematch next week on SmackDown! However, it’s not just going to be a regular kind of match, it’s going to be a Last Woman Standing Match! Nia then attacked Tiffany which led to Naomi running down to try and cash in her Money in the Bank Briefcase, but Jax prevented this!

Grade: C

Charlotte Flair VS Chelsea Green, Solo Sikoa Calls Out Jacob Fatu, Bronson Reed VS LA Knight

After a video package hyping up the history between John Cena and CM Punk, Charlotte Flair was ready to take on Chelsea Green! Both women are Heels, but Chelsea is far more popular, and the crowd were fully behind her here! Ultimately, the match never ended cleanly as The Secret Hervice got involved following a Figure 8 attempt, but this led to Alexa Bliss running down to make the save! Interesting!

Grade: C+

Solo Sikoa told JC Mateo to be ready as Solo headed down to the ring to try and get an apology out of Jacob Fatu! Solo told Jacob about how much he loves him, that he’s all he has and needs, and that’s why he brought him into this company 12 months ago! Fatu wasn’t buying any of this, saying that Sikoa just used him and that the problem is the United States Championship! Because of this, Fatu challenged Sikoa to a match for the Title, but this then led to JC Mateo coming down to start a 2-on-1 attack! Jimmy Uso’s music then hit as Big Jim ran down to make the save, and I’m presuming this will lead to a Tag match down the line!

Grade: C+

We then went straight into the next match as LA Knight went one-on-one with Bronson Reed! The match itself was fine, a normal television match, but this wasn’t really the point of all of this as Bron Breakker Speared LA midway through to cause the DQ! Paul Heyman wasn’t lying when he said Knight was going to suffer if he didn’t leave the arena as Breakker delivered another Spear before Bronson Reed delivered not 1, not 2, but 3 TSUNAMIS! LA Knight had better be having some time off now because this was a beating and a half!

Grade: B-

John Cena VS R-Truth

After Jacob Fatu confirmed that he will face Solo Sikoa for the United States Championship at Night of Champions, it was Main Event time as John Cena faced R-Truth! Truth was very aggressive to begin with, firing shot after shot at his former childhood hero before John had had enough, just walking out on the match! Ron Killings then chased after Cena, but this resulted in the 17-time World Champion smashing Killings in the face with the Undisputed WWE Championship, resulting in a disqualification! CM Punk then arrived to try and get at John Cena, but The Greatest of All Time dealt with The Best in the World, putting him through a table! Cena then cut one of the greatest promos of all time, doing a pipebomb of his own as he “broke the 4th wall” multiple times! The best part about this is the promo was so good, all the fans in attendance where cheering for John by the end, despite all of the things he’d said! This was excellent!