WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 21/11

The Vision Start the Show, Ilja Dragunov’s United States Championship Open Challenge

After a recap of the chaotic ending to this week’s Monday Night Raw, this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown started out with Paul Heyman in the ring hyping up the rest of The Vision! Paul put over how Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed are going to destroy people inside WarGames whilst he’s found the perfect, most-hated man in Logan Paul! This brought out The Usos to say some things before Heyman questioned why they were so stupid to come down to ringside outnumbered! This is when Cody Rhodes’ music hit to seemingly even the odds, except that didn’t happen as Rhodes was found beaten and bloody in his own bus after being attacked by Drew McIntyre! This was quite a well-done angle; with McIntyre not actually breaking his suspension due to not entering the building! Another smart play!

Grade: B-

Like most week’s, the first match of the night saw Ilja Dragunov host another Open Challenge for his United States Championship! This time, the challenge was answered by JD McDonagh of The Judgment Day, and to say that these two have a lot of history would be putting it lightly! As expected, we got a pretty great match, arguably just as good as Ilja’s match with Nathan Frazer! The action was super hard-hitting and strong, with incredible counters throughout (including a ridiculous Spanish Fly), whilst JD delivered a picture-perfect Moonsault for a near-fall! However, that seemed to peeve Dragunov off, who fired back with Torpedo Moscow, a Powerbomb, and a H-Bomb to seal the win over his longtime rival! Any time The Czar and The Irish Ace do battle, it’s always going to be must-watch TV!

Grade: B+

The Last Time is Now Tournament (Round 1): Bronson Reed VS Carmelo Hayes, DIY VS FRAXIOM, Finn Balor VS Penta: The Last Time is Now Tournament (Round 1)

Credit: WWE

After Alexa Bliss got Charlotte Flair to sit in the same room as Rhea Ripley, Nick Aldis confirmed that he doesn’t yet have a proper medical update regarding Cody Rhodes! Aldis then made it clear to Paul Heyman that he doesn’t like them being here, and Heyman made it clear that they were only there because of Bronson Reed’s opportunity to become John Cena’s final opponent! After Ilja Dragunov then got challenged once again by both Tama Tonga and Tommaso Ciampa, Carmelo Hayes was in for a difficult test as he took on Bronson Reed in the opening round of The Last Time is Now Tournament! Given this whole tournament was originally supposed to be about “up and coming” superstars earning the opportunity to get themselves over against John Cena, that really hasn’t happened, except for this match! See, both Carmelo and Bronson are former Champions in NXT, they have massive upsides, and their futures “should” be pretty great! That meant that we got a more enjoyable experience than a lot of the other matches in this tournament so far, and it very much helped that the wrestling itself was pretty good! Reed was very much the favourite to win this match, but his help from The Vision was thwarted by The Usos! The referee then found himself distracted by Paul Heyman, allowing Cody Rhodes to run in and drop Bronson with a Cross Rhodes on the outside, meaning Hayes was able to get the win via count out! The fact that Melo couldn’t even pin Bronson Reed is kind of stupid, but hey, at least he gets to lose to Gunther in the next round!

Grade: B-

After both Giulia and Jade Cargill scared Chelsea Green into getting her Championship Celebration cancelled, Sami Zayn led a promo where he, Rey Fenix, Shinsuke Nakamura, and the Motor City Machine Guns all said they were going to bring it against MFT next week! DIY then came out to “No One Will Survive” and “Rebel Heart” as Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano were set to face FRAXIOM! These two teams are icons in NXT when it comes to the matches they’ve produced, and whilst this never came close to reaching those lofty heights, there were still some fun moments! DIY’s new t-shirts are questionable (especially Candice LeRae’s), but that doesn’t really matter as what matters was how this match ended! See, whilst the referee was distracted, Candice ripped Axiom’s mask off, meaning the Spanish Superstar had to cover his face, leaving Gargano to pick up an easy victory! I’ve never seen this finish before; it was super unique, and I thought it was superbly done!

Grade: B

After Charlotte Flair agreed to team with Rhea Ripley after Rhea said she wants to fight alongside her (this was way too easy), it was time for the Main Event match of the night as Finn Balor and Penta went one-on-one in the final First Round match of The Last Time is Now Tournament! Whilst neither guy is exactly a young up-and-comer, both Finn and Penta are extremely talented and highly decorated wrestlers from their time outside of WWE, with them both now aiming for a big spotlight against John Cena! Once again, the match was pretty decent, and it surprisingly ended very clean (a real rarity for a Judgment Day match) as Penta just put Balor down with a Mexican Destroyer!

Grade: B-

The Women’s WarGames Lineup is Complete

The final segment of this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown saw Rhea Ripley cut a promo about how she’s happy to fight alongside Iyo Sky, Alexa Bliss, and Charlotte Flair, and how The Kabuki Warriors, Nia Jax, and Lash Legend have it coming to them! This is when Rhea brought out the final member of her team which just so happened to be AJ Lee! However, AJ didn’t get to do much as she got completely blindsided by Becky Lynch before all of the Heels attacked the Babyfaces, with Nia crushing Ripley with an Annihilator! Becky then shuck hands with Asuka to seemingly confirm herself as that teams’ final member, and to say that that doesn’t make sense would be an understatement!

Credit: Khel Now

Grade: C