WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 31/10

Tiffany Stratton Calls Out Jade Cargill, Ilja Dragunov’s United States Championship Open Challenge

The final Friday Night SmackDown before Saturday Night’s Main Event started off hot as Tiffany Stratton stormed down to the ring to quickly call out Jade Cargill! Nick Aldis then quickly responded, making it clear to Tiffany that she can’t have any physical contact with Jade before their match tomorrow, and Cargill then arrived to try and get in the head of her opponent even more! This was very straightforward, and if we’re being honest, it does look like Cargill’s going to leave Salt Lake City as the new WWE Women’s Champion!

Grade: C+

After R-Truth gave Motor City Machine Guns some candy, Solo Sikoa came over and ultimately set up a Tag Team match for later in the show! It was then time for the first match of the night as Ilja Dragunov hosted another United States Championship Open Challenge! At first, FRAXIOM’s music hit, but Tommaso Ciampa also seemed keen to answer the Open Challenge! Eventually, Ilja Dragunov selected Nathan Frazer as his opponent, and that was the right choice as we were treated to a properly great match! Ilja and Nathan have fought in the past; their match in 2023 was one of my favourites of that entire year, and this was so good too! Dragunov beat the absolute crap out of Frazer, but the youngster's speed meant he was able to keep fighting back, coming narrowly close to capturing Gold on a number of different occasions! In particular, Nathan Frazer’s Phoenix Splash was absolutely incredible; he absolutely nailed it, but like I said, it still wasn’t enough to keep Ilja Dragunov down! In fact, after both guys were clearly spent, The Mad Dragon delivered a wicked Powerbomb followed by an H-Bomb to score a successful retention! After the match was over, FRAXIOM and DIY brawled to the back, with Dragunov splitting them all up before Tama Tonga laid down a challenge for the United States Champion!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B+

Carmelo Hayes VS Kit Wilson, Alexa Bliss VS Nia Jax, MFT VS Motor City Machine Guns

Kit Wilson debuted his own theme song and titantron next as he was ready to go one-on-one with Carmelo Hayes! This probably should’ve been a match that Carmelo won pretty easily, but that’s not how it went at all as Kit got plenty of offense in! In fact, Wilson hit a lovely DDT at one point, and he also looked like he was going to win after The Miz interfered in proceedings! Thankfully, Hayes was able to kick out of Wilson’s elbow drop before Melo delivered a First-48 to get the win! As soon as the match was over, Miz laid Melo out with a Skull-Crushing Finale, and it very much seems like that rivalry is only just beginning!

Grade: C+

Credit: WWE

Both Charlotte Flair and Cathy Kelly seem to have forgotten that Alexa Bliss bullied Nia Jax years ago, acting like Alexa did the right thing getting rid of her! Anyway, Sami Zayn then agreed with Nick Aldis not to go out to ringside for Motor City Machine Guns’ match with MFT, and this led to Cody Rhodes telling Aldis that he’s happy with the contract for his Undisputed WWE Championship match with Drew McIntyre! Alexa Bliss was then out next to face Nia Jax, and this was kind of just here! Nia is really good, Alexa is also really good, so they definitely could’ve delivered more, but that clearly wasn’t the plan here! See, Nia had Alexa beat, no doubt about it, but Charlotte Flair got her nose involved enough times for Bliss to take advantage and steal a victory from Jax! What on earth was the referee doing?!

Grade: C

Damian Priest said that Aleister Black has officially succeeded in making things personal, before Giulia and Kiana James confronted a hurting Tiffany Stratton! Chelsea Green then came up to Nick Aldis asking for a shot at the Women’s United States Championship, and whilst Aldis was very much against this idea, Giulia was more than happy to welcome the challenge! It was then time for the Main Event match of the night as the Motor City Machine Guns faced Solo Sikoa’s MFT’s! This was a weirdly designed match, with the Motor City Machine Guns getting a lot more offense in than expected! I would’ve thought that this was a great opportunity to put the MFT’s over as a dominant threat to any Championship, but that’s not how it felt here! Eventually, Tama Tonga and JC Mateo were able to defeat Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, but that was really only because of interference from Solo Sikoa! After the match was over, both Rey Fenix and Shinsuke Nakamura ran down to make the save, but they didn’t exactly do a very good job at that!

Grade: C+

Undisputed WWE Championship Contract Signing

The final segment before Saturday Night’s Main Event was a Contract Signing between Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre ahead of their upcoming bout for the Undisputed WWE Championship! Cody was more than happy to sign the contract straightaway, but the same could not be said for Drew, with McIntyre claiming that it was unfair! Drew pushed for there to be no Champion's advantage, that if Cody gets disqualified, he wins the Title! Nick Aldis was completely against this idea, but Rhodes was happy to accept the terms as all of this needs to end! McIntyre then tried to get into the head of his Rival, asking him why he wasn’t out trick or treating with his family, before The Scottish Psychopath eventually put The American Nightmare through a table, standing tall with the WWE Title aloft to close the show! Unfortunately, that almost certainly means that McIntyre will lose to Cody Rhodes tonight, but if we’re being honest, that’s not exactly the biggest surprise!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B