Hear Me Clearly
Jacob Fatu loomed large over SmackDown. Solo Sikoa, still licking his wounds after his last encounter with the Samoan Werewolf, brought Talla Tonga back to the field. Talla wrecked Damian Priest after Damian & R-Truth defended their tag titles, which teed up the show’s ending nicely. But we’ll get to that.
This is all about territory. Jacob loomed large because both the Tribal Chief and the MFT
leader want him. The Usos, errand boys sent to collect, delivered that message for Roman to their baby brother. Once I got over the hilarity of Jimmy & Jey Uso being hired help, I locked in on Jey bringing up Jacob using the Tongan Death Grip on their big cousin. That’s not something one just does; that’s a desperate measure used during desperate times. It goes back to my feelings on Jacob being a man with truly nothing to lose.
How do they defeat that? The Usos and MFTs battled in this week’s main event but Jacob ensured we got no winner. That same Talla who made Damian Priest look like a child looked helpless when Jacob applied the Tongan Death Grip before Samoan Dropping the big man through the announce table.
Jacob looked even more unstoppable when he faced off against The Usos and walked right through them. And I do mean through. Not only did he show no fear but they did nothing to stop him. I wonder how Roman will feel about that. Do they have orders not to touch him? Are they conflicted because he’s family? Or are they just scared?
The entire territory is showing us that everyone should fear this man, including the OTC.
B-Sides
- Rhea Ripley stepped to Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss before Charlotte’s match with Jacy Jayne. No, she didn’t want to fight; she offered a helping hand. Charlotte slapped said hand away, despite Alexa being on board with the idea of Rhea teaming with them to take on Fatal Influence. Alexa’s wordless responses were awesome here too as she nodded when Charlotte mentioned her best friend’s goth connection with the WWE Women’s champ. But this was all set up for a match that Charlotte needed to lose to move everything forward. More importantly, she needed to lose thanks to Fatal Influence using math to their advantage. That’s exactly what happened as Jacy pinned one of WWE’s most decorated wrestlers only after Fallon Henley broke up Charlotte’s Figure 8, and Lainey kneed Alexa into next Friday. Charlotte put her eyes on all that chaos and off Jacy, who then hit her opponent with a very smooth looking Rolling Encore.
- Like I said, this had to happen and had to happen just like this. Rhea showed up during the post match beatdown, cleared house, and Charlotte shook the hand she verbally slapped away minutes earlier. This is a good spot for Fatal Influence, who look like a major threat in their first couple weeks on the Blue brand. There are multiple routes this can go during and after, but the goal should be making the new girls on the block look dominant.
- Last thing on Jacy: It’s weird seeing her without Booker T’s voice accompanying her entrance calling her a “rock star” and telling everyone around him to “stand up” for her!
- Let’s backtrack. Cody Rhodes opened the show with news that he’s medically cleared for competition. Right on cue, Ricky Saints made his SmackDown debut. There’s a lot of history between these two, which I’m glad they acknowledged without going into detail. They chose the right words to refer to their past, but focused on the future. Ricky told the crowd he’s everything their baby mother’s wish they were, told Cody he’s here to become SmackDown’s main character, and it’s time for a change. That all led to a non-title match that I got completely wrong. I figured they’d keep Ricky’s shoulders off the mat on his first Friday night. Especially after all that trash he talked. But I didn’t expect Cody to lose either. No, I figured someone would come through and beat down Cody, thus ending the match in a DQ. Instead, we got the beat down after Cody defeated Ricky. And it was GUNTHER. Similarly to how he manhandled—no pun intended—Seth Rollins before WrestleMania. Multiple Sleepers with a clear eye towards the Undisputed Championship. Funny that the SmackDown guy is challenging the Raw champion while the Raw guy is challenging SmackDown’s golden boy.
- But I get it. GUNTHER truly has nowhere else to go on Raw unless it’s to a title. Roman is busy with family business and Cody needs an opponent. This keeps The Ring General away from The Tribal Chief for a bit while giving Cody a true challenge while he’s nowhere near 100 percent.
- Damian thought R-Truth gave Fraxiom a tag title shot. In truth, he was only talking taxes with the young team. Meaning Damian mistakenly gave them a tag title shot. I only wish Damian’s disbelief about the taxes conversation ended with him wondering if he did his taxes.
- How we got into the match played out during the match itself: Truth started, got his team into hot water, only for Damian to bail them out at the last minute. Truth makes the mess and Damian does his best to play Mr. Clean. This was a fun tag match that kept the titles on television while giving Fraxiom a nice spotlight.
- Sami Zayn ran into Cody backstage and continued his delusional heel turn. He thinks and Cody are the last of the good guys. He took that act to the ring and bemoaned people cheering Trick Williams and not him. Sami will always get props from me for turning everything they give him into something compelling. Even if that something involves beating up a Gingerbread Man costume. Yup, that is a thing that happened. Sami eloquently talked about fans turning on him and how the costume represents Trick not taking wrestling seriously. More importantly, it illustrates him not taking the fans seriously. Sami’s great at doing the thing effective heels do which is making logical arguments that condescend. And again, he beat up a costume.
- Trick came to the ring after Sami tore up the costume. After standing tall, we next saw Trick in the medical section of the locker room. Sigh. I have no words for what happened next so I won’t even attempt to find them. The important thing is Sami gets his rematch at Backlash. I refuse to acknowledge anything else that happened during this segment nor how it will carry over into next week. Nope.
- Paige didn’t exactly abide by proper tag rules when she and Brie Bella defended their titles against the Irresistible Forces. I say that because it leaves the door open for a rematch. She didn’t cheat per se, but she with Nia Jax ready to Annihilate Brie, Paige kicked the rope behind the ref’s back, which knocked Nia off her perch. Brie took advantage with a quick pin, and they retained their titles. The announce team made it a point to underline how they won, so yeah, it wouldn’t shock me if they battle again. They kinda have to at a certain point considering the rest of SmackDown’s women are tied up in other affairs.
- Royce Keys dominated Angel Garza. That’s not the story that interests me though. After the match, Royce ran into Jacob, the man of the hour. They talked about their past, and the hard work they put in together to get to this point. Royce questioned whether Jacob’s time in WWE made him forget the streets. He also promised to have his back whenever necessary. This was right before Solo & Talla blindsided both men, only for the refs to break it up before it got way out of hand. I liked how they inserted Royce into the main event story without truly putting him in it. They established his past relationship with Jacob and their shared values. And with MFT putting hands on him, that gives him a very good reason to get involved. I want all good things for this cat so this pleased me.
Gingerbread homicide aside, this was a very fun SmackDown. All of the matches were solid, they put several Backlash matches on the board, and kept pushing Jacob Fatu’s story. Even involved Royce Keys in a meaningful way. Ricky Saints said SmackDown needs a new main character; it was Jacob this week and the show was better for it.
What say you, Cagesiders? Is Roman going to flip on his cousins for not taking out Jacob?
