The Bloodline, with all its twists and turns, is still the most compelling story in all of WWE. That’s why damn near every episode of Friday Night SmackDown opens with something related to the group, either the new or originals.
On this week’s show, we saw Solo Sikoa and his goons walking through security so pissed off they didn’t bother to stop for poor Apollo Crews, who was minding his own business and took a beatdown for simply being in the wrong place and taking issue with blatant disrespect.
The message was clear — they aren’t taking the loss at Survivor Series well.
That continued later in the evening when they interrupted a segment for the United States championship, taking out both LA Knight and Andrade while they were trying to establish themselves as top contenders to Shinsuke Nakamura’s title. Sikoa grabbed a microphone and said he wanted to make it clear the Bloodline under him isn’t finished, despite losing Tonga Loa to injury, and he is still the Tribal Chief, still the Head of the Table, and he still has the Ula Fala.
So if anyone wants it, they’ll be doing the same thing he’s asking of everyone else.
Acknowledge him.
Andrade and Knight, by the way, sold for them for the entirety of that promo, laid out in the ring to really drive home the message. This was a solid way to help reestablish the group after taking the loss the way they did at Survivor Series. I am starting to wonder how much longer this can go on, however.
It looks like we’re going to find out either way.
When WWE Champion Cody Rhodes came out for his usual promo time on SmackDown, he was quickly interrupted by … American Made?
Indeed, Chad Gable and his crew showed up to say the transfer window is open and they were apparently chatting it up with SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis about possibly moving over from Monday Night Raw. To that end, Gable wanted to say a few words to Rhodes, mostly to tell him that he deserves what he’s got coming to him because while he looks the part as a champion, he’s actually a superficial guy who is a terrible friend.
You know, not like Kevin Owens.
Naturally, the champ, ever the babyface, responded by putting over his antagonizer. If anyone knows about overcoming some bad thrown his way to make something of himself, it’s Gable. But while he thinks he’s got nothing to lose, actually everything is on the line.
What happens if he goes for the end game and doesn’t succeed again? How is he going to turn it on Julius, Brutus, and Ivy, who are all actually really great but misguided right now?
Gable’s response? “I’d kick your ass if I was dressed appropriately right now!”
Rhodes told him to go find Aldis and get a match made for this evening.
Meanwhile, on the Kevin Owens side, he sent in a video saying he didn’t want to come to the city just to talk to Michael Cole for an interview, so if Cole wanted it he would have to find him in his car.
So they actually had Cole walk all the way to the parking garage to find Owens, climbing into his car to have a chat. KO claimed he hasn’t been welcomed at multiple arenas lately, so he wanted Cole to come to him. They went over Owens’ problem with Cody — he feels betrayed. That was his friend, and he stabbed him in the back.
Cole told him to look in the mirror and realize that he’s the problem.
Owens said he saw a handsome man who is in the right. Then he kicked the lead commentator out of his rental, and slowly rolled the window up on him. They played this for laughs at the end, and I wasn’t mad about that one bit. And that’s because there’s plenty of meat on the bone otherwise.
Later still in the main event, Rhodes and Gable had one hell of a fun match with the brief time they were given, the kind of entertaining battle that made me actually hope American Made comes over to the blue brand to do this again sometime. I don’t know if it would elevate Gable in the end, but it would be entertaining as hell either way.
During the match, Cody sold the ankle, and they ended the show with Owens arriving right after the match to attack said ankle, no boot at all. It became a huge pull apart, ankle be damned, with Cody flying all around and no one able to keep them apart. Everyone loved it!
This was downright fun.
All the rest
- The final first round match in the women’s United States championship Tournament was a bit rough going with a few badly missed spots. It was a tough watch for the first few minutes, but they managed to bring it back around towards the end. Candice LeRae interfered in the match, distracting Naomi and giving Tiffany Stratton the opening she needed to hit the Prettiest Moonsault Ever on Elektra Lopez for the pinfall and the victory. For what it’s worth, Stratton was super over in front of her home crowd and they weren’t shy about promoting as much.
- The Street Profits were taken out backstage early in the night and Nick Aldis revealed they were hurt bad enough that they wouldn’t be challenging for the WWE tag team titles as originally planned. Johnny Gargano, conveniently enough, was right there to say DIY could jump in. The Motor City Machine Guns agreed to it and Aldis told Gargano “you tell Tommaso Ciampa he better not make me regret this.” What a hilariously bizarre way to get to this. Ciampa, by the way, still wasn’t being nice to Gargano for getting them the title match. Then, in the actual match, Ciampa and Gargano couldn’t get along yet again, with Gargano pushing his partner away and sending him off so he could “do this myself.” Tommaso then provided a distraction and Johnny hit a low blow. Finally, they revealed themselves to be in cahoots the whole way. Meet in the Middle, and we have new tag team champions. This didn’t hit that hard for yours truly, mostly because I’ve seen this story and don’t need to see it again with these two, but your mileage may vary.
- Bianca Belair argued backstage with Chelsea Green and Piper Niven, leading to an exchange of fisticuffs. That led to a match, which saw Belair look as impressive as ever in getting Niven up for the KOD on top of Green in the ring. They announced that the women’s tag team titles are in a holding pattern while they figure out how to handle Jade Cargill’s injuries. By the way, they’re still running with the story of “who attacked Jade” and Byron Saxton cleared Niven as an eyewitness on the evening in question. They’re certainly playing this up like Naomi was really the one who did it but we’ll see.
- Before Shinsuke Nakamura could do or say anything this week, LA Knight came out and said he wants his rematch here and now. Instead, Andrade came out and said he wanted in on this and then The Bloodline showed up and took both would be challengers out. When they turned their attention to Nakamura, he revealed the mist in his mouth before backing out.
Have I given a SmackDown a bad grade all year?
Grade: B-
Your turn.