Hey everyone, I’m back again with another review of Smackdown. Sorry for missing last week’s episode as I was on vacation, but everything should be back to regular scheduling. With the build to Summerslam happening, it’s made for some intriguing television over the past few weeks. WWE is hotter than it’s been in quite some years. The Roman Reigns saga is on fire and hopefully, Summerslam will continue their streak of good PLEs.
Roman Reigns Opens the Show
Roman Reigns kicked off this edition of Smackdown with an in-ring promo. The tribal chief continued his manipulation of Jey Uso claiming Jey only became his right-hand man because his brother, Jimmy, was injured. I thought this was an excellent example of just how low Roman will stoop to get into his cousin’s head as just the other week he said Jimmy was next in line to become tribal chief. Roman is so dialed into his character right now and he continues to prove why he is the top star in the WWE.
Jey Uso interrupted this segment and played some mind games of his own, reminding Roman that he’s the only man to pin Roman in the past few years. It was nice to finally see Jey give his cousin a taste of his own medicine for once. The only negative of this segment is that it didn’t add anything new to the storyline. Overall, this was an engaging and good segment of television.
Grade: 90%
United States Championship Invitational Final: Rey Mysterio vs. Santos Escobar
This was probably my most anticipated match of the night going into the show as I quite enjoy the lucha libre style when done well. These two guys easily could have gone out there and had the match of the night, but that was unfortunately not the case.
Mysterio apparently suffered an injury mid-match and it had to be cut short by the referee. Santos picked up the victory but was visibly disappointed in the outcome. I have a feeling this was meant to be a landmark moment early in Escobar’s main roster run so it sucks to see it turn out this way. Hopefully, the Escobar vs. Theory match will give them a chance to showcase their in-ring talent.
Grade: 70%
LA Knight vs. Ashante Thee Adonis
LA Knight continues to prove he is a charismatic powerhouse when he interrupts Hit Row (thank god). This was a quick match and Knight got the W. It’s clear WWE wants to keep Knight on the show, but I am starting to wish he had something more substantial. I’m not asking for him to be the next Roman Reigns, but this seems very limiting for how talented he is. This is fine for a filler feud, but his popularity warrants something much bigger for him to do.
Grade: 80%
Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair vs. Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville
Great, another “Can they Co-exist” match! I’ll try to put my sarcasm to the side now that I’ve gotten that one out of the way. I do have several problems with this with the first being the tag team champions being defeated. Champions should rarely be defeated, especially in a random t.v. match. It made perfect sense for the champions to come out on top because of the dissension between Belair and Flair. Why book an angle in which they clearly do not get along if you are just going to have them win anyway? Why did they have to beat the champions? Is there no other possible idea WWE has for building a title program?
Grade: 65%
Karrion Kross vs. Karl Anderson
I just want to say AJ Styles deserves a better opponent. There isn’t much time left in his career and I fear he might be wasting away in the mid-card. Clearly, WWE wants to position Kross as a star of the future, but as time goes on he increasingly under-performs. When he debuted in NXT I was all aboard the hype train, but I am starting to think he simply isn’t “Him”. Don’t even get me started on his convoluted finisher.
A win for Kross is better than having him lose a nothing match to Jeff Hardy, but does anyone really think Kross is worthy of a feud with one of the greats? At least Karl Anderson is making big money to take a few bumps every now and then which is seemingly his only goal in wrestling nowadays.
Grade: 75%
Jey Uso vs. Grayson Waller
Grayson Waller is everything WWE could want in a heel so it’s very telling to see him in a match with one half of the Summerslam main event. The match was fun for what it was. Solid television fare, but the attraction was the post-match angle. The show closed with another Bloodline beatdown of Jey Uso.
I prefer the physical angles to the verbal ones when it comes to the Bloodline and this is a perfect example of why. Each performer has so much physical presence that they bring to the table so when this is showcased, it only elevates the show. Jey continues to be a great sympathetic babyface heading into their showdown at Summerslam. Waller held his own with one of the top guys in the company. Roman and Sikoa looked so imposing and virtually unbeatable.
Grade: 90%
Overall thoughts
This show was good, but not great. The Bloodline angle continues to be the main draw for anything WWE-wise for me. They have a lot of players waiting to break out and become top stars. It makes me wonder whether or not the shows would benefit from the world title being freed from the shackles of Roman Reigns. I really feel like WWE could easily have this be a blood (pun intended) feud and allow for some other acts to have a chance with the top title and lose absolutely nothing by doing so.
The U.S. championship scene is getting better day by day and I think Theory should drop it soon. The women’s division was just baffling to me this week, but at least the match will be good. I enjoyed the show, but there are some bugs that could be patched without much effort. Here’s to next week! Let me know what you thought about this episode of Smackdown in the comments. Do you agree or disagree with any of my thoughts? Follow me on X @wewanttablez and on Instagram @wewanttables.