WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 28/11

The Last Time is Now Tournament (Quarter-Finals): Jey Uso VS Rusev

After LA Knight wasn’t impressed after finding out he wouldn’t be getting a bye straight into the Semi-Finals, this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Jey Uso and Rusev colliding in the Quarter-Finals of The Last Time is Now Tournament! With this show being pre-recorded, the crowd weren’t the best and like I’ve said many times with this tournament, some of the matches haven’t been at all interesting! I liked that Rusev kicked out at 1 after Jey delivered a Spear, and Uso did well to kick out of a mid-air Machka Kick! However, ultimately, an Uso Splash was enough for “Main Event” Jey Uso to get the win, booking his ticket into the Final 4!

Grade: C+

Chelsea Green’s Championship Celebration, LA Knight VS The Miz: The Last Time is Now Tournament (Quarter-Finals), Asuka VS Charlotte Flair: Women’s WarGames Advantage Match

The Miz was pleading with Nick Aldis to add him back into The Last Time is Now Tournament, despite the fact that he’s already lost in this tournament, and this is when R-Truth made his case once again, allowing Miz to swap the names in the draw, meaning he was selected as Sheamus’ replacement! How is any of this allowed?! Anyway, Zelina Vega sent an ominous warning to Damian Priest before Rhea Ripley reunited with her Terror Twin, and then we got a proper segment as Chelsea Green was finally getting her Championship Celebration! However, having said that, this whole thing barely went two minutes, with Chelsea putting herself over, before Jade Cargill arrived and dropped both Green and Alba Fyre to stand tall. Honestly, this felt like a massive waste of time!

Grade: C-

Charlotte Flair told her WarGames team that she’ll win them the advantage over Asuka tonight, before Michin told B-Fab that maybe she should be the one to deal with Jade Cargill (good luck with that)! The Miz was then ready for his second opportunity in The Last Time is Now Tournament as he went one-on-one with LA Knight in the final Quarter-Final matchup! Again, the crowd weren’t exactly bringing the energy for this match, but I again can’t exactly blame them given the two competitors involved! Both The Miz and LA Knight are great on the mic, but they’re not the most exciting in-ring competitors, and most of this bout just felt quite flat! Eventually, LA Knight was able to score the 1,2,3 with a BFT, and The Megastar will now go on to face Jey Uso in the Semi-Finals!

Grade: C

Becky Lynch continues to boss around her WarGames teammates around, whilst Ilja Dragunov said he’d consider Tommaso Ciampa’s challenge for a United States Championship opportunity! Asuka then danced her way down to the ring as the captain of her team looked to defeat Charlotte Flair to earn Team Kabuki Warriors the WarGames Advantage! Asuka and Charlotte Flair are two of the greatest female superstars of all time, their accomplishments speak for themselves, but once again, this match felt flat! It’s a constant issue with these pre-recorded shows, to the point that it would be better if this was just the kickoff show for Survivor Series! Anyway, like I said on Monday, it’s always better for the Heels to have the advantage heading into WarGames because that simply makes more sense! However, that’s not what happened here as after Asuka accidentally sprayed mist into the timekeeper’s face, Flair managed to hit a Natural Selection to get the win, meaning the good guys now have the advantage tonight! Very odd decision!

Grade: C

Team Sami VS Team Solo: 5-on-5 Traditional Survivor Series Match

Credit: WWE

And in the Main Event of the final Friday Night SmackDown before Survivor Series: WarGames, we got treated to a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series matchup as Team Sami Zayn (Sami, Shinsuke Nakamura, Rey Fenix, and Motor City Machine Guns) looked to take down Team Solo (MFT’s)! I’m fed up of talking about the flat crowd, but they were once again silent throughout the large majority of this match. However, on a positive note, this match was commercial-free, so it flowed quite well! Both JC Mateo and Shinsuke Nakamura suffered early exits, whilst Tonga Loa was eliminated after nearing scoring an elimination of his own! Talla Tonga proved to be a real difference maker, wiping out both Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley of the Motor City Machine Guns, whilst Tama Tonga was able to eliminate Rey Fenix, meaning Sami Zayn was left in a 3-on-1 predicament! Sami, being the underdog he is, fought on valiantly, dispatching Tama Tonga with a Helluva Kick, before Talla Tonga got himself counted out, meaning we did come down to Solo and Sami! This was the best part of the match in my opinion, with both guys really going at it in a contest that Solo Sikoa couldn’t afford to lose! Thankfully for Solo, he didn’t, as Sikoa narrowly kicked out before nailing Zayn with a Samoan Spike to pick up a pretty good win! However, Solo Sikoa wasn’t able to celebrate for long as the show went off the air with the return of The Wyatt Sick6, with Uncle Howdy nailing Solo with a Sister Abigail!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-