WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 27/03

Linus O'Howell
3 days ago
5 min read

Randy Orton Starts the Show, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair VS The Bella Twins

The final Friday Night SmackDown of March kicked off with Randy Orton, as The Viper came out to explain his actions towards Matt Cardona last week! Randy brought up the fact that it was Cody Rhodes who asked him to deliver his absolute best at WrestleMania, that it was Cody who told him to listen to the voices! Because of this, Orton can’t be held responsible for his recent attacks, stating that that’s him being at his vicious best! This brought out Matt Cardona, who just wacked Orton with a microphone to end the segment! Fair enough! I will say, though, Cardona wasn’t exactly selling his injury particularly well!

Grade: C+

Nick Aldis gave Trick Williams the good news that “Mr. Whoop That” will be competing at WrestleMania 42, and Trick was even happier when Aldis told Sami Zayn that there currently isn’t a place on the card for him! Sami then floored Trick in anger, telling Nick that he’d find his way onto the Mania card, before Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair took on The Bella Twins in the opening match of the night! Before the match could even begin, The Irresistible Forces came out and cut a pretty terrible promo, and quite frankly, all of this is terrible! The lack of entertainment that is happening every week when it comes to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships is absolutely horrible, like, why are The Bella Twins here?! Anyway, the only positive about this was that, unlike the last few weeks, we actually got a winner here as Brie Bella pinned Alexa Bliss following interference from Lash Legend and Nia Jax! After the match was over, the three teams brawled before Bayley and Lyra Valkyria showed up to even the odds! I think this is when Nikki Bella got hurt, but all it did was end the segment with the most awkward-looking shot you’ve ever seen!

Grade: D

Rhea Ripley VS B-Fab, Kit Wilson VS Jelly Roll, Carmelo Hayes’ United States Championship Open Challenge

R-Truth continues to get confused when it comes to thinking that The Judgment Day is getting back together, and all I have to say is Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest shouldn’t be anywhere near this; it feels offensive! Speaking of offensive, Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair, and The Bella Twins are still being annoying as hell, whilst Rhea Ripley then showed up to call out Jade Cargill and her new lackies! If the earlier parts of this show were bad, then this was on a whole different level! Not only did Jade Cargill and B-Fab keep talking over each other, but Jade decided to put B-Fab in a match with Rhea! However, that match never happened as the Heels just attacked Ripley before the bell, citing another ambush to end the segment over Ripley again! The promo segment here was awful, and I genuinely think that this could be the worst WrestleMania feud that I’ve ever seen (in terms of its stature as a World Championship feud)!

Grade: E

The Miz is still really struggling following Danhausen’s curse, and it seems like Kit Wilson may also be set to struggle after DH cursed him, too! A beaten-up Drew McIntyre then arrived at SmackDown to talk about his grievances once again, before Jelly Roll made his singles debut when he faced Kit Wilson! In fairness to both men, this match actually flowed quite smoothly, and as low as the bar was, this was the best thing on this show! Jelly is actually okay in the ring, given he’s a country artist, and I felt like it said a lot about WWE’s faith in Kit Wilson to have him be the one to face Mr. Roll! Shockingly, Jelly Roll actually won this match, and whilst that is pretty stupid, at least Wilson was protected by the fact that he was indeed cursed!

Grade: B- (in comparison to everything else)

Solo Sikoa apologised to his MFTs for his behaviour last week, but if we’re being totally honest, I’m pretty sure he only did this so he could show Tama Tonga that he’s not like Roman Reigns! Tama then got a number of visits from both Carmelo Hayes and Shinsuke Nakamura, before Melo headed down to the ring to host another one of his United States Championship Open Challenges! Interestingly enough, Hayes’ call was answered by Sami Zayn, and this made a lot of sense given that Nick Aldis told Sami that there wasn’t a space on the WrestleMania card for him due to those spots being reserved for Champions! So, the match itself was pretty good; these are two excellent in-ring workers, but the finish was certainly a shock! See, after Trick Williams had watched the match closely from ringside, Trick decided to get up on the apron and punch Carmelo Hayes, opening the door for Sami Zayn to deliver a Helluva Kick to get the win! So yes, Sami Zayn is the brand-new United States Champion, and as we found out afterwards in a backstage segment with Nick Aldis, it will be Sami Zayn VS Trick Williams for the US Championship at WrestleMania! We always expected it to be Sami-Trick at Mania; the story was there, but to completely push Carmelo Hayes to the wayside in order to give Williams the belt is honestly awful!

Grade: C

Another WrestleMania Match Gets Made Official, Giulia VS Tiffany Stratton

After also showing up to the arena hurt, Jacob Fatu headed down to the ring to talk about how Drew McIntyre’s actions have been taking food away from his children! Drew then showed up to say that he doesn’t care about Jacob’s children, which resulted in Nick Aldis interrupting to say that he’s had enough of these two fighting! So, as a result, they will have a match at WrestleMania, but because of all of the trouble that they’ve caused, it’s going to be an Unsanctioned Match! Nice, that should be good fun!

Grade: C+

Matt Cardona wasn’t exactly interested in listening to Jelly Roll’s advice, whilst Aleister Black and Zelina Vega seem delighted over all of this! Why did WWE get rid of Karrion Kross and Scarlett just to do the exact same gimmick with Black and Vega (and in a way less effective way, too)?! Anyway, Giulia was out next as the Women’s United States Champion was set to go one-on-one with Tiffany Stratton! At the end of last week’s show, this match was advertised as a bout for the Women’s US Title, but that idea was clearly scrapped with no mention as to why whatsoever! I mean, that makes sense if WWE wants to do this match properly at WrestleMania, but in that case, why did Giulia win here? Yes, it was mostly down to the interference by Kiana James, but still, if The Beautiful Madness was always going to win here, surely you could’ve put the belt on the line?! Honestly, this was all very confusing, but it was at least nice to see Giulia beat a top star like Stratton!

Grade: C

Randy Orton VS Matt Cardona

After Bayley and Lyra Valkyria explained their reasons as to why they showed up tonight, it was Main Event time as this week’s Friday Night SmackDown closed with Randy Orton taking on Matt Cardona! However, this wasn’t much of a match, as Randy viciously attacked the strapped-up arm of Matt Cardona, beating him senseless before he just won with the RKO! This didn’t do anything for Cardona! However, the show wasn’t done yet, as Cody Rhodes showed up in his van, marched down to the ring and attacked Randy Orton, starting a massive brawl that was eventually broken up by security! However, that still wasn’t the end as Jelly Roll came down to try and play peacemaker between both men, which simply resulted in Jelly being floored by an Orton RKO! It feels like Jelly Roll’s the main character on SmackDown right now; he’s everywhere!