This week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown opened with a recap of Bad Blood, a video package that felt suitably epic for the story they’re telling with The Bloodline. I will never stop being amazed at the quality of these damn videos.
We didn’t have to wait long to hear from the freshly returned Jimmy Uso, who made his presence felt right away. Not surprisingly, he was over like rover, with a big pop for his entrance theme and a chant just as soon as he was in the ring.
He reminded us he’s been out for six months thanks to Solo Sikoa, who jumped him from behind by his crew, his bloodline, his brothers. So they would settle it up on this very show in a singles match, where Jimmy said “I plan on kicking your ass…”
Before he could even finish the sentence, Roman Reigns’ music hit.
Another huge pop.
The hottest heels around have become the biggest babyfaces on the planet. They used a camera angle that looked out from the audience and you could see Reigns walking down the aisle through a sea of arms throwing up the 1’s. When he got to the ring, they gave us one hell of a side profile of him standing on the apron doing his own and every single soul in the arena facing him and doing it right back.
Fun. This shit is just too fun. Hell, I was at Wal-Mart the other day throwing up the 1’s at the deli for absolutely no reason at all. I wasn’t even getting anything from the deli. That’s how powerful this is, you know?
Anyway, Reigns switched it up and told Greenville to join him and acknowledge him.
Jimmy was shocked, and then happy as hell that suddenly it felt like they were on somewhat equal footing.
Reigns wouldn’t give up the microphone, though. Hey, he’s still the OTC.
He said he’s not comfortable right now with his position, and he wants everyone to know who they are — the GOATS. And they’re the 1’s.
“Yeah, but we’re not, though.”
Jimmy had to disagree because he sees a Chief with no Tribe, no Ula Fala around Roman’s neck. He returned at Bad Blood because “you needed me. You didn’t ask, you needed help. We need help.”
And then he said he knows one person that he can get some help from.
The fans took it from there.
YEET.
“No yeet,” Reigns responded.
That took the heart out of the arena.
Jimmy then put it to Roman clear as day — “you’ll forever be my Tribal Chief but I’m the only one who still acknowledges you.”
And then he left him standing there to ponder that.
This was a powerful segment that planted the seeds for what’s to come, and I’m happy as hell they’re going about it this way. Sure, we all love Reigns right now but that’s no reason for him to act out of character. Same for Jimmy. This was absolutely the right way to go about this.
Later, Jimmy ran into Cody Rhodes backstage. Jimmy said he can consider this past Saturday a favor but don’t expect any more of those. They paid respect to each other before Big Jim walked off.
Finally, it was main event time and Jimmy was hardly any match for Sikoa and the three men he had out at ringside with him. Jacob Fatu was there delivering cheap shots, and the numbers game was, of course, too much to overcome. Naturally, they put the boots to Jimmy and it was Reigns who showed up late to clear everyone out singlehandedly until it was only Solo left in there.
The fans again treated this like a big showdown, even if we’ve seen how that plays itself out.
Of course, Fatu had recovered and attacked from behind, giving the rest of the squad time to get back in and overwhelm Roman & Jimmy. The fans booed this loud and long but it had to happen this way. It served to drive Jimmy’s earlier point home.
They need help.
They can’t do this with just the two of them.
To further drive that point home, Jimmy was shown outright saying it to Reigns in the ring once again.
It’s time for Roman to right one of his biggest wrongs, and his legend will only grow when he finally does.
Yeet.
WWE continued the viral angle between Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes by having the former come out while Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson were making their entrance for a tag team title match. He grabbed a microphone and said he was told not to come here tonight but he wanted to address everyone claiming he turned on Cody Rhodes.
No, it was Cody who turned on him, he said.
Before he could really get into it, they cut his microphone. So he went to ringside and took Corey Graves’ headset, where he started going into it only to see the WWE champion walking down the aisle. So he ditched the headset and made a beeline right for him, WWE officials flying in from all sides to make sure the two couldn’t get to each other.
Then Randy Orton hit the scene to try to keep the peace, ultimately finding himself in the ring trying to hold Owens back and catching an errant elbow for his troubles. He responded to it by putting Owens on his ass with a big right hand.
KO was shocked. So shocked, in fact, he simply walked out through the crowd while stroking his chin. Orton looked upset with both himself and the situation.
Later, Orton told Rhodes to calm down and get out of dodge so that he could talk to Owens and try to keep everything together. SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis was also there and fully endorsed this because Cody has a match with GUNTHER at Crown Jewel in just a few weeks that he needs to be healthy for.
Orton promised to fix this. Who would have ever thought he would be the voice of reason?
Later on, Aldis was dealing with some disgruntled tag teams when he noticed a commotion off to the side and ran over to find Owens putting the boots to Orton while saying “you want to pick sides? Well, you picked the wrong side.” Owens was finally ejected with Randy laid out on the concrete needing assistance.
The damn parking lot strikes again!
This was a fantastic way to play this, and has only added intrigue to the story. The R-KO team is finished, and Cody is getting it from all angles. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out in the weeks and months ahead.
All the rest
- LA Knight and Carmelo Hayes had one hell of a back-and-forth match with a really creative finish, where Hayes flipped over and Knight just backed right into the BFT to score the three count. Andrade was watching ringside but didn’t get involved at any point, not even in the form of a brief distraction, so this was as clean a win as you could give Knight. He remains United States champion, though it seemed clear he wouldn’t be done with these two. Sure enough, later in the show Aldis booked Hayes vs. Andrade in their seventh match with the winner getting a shot at Knight.
- Lash Legend & Jakara Jackson, an NXT duo, got their first real action on the main roster with a tag team title match against Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill. They got in a few shots early but they were never really going to get to be competitive. Sure enough, Cargill took care of business right away when she got in the match and commentary spent most of the bout talking about Chelsea Green, who was ringside for this, smelling bad. Michael Cole was really overdoing it on this one. Not great!
- Women’s Champion Nia Jax cut a promo giving credit to Bayley for making her break a sweat at Bad Blood before she turned her attention to Liv Morgan, who she’ll take on at Crown Jewel. After she wins that match, she said, it will be Tiffy Time! That’s because she expects Stratton to cash in on Liv Morgan that night. Hey, it makes sense! Naomi interrupted the two to say Jax can’t win without her sidekick, and she needs no one to help her win a match against Nia. They made an impromptu title match and then Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, and Dominik Mysterio showed up to watch. Rodriguez actually got involved by taking out Stratton when she tried to interfere on behalf of Jax. Then, Morgan also got involved and it led to Naomi powerbombing Jax off the ropes and stacking her up for the pin! Except it turns out the title wasn’t on the line after all, even though they 100-percent made like it was a title match. Rhea Ripley showed up right after to make everyone forget about it all and wrecked shop.
- Legado del Fantasma complained about not getting opportunities like Hayes and Andrade, so Aldis booked Angel & Berto in a tag team match next week against a mystery team he indicated would be a brutally tough matchup that would make them worthy of a title match if they can emerge victorious. We were never told who said mystery team will be.
- Speaking of tag team issues, The Street Profits and DIY were so pissed about the ladder match last week that they were nearly coming to blows with each other. Aldis interrupted to tell them that was their shot, and a new team is coming in next week. This just after another promo aired for the Motor City Machine Guns. Hey, maybe they’re the mystery team!
This was a damn good show if only for how well it advanced multiple stories.
Grade: B+
Your turn.