WWE hit Ontario, California for Friday Night SmackDown this week and it was quite the interesting show. I don’t mean that in a good way, either.
Let’s break it down.
Whoop that?
WWE Champion Sami Zayn smacked down United States Champion Trick Williams in a scathing promo last week that acted as an attempt at putting the young upstart in his place. Trick Willy got his chance to really fire back this week.
He claimed Zayn doesn’t know anything about having “it,” which is funny because “it” already beat his ass at WrestleMania.
That’s true, too.
And otherwise, it’s Trick who walks, talks, and acts like a champion, not Sami. It almost felt meta that he was saying all this, even doing it in his own way. Because, yeah, he really does personify what a champion in WWE would typically look like.
Sami made clear that if he wanted to, he could absolutely light Trick up on the microphone but he won’t because he’s a good guy. And it’s rich that Williams would talk about “it” when he doesn’t even know what it is.
He’s closer to sink or swim than he realizes and he doesn’t actually want to be in there with the shark with sharp teeth. Trick wouldn’t back down. But they wouldn’t agree to a title match.
Instead, they had Trick announce he’s getting one next week in a backstage segment. That pretty much tells you how that’s going to go.
Meanwhile, Rey Fenix showed up this week to confront Zayn about going a little too hard after Penta, his brother, and what that means. Johnny Gargano is still hanging around the champ, so they did all this to get to a tag team match in the main event.
Ricky Saints got involved in the main event, attacking Fenix. Penta showed up as a surprise and suggested making it a six-man tag. Naturally, that’s what happened. Really, it was a way for Trick to score a pinfall win while having Saints be the guy to take the fall, and have both Williams, the challenger next week, and Penta, Mr. Money in the Bank, stare down Zayn to close the show.
Trick Willy wrestling for the WWE championship is something I was certain would happen eventually, I just don’t know that I ever saw it happening like this. It’s too much of a placeholder program for my tastes. Oba Femi is being courted as the next major star, and he would never be put in a position like this. I don’t like that WWE is doing it to Trick, while he’s holding a title of his own, no less!
But he’s getting valuable experience and another opportunity to continue growing into the major star he can still become. I’ll have to settle for seeing that as the bright side.
Not this again
Chelsea Green had to defend her title against Roxanne Perez of The Judgment Day here, and of course they put together what was a pretty fun match. Green may not be the most polished wrestler but the division is filled with deeply talented workers like Perez who can absolutely do the heavy lifting in a match like this.
Intercontinental Champion Raquel Rodriguez tried to interfere but to no avail. Green retained the title, and now looks ahead to her already scheduled showdown against Nikki Bella next week.
Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan was also in the building supporting her stablemate, and she attacked after the bell. Iyo Sky got involved as an equalizer for Rodriguez but who would act as that for Morgan?
Enter Tiffany Stratton.
Miss Money in the Bank.
She got the better of Morgan, and the heels were taken out completely. The door was left wide open for the most obvious cash-in of all time, and of course she grabbed the briefcase and told the referee she wanted to cash in right there. Everyone acted confused, the referee stalled like she didn’t get it or wanted Stratton to really be sure, and of course it gave Judgment Day time enough to get Morgan out of there. At that point, everyone just acted like Stratton didn’t plainly state her desire to cash in while literally handing over the briefcase. She keeps it, and we are right back in the hell we were in the last time she had it.
Remember how many times she did this same routine before? This sucks, and I cannot say enough bad things about it. Please, creative minds at WWE, stop doing this. It sucks and makes everyone look dumb, bad, incompetent, or some combination of all three.
Everything else
- It’s still a little weird to me when they say we are going to get a Blake Monroe match and then it actually happens. Such was the case with the Street Fight she was booked in against Giulia this week. Then they spent the majority of the match with Giulia finding new and interesting ways to beat the trash out of her. She blasted her with a kendo stick while a garbage can was over her head, put her face through a mirror, stomped her head into the mat. Monroe’s only recourse was to use a fire extinguisher to stun her foe, and then hit a duplex from the steps onto a bunch of chairs on the outside. This was a genuinely brutal match that ended with Monroe pinning her clean after a Neutralizer. This ruled, considering it was a TV match.
- This whole Cody Rhodes/Randy Orton thing is getting a bit nonsensical now, isn’t it? I tend to agree with this here Cagesider that WWE already fumbled the big punt spot, when Cody punted Baron Corbin, of all people. It made the whole thing so much less weighty. Orton tried to explain it away himself by saying it will only really matter if Cody does it to him and when he gets the chance, he’ll hesitate. Except they already let the cat out of the bag, wasting it on Corbin. You can’t go back to this now. Rhodes responded by saying Orton punted a bunch of people, yeah, but he killed a lot of opportunities he had because of that. What’s the point of saying that? It’s almost like they’re backing off the original idea with this. Ultimately, they decided on a Last Man Standing match at Crown Jewel. After they fumbled this story, it’s hard to care much about it.
- Surprise! Michin & B-Fab are your new women’s tag team champions after Jade Cargill rocked Tatum Paxley with a big right hand while the referee was distracted and Michin followed up with a Styles Clash to score the pin. This is the second title change in the past three episodes of SmackDown. We went from heavy Fatal Influence presence to none at all, and now somehow Michin & B-Fab are champs. I guess the idea is to get to Cargill vs. Charlotte Flair but this feels like a cruddy way to do it.
- Bakusai vs. the MFTs never actually got underway because Kyoki stole Haku’s walking stick, and a big brawl broke out with WWE personnel rushing to break it up. Not much to say about this.
- SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis announced CM Punk vs. Kevin Owens for two weeks from now in Brooklyn, and then invited them in for a face-to-face chat where they could say whatever they wanted to each other. Punk called it a monumental waste of his time while Owens continued attacking Punk for everything he is and how miserable he makes him. It felt like there should have been a ton of tension here but it just wasn’t there. Maybe their hearts just aren’t in it anymore, I don’t know. Punk called him a piece of garbage and walked off. They’ll link up in two weeks for what they’re acting like is the definitive match in their story. We’ll see.
They should have just given Giulia and Monroe an entire hour.
You grade it before me:
Grade: C-
Your turn.
