WWE was quick to respond to Bloodline’s attack on WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and his friend Randy Orton. Friday Night Smackdown Last week, the champion opened this week’s episode, and of course, he got around to asking what Omaha wanted to talk about.
Hey, we gotta do the gimmick.
Rhodes spoke about Orton and explained all the reasons he owes him a debt of gratitude: the only reason he’s standing before us as WWE champion is because of Randy, who basically brought him up in the business, which means Cody feels terrible guilt over what happened to him at the hands of Solo Sicore and company.
Family isn’t always just about blood ties.
He quickly moved on to talk about the new leader of Bloodline, saying that while he previously said he wasn’t ready, given his recent performances he feels like… with Rose still standing strong as champion.
And then…A-Town Down Under showed up?
The two got into an altercation, but before anything could really get going, Rose went on the attack. They threw Rose over the barricade, and undefeated boxing champion Terence Crawford handed Rose a chair so he could take on the former tag team champion. Suddenly, it became clear why the two had shown up in the first place.
Situations where one champion can back up another and easily press.
Fair play, WWE.
Returning backstage, Rose asked SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis for a handicap match against Theory and Waller but was refused, with Aldis instead saying he needed to find a tag team partner by the end of the night.
Who could it be?
Solo Sikore made a pre-recorded appearance later in the show, stating that anyone who decided to ally with Rose would be making enemies of Bloodline and would pay the price for allying with him.
Naturally, it was Kevin Owens who answered the call, returning after recovering from an illness his mother was battling and because there was no one else more qualified to fill the position.
In the main event, Rose and Owens took Australia’s A-Town by storm as Waller tried to save himself at the expense of Theory. This showdown needs to happen sooner rather than later.
Bloodline emerged to face the babyfaces after his victory, which wasn’t surprising given Sikoa’s previous expectations, and just like last week, Rhodes could only watch as Owens was overpowered by Jacob Fatu, punished for the cardinal sin of being friendly with his enemy.
The night ended with Rhodes being triple powerbombed through the announcer’s desk and Owens being slammed into a post with a chair wrapped around his neck, with Bloodline once again standing tall over the fallen bodies as the FOX screen went black.
The chant “We need Roman” rang out throughout.
That’s certainly true.
This week’s segment on LA Nights was about the contract signing for a United States Championship match with Logan Paul. Summer Slam:
I love LA Nights, but it was so awesome when Paul said, “I look like an extra from Sons of Anarchy.” Meanwhile, LA brings up the fact that he broke into the guy’s house and treated the pool like his own bathroom, and all he got out of that was a Money in the Bank qualifier, which he used to get the pinfall on Paul and prove he deserves the opportunity he’s currently getting.
And how did Paul respond to that? By calling him by his shooting name!
Well, he said more than that. He claimed he was a culturally important figure who wouldn’t be so sneaky as to allow someone like Knight to challenge for his title, when in fact he hasn’t had a defining moment in the last 20 years and is little more than a spray-tanned gym-goer pretending to be The Rock.
Knight fired back, calling him “sleazy, sleazy, sleazy Logan P.” Not bad, and hitting a nerve by calling him a fraud pretending to be the WWE champion.
His older brother, Jake, at least has the guts to step into the ring and take on the likes of Mike Tyson. Apparently, that doesn’t run in the family.
That was all I needed.
This was a fantastic battle between two guys who felt like top stars, even though they were just competing for the championship of the United States. The match is set, and it’s arguably the most exciting match on the schedule right now.
Paul pretended to walk away, then rushed in for a sneaky attack, but Knight was prepared for it and fought Paul off.
It looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Meanwhile, Santos Escobar was backstage setting up a match with Knight next week, claiming he was a triple threat but had never been pinned, and LA made a “your mom” joke, which is a way to lead a match people will definitely tune in to a bigger match people will definitely tune in to.
Everything else
- Andrade and Carmelo Hayes had a really fun TV match that the crowd went wild for. Andrade is a little more visible now and Carmelo should get a lot of credit for going all out for him. Andrade wins with “The Message”. Cool name, cool finish. Hayes getting a lot of work will be an issue at some point, but he looked great out there and none of this will hurt him too much until he has the right storyline to break into.
- Nia Jax and Bayley appeared in a side-by-side interview segment, with the former challenging the latter to call her the Queen of the Ring, which she is, and that she will win the title, etc. Bayley brought up the injury Jax inflicted on her in 2017. A filmed scene then took place in which she said it wasn’t because she was big and bad, but simply because she was big, clumsy and reckless. Jax do not have It looks like this. By the end, Jax takes off his mic and runs off in annoyance. I’m not all that keen on going down this route, but they needed something to blow off some heat here, so who cares.
- Later that night, Tiffany Stratton was played a full-blown music video before introducing her match with Michin. She lost the match because Bayley showed up and completely lost her mind, beating up Jax at ringside and destroying the Money in the Bank briefcase after allowing Michin to roll up Stratton. This was certainly a way to liven up the Bayley character.
- Bianca Belair defeated Chelsea Green in a short match set up in a pre-taped segment that saw Belair and Jade Cargill go to Aldis and Green and Piper Niven in a rematch for the tag team titles. It was a match that accomplished nothing other than giving Belair the win and bringing The Unholy Union to the big screen, teasing next week’s showdown.
Everything about this show was building towards something, whether it was a big match at the next PLE or a TV match next week. It was a great two hours. I feel like I say that about the blue brand all the time.
Rating: B-
Your turn.
