WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 26/06

Trick Williams Starts the Show, Tiffany Stratton and Alexa Bliss VS Michin and B-Fab

The final Friday Night SmackDown before Night of Champions kicked off with Trick Williams celebrating his marriage to Lash Legend! Trick talked about how amazing his wedding was, and that’s the reason why he didn’t appear on SmackDown last week! After talking as himself for a bit, Williams went back into character to make it clear that Ricky Saints isn’t a threat to him, with Ricky then arriving to debunk this theory! Of course, Saints beat Williams multiple times last year when the NXT Championship was on the line, but that wasn’t referenced, with Ricky eventually dropping Lil Yachty after he’d had enough! Trick VS Ricky can definitely be good, but this segment was pretty basic!

Grade: C+

After Alexa Bliss and Tiffany Stratton agreed to have each other’s backs, they teamed up together to take on Michin and B-Fab in the opening match of the night! It was sort of unclear as to whether Alexa and Tiffany actually liked each other; I’m not sure that they do, but they’re also two good guys, so we know how that works! Anyway, they did work well together, looking more of a threat than Michin and B-Fab, which meant that Jade Cargill had to get involved, tripping Stratton up (whilst the referee’s back was turned)! B-Fab then took advantage, nailing Tiffany with her new finisher to get the win, before Cargill looked to pick the bones post-match! However, this is when Chelsea Green ran down to make the save, evening the odds as the Heels were sent packing!

Grade: C

AAA Cruiserweight Championship: Rey Fenix VS Nathan Frazer, LA Knight Calls Out Solo Sikoa, Paige VS Jacy Jayne

To Solo Sikoa’s surprise, Tama and Talla Tonga have walked out on his family tree, saying that Solo is too obsessed with Roman Reigns! You’re telling me that after all this buildup, this is how Tama Tonga leaves Solo? What a waste of time! Jade Cargill then got herself a match against Nick Aldis before Nathan Frazer challenged Rey Fenix for the AAA Cruiserweight Championship! This was a great match between two fantastic professional wrestlers who deserve an awful lot more praise than what they’ve received! WWE buying AAA has helped Rey Fenix a lot; it’s allowed him to be a more featured talent on WWE Television (as in the AAA show itself), whilst I feel like FRAXIOM should be sent there too; their style is perfect for Lucha Libre! Thankfully, this match was in the UK, so it meant the crowd were more receptive to the action in comparison to what it would’ve been had it taken place in America, but even still, I wondered if fake crowd noise was being used at certain points! In the end, Rey Fenix was able to finish Nathan Frazer off with a Mexican Muscle Buster; this was great!

Grade: B+

After R-Truth messed around after The War Raiders challenged them to a Winner Takes All match, LA Knight pulled up to the building and headed straight to the arena to call out Solo Sikoa! The reason for this was simple: Solo Sikoa helped LA Knight win on Monday Night Raw, but he wanted to know why! Solo was pretty clear in his answer; he hates The Bloodline, especially Roman Reigns, and he wants to bring them all down! Now, that mission has been made a little bit harder by the fact that the rest of his family has abandoned him, but he thinks that he and Knight should work together in order to take The Bloodline down! Whilst there are some compelling arguments for this, LA Knight doesn’t trust Solo Sikoa one bit, with The Megastar telling Sikoa “thanks, but no thanks”! I found all of this to be intriguing, which we definitely take!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

Sami Zayn realised that he’s just 24 hours away from potentially achieving his dream of finally becoming a World Champion, before Paige was once again performing in the UK, this time against Jacy Jayne! I have absolutely no idea what WWE are doing with Fatal Influence; they came up from NXT and felt like a big deal, feuding with Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, and Charlotte Flair, only to then get replaced by Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab! Since then, Fatal Influence have lost most of their matches, particularly to the reigning WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, and unsurprisingly, that happened again here! Yes, that’s right, Paige beat Jacy Jayne, and I am losing my mind! What are we doing?!

Grade: D-

Danhausen and Matt Cardona VS Los Garza, Chelsea Green VS Jade Cargill, Giulia VS Kiana James

Los Garza were searching for Danhausen in his lair; Danhausen had already left to go and look for The Miz and Kit Wilson, before Finn Balor had an interesting interaction with Tama and Talla Tonga! Danhausen then made his way down to the ring with a rather broken version of The Miz and Kit Wilson, leading to Los Garza attacking Miz and Kit, only for Matt Cardona to run down and even the odds! This led to Nick Aldis booking a Tag Team match, with Cardona and Danhausen working decently together! I’m not fully sure yet as to whether a part of Danhausen’s gimmick is that he isn’t that good at wrestling, but that’s certainly the vibe that he gives me! Thankfully, Los Garza are very good at making others look good, with them even being stopped by Miz and Kit at one point, leading to Matt Cardona wiping Angel out with a Rough Ryder, allowing Danhausen to use his powers to beat Berto! This was absolutely stupid in all the right ways!

Grade: B-

Going from Danhausen to Gunther is fantastic camera work, with Gunther still fuming over not being the Undisputed WWE Champion, before Chelsea Green had a very tough task on her hands when she went one-on-one with Jade Cargill! Unsurprisingly, Jade dominated this match, with Chelsea barely doing anything of note, other than getting good crowd reactions! As expected, Cargill scored the win, before Tiffany Stratton was forced to run down and make the save; something she failed to do successfully! I’m not excited for Stratton-Cargill at all!

Grade: C

Credit: WWE

Royce Keys was the next to reject Solo Sikoa’s plea for assistance, before Trick Williams lost his mind over Ricky Saints’ actions earlier in the night! It was then time for the Main Event match of the night as Giulia looked to prove a point to her former business manager, Kiana James! Unfortunately, the crowd was incredibly flat for this match, and it wasn’t exactly a surprise! Whilst Kiana James had a good start to the year, WWE has massively slowed down her momentum, whilst Giulia has had hurdle after hurdle be put in front of her! Sadly, this was easily the least memorable match on this show, with Giulia eventually scoring the win, only to get attacked post-match by Blake Monroe! Finally, she’s arrived!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C

The Night of Champions Main Event Closes the Show

The final segment on the final SmackDown before Night of Champions saw Cody Rhodes, Sami Zayn, and Gunther get their final words in ahead of tonight’s Undisputed WWE Championship Match! Sami apologised to Cody for letting his emotions get the better of him last week, but he then snapped after Cody brought up Kevin Owens! Zayn told Rhodes that he should be thanking him, as without him, he wouldn’t still have the Undisputed WWE Championship in his possession! Gunther then stormed out as he’d simply had enough, but he couldn’t say too much before Jey Uso interrupted everyone to send them a warning shot for Summerslam! This ticked off Gunther, leading to everyone standing tall at different points as Oba Femi arrived to cause a tense stare-down with everyone! Oba VS Gunther, please!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-