WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 30/05

Bianca Belair Starts the Show, Jade Cargill VS Nia Jax VS Naomi: Women’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Match

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with The EST of WWE as Bianca Belair returned home to Knoxville, Tennessee! Bianca didn’t say much of note, other than the fact that she is still dealing with an injury, but she’s determined to return to in-ring action soon! This brought out Naomi who wanted to try and make things up with Belair, but it didn’t go particularly well as Naomi then said she broke into Bianca’s parents’ house! Belair was rightly angry about this, but it didn’t lead to anything as Jade Cargill and Nia Jax arrived to kick start the opening match of the night! This was a scruffy contest, there were some decent moves throughout, particularly from Naomi and Nia, but it also wasn’t the smoothest ride! In the end, after Jax delivered an Annihilator to Cargill, Naomi was able to take advantage and roll up The Irresistible Force to book her place in this year’s Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match!

Grade: C (Promo and Match Combined)

JC Mateo VS R-Truth, The SmackDown Tag Team Division, Los Garza VS Rey Fenix and Je’Von Evans

The Bloodline were walking backstage when R-Truth was talking to himself, leading to a match between Truth and JC Mateo! Before that, Chelsea Green was seen wearing a sparkly protective mask, and this also resulted in a match being made between Alba Fyre and Zelina Vega! Tiffany Stratton then cut a backstage promo which was interrupted by both Naomi and Alexa Bliss (who ae both in the Women’s MITB Ladder Match) before R-Truth looked to take down JC Mateo! As expected, this match didn’t go particularly long, Truth did his usual John Cena moves, but Mateo put him down to get the win! There was literally no point to this!

Grade: C

The Street Profits were out next to cut a promo on the SmackDown Tag Team Division, but they were quickly interrupted by FRAXIOM who wanted a rematch for the WWE Tag Team Championships! The Motor City Machine Guns felt they deserved an opportunity at the Gold too, hence their interruption, whilst DIY feel like they’ve all ruined the Tag Team Division that they built up! This then brought out The Wyatt Sick6 who wiped everyone out to stand tall! This was a very straightforward segment!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

Speaking of Tag Teams, Los Garza were out next to take on the pairing of Rey Fenix and Je’Von Evans! Ethan Page joined commentary for this one, and the brand-new NXT North American Champion was very keen on scouting for his upcoming Title defense at World’s Collide! I thought this was a good match, everyone involved is really good, it was great to see Je’Von Evans competing on the Main Roster because The Young O.G. has an awfully high ceiling! However, despite that, after Ethan Page got involved multiple times, Los Garza were able to take advantage and drop Je’Von with their finishing move to get the win! Yes, that’s right, Angel and Berto actually won a match!

Grade: B-

Zelina Vega VS Alba Fyre, Damian Priest Speaks, Jacob Fatu VS Carmelo Hayes VS Andrade: Men’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Match

After a quick Uncle Howdy video, Zelina Vega was already in the ring as the Women’s United States Champion was set to go one-on-one with Alba Fyre! This match actually got more time than you might’ve expected, it went through an ad break, and that’s not a bad thing! In terms of the action itself, it was fine, I rate Alba Fyre highly so it was nice to see her getting some time to shine, but Zelina is still struggling as Champion! However, one thing Vega isn’t struggling with is picking up wins as after Chelsea Green accidentally smashed Piper Niven with her protective mask, Zelina took advantage of the distraction and rolled Alba up to sneak away with another victory over The Secret Hervice!

Grade: C

Carmelo Hayes wasn’t impressed with The Miz saying they’d both be Mr. Money in the Bank once Melo wins before Giulia had a video package that led to her having a stare-down with Zelina Vega! Please put the belt on The Beautiful Madness! Damian Priest was then out next as The Archer of Infamy had some things to say following the end of his brutal rivalry with Drew McIntyre! Damian said that whilst he doesn’t like Drew, he respected his fight at Saturday Night’s Main Event, and now it’s time for him to turn his attention to winning Championships! That’s why Priest wants to go after Jacob Fatu and the United States Championship, and that’s definitely something that has me interested!

Grade: C+

Credit: WWE

In the Main Event match of the night, Jacob Fatu, Carmelo Hayes, and Andrade fought for the right to head to Money in the Bank! This was by far the best thing on this show up to this point, all three men put on a great showing which is exactly what we’ve come to expect! I rate all 3 men highly, Jacob is a machine, Andrade is so damn talented whilst Carmelo Hayes is a star of the future! This could’ve gone either way, with all 3 men coming close, but it was the arrival of Solo Sikoa that ultimately cost Fatu, opening the door for Andrade to nail Melo with the Message to get the win! Honestly, this result surprised me!

Grade: B

Cody Rhodes Returns to SmackDown

The final segment on this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown saw Cody Rhodes make his return to the show to talk about his defeat at WrestleMania 41 and what’s been going on through his head since he’s been gone! Cody also said he wanted to give the Knoxville audience a nice surprise which is when Jey Uso arrived to YEET his way down to the ring! However, before Jey could say anything, John Cena showed up to talk trash his Money in the Bank opponents before he had a surprise of his own in the form of Logan Paul! Logan and John then went on to praise each other massively about how great they are, but this just resulted in a brawl breaking out, with Uso and Rhodes standing tall! I enjoyed this segment, the duo of Cena and Paul is actually quite brilliant!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B