Before the first commercial, I already knew that this was the only match that mattered on this show.
From the second SmackDown went on the air, to when this match was over, I was glued to the television. And that’s a testament to all five stars. Actually no... seven. Because even Pat McAfee and Michael Cole added to this.
This was magic. This was professional wrestling at its best. Few matches in the pandemic era of wrestling have truly deserved fans in the building, and this was one of them.
Montez Ford somehow outdoes himself every time he’s in a big match. That unreal leap over the turnbuckle to the floor. He’s only done it a couple of times previously, and when he did it here I nearly jumped out of my chair.
But the big story here is making me give myself a pat on the back, because I called it.
All this time, Roman Reigns has never wanted Jey Uso to win. Because if Jey Uso wins, that’s just another winner taking shine off the Head of the Table. And no one in his family but him can hold gold.
Enter Jimmy Uso, who thinks that the blood running through his twin brother is thicker than it appears. Jimmy is acting exactly how Jey did before Jey figured out the hard way that Reigns isn’t messing around. It’s been too long, and Jey is fully committed to the Tribal Chief.
Not even tag team gold is enticing him. Because he’s been indoctrinated into this mindset. Reigns is the top dog, Reigns is the winner. He is the attack dog. He picks apart the men so Reigns can come in and have his hand held high.
And Reigns did his best to keep his lackey in check. Brilliantly telling him that he’ll only be back to the same old stuff and confused with his brother. That taking the tag title match next week is aligning himself with his brother and away from Reigns. It’s brilliant.
And you can see that Jey isn’t happy, even though he won this match and gets a shot at the tag titles next week. It’s so good.
I said it last year about Jey, and now I have to say it about Jimmy - Jimmy doesn’t know what he has coming to him next week. Poor man.
Lets get to the rest of the hits and misses of this show. For a full rundown of SmackDown, check out the live blog by Claire Elizabeth.
Happy Birthday!
Seth Rollins is doing some of his best work right now.
He came out to call Cesaro out and fight, but then did the laugh and reminded us why Cesaro couldn’t come out.
He said he had exclusive audio from Cesaro’s hospital room and that was pretty funny. He faked us out thinking he was going to blame himself, but instead, he blamed us for brainwashing Cesaro to believing he deserved opportunities he didn’t earn. If Cesaro never wrestles again, it’s on our hands.
Really good stuff. More of the “drip” as the kids would call it with Rollins’ suit looking like he came out of the jungle. I didn’t think this feud would be the one to bring Seth back to good graces with me, but he’s been nailing it since returning.
Cesaro is going to be so much fun to get back at him for this vicious beatdown last week. To be honest I wouldn’t mind if this was a Cell match at Hell in a Cell.
The Rest
Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Chad Gable
The Boogs cruise and the King of Strong Style are a wonderful pair. Gable should be on television every week. Those belly to belly suplexes were a thing of beauty to start this match. Kinshasa got Nakamura him the quick win. Corbin came out before the match was done and grabbed his crown, but BOOGS took him out and the crown was returned to its rightful owner. I love this.
Dominik Mysterio defeated The Dirty Dawgz
They heavily telegraphed that Rey was going to get taken out before this match so that Dom would have to go it alone. The match wasn’t very long but I did like Rey coming out to distract Dolph so that Dom could take advantage of it and win.
Bianca Belair defeated Carmella
This match came up quite randomly. Cole and Bayley is the money match we’ll never get. Carmella is always really good in the ring so it was a fun match, but it was hard to pay attention to this when Bayley and Cole and McAfee were a delight on commentary. Having good stuff on commentary with a match that I don’t really care about is going to take my focus away from the match. Cole’s gaffe calling Belair “Belanca” and Bayley ripping him for it made me burst out laughing. It’s clear that Bayley and Bianca aren’t done yet. I don’t really know how I feel about that. I mean, anyone gets title matches for anything these days and I love the two, so I won’t be too upset about it.
Apollo Crews Nigerian Nail defeated Kevin Owens
That damn Nigerian Nail did it again, and hit Owens right as he was about to win the match. The referee called the disqualification, and later, Adam Pearce gave Owens the title match next week anyway. Such a nice guy!
Natalya and Tamina defeated the Riott Squad
Riott and Morgan were quite aggressive here, taking out Tamina at the start and taking turns picking Natalya apart. Tamina finally came back in and dominated the Riotts. Riott tried to arm drag Tamina off the top rope and didn’t have a chance. Not a bad match, but more L’s to the Riott Squad. It’s unfortunate.
Grade: B+
What were your thoughts, Cagesiders?