SmackDown recap & reactions: The infamous

Hey, you know what was good to see at the start of Friday Night SmackDown this week? A shot of WWE Champion Cody Rhodes backstage, pacing back and forth like a maniac, a man possessed by the kind of rage only betrayal can bring out of a person.

One of my biggest beefs with Rhodes has been the fact that he plays the hits a bit too generically despite what the situation should call for. I don’t want him out there opening with “sooo… what do you guys wanna talk about” after an angle like a fake retirement turned beatdown.

I want him waiting at the gates, ready to throw hands the very moment AJ Styles arrives to the building.

SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis had to come to Rhodes to tell him that it isn’t in the best interest of the company, or really anyone, for the two to get into a physical confrontation in a loading dock. The champ shouted him down, because of course he did, and the wait continued.

Finally, security was called in and they kept Rhodes from getting to Styles when he finally arrived with the Good Brothers. So what did Cody do? He made a beeline for the ring in front of fans — and to WWE’s credit, they didn’t play his entrance music, instead giving him the one long camera shot treatment and allowing the moment to breathe — so he could call Styles out from there.

AJ got an entrance, security still rushing to stay in front of him. They had him play it smart, avoiding Rhodes until the champion committed to giving him what he wanted, which was another shot at the WWE championship.

He got just that but with a special stipulation — Cody wanted an “I Quit” match. Nick Aldis agreed right away, and it was made right then and there. This is one of those times the story just worked out perfectly to do a gimmick match like this.

“I’m going to make you say what you should have said last week,” Rhodes screamed at Styles.

Sure.

I’m not sure why it took until this week for Tonga Loa to become officially anointed as the newest member of The Bloodline but that’s what we got in the first segment of the show.

Here, Paul Heyman made it clear as day, if it wasn’t before — until Roman Reigns makes his triumphant return, Solo Sikoa will be the man sitting at the head of the table. Naturally, this gave us more “we want Roman” chants, and I gotta say the way this is playing out really makes it seem as though he’ll be the biggest babyface in the industry whenever he does come back.

I’m here for it.

Meanwhile, Tama Tonga will now be known as “the right hand man” to Sikoa, per Heyman. Loa was referred to as “the infamous.” They continue to be presented as the absolute most menacing gangsters you’ll ever come across, crowding and scaring Heyman. They aren’t being asked to do much in that regard, which is just fine because it gives Heyman all the room in the world to get them over as killers by simply acting so scared of them.

It’s working really, really well so far.

The Street Profits are still being friendly with Kevin Owens, as they helped him fight off the dastardly trio much like last week. Their intrusion led to a pissed off Solo demanding Heyman make another six-man tag lest the main event become Heyman vs. Loa in the locker room.

A tough threat.

The eventual six-man was made for the last segment on the show and it didn’t get a finish, of course. The Bloodline isolated Owens after the bell and put him through the announcer’s table, throwing up the ones over him as Solo’s music hit the speakers. If the message wasn’t clear enough, Corey Graves was sure to remind us.

There’s a new Head of the Table.

For now.

All the rest

• The Jade Cargill vs. Indi Hartwell singles match was turned into a tag team affair thanks to a backstage pre-tape before the show went live. It gave Shayna Baslzer & Zoey Stark and The Unholy Union a chance to hang out ringside to make clear there are multiple contenders in the women’s tag team division right now. That wouldn’t be Hartwell & Candice LeRae, however, as they were swiftly dealt with and treated like they could hardly hang with the champs. Funny enough, the other two would be contenders fought amongst each other before they, too, were swiftly dealt with by the champs, who stood tall to end the segment. This was a very confusing way to try to establish literally anyone as worthy of even challenging Cargill and Bianca Belair. Hilariously enough, they booked a triple threat with all these teams for Clash at the Castle anyway.
• LA Knight is still looking for Logan Paul, who still isn’t around, which means Carmelo Hayes got another opportunity to pop off at the mouth. Naturally, it led to a match between the two, and Knight emerged victorious in said match before taking Wade Barrett’s headset to tell Paul directly that if he wouldn’t come to SmackDown, LA would bring SmackDown to him. Intrigue! They had Paul send in a video message that aired later in the show and he ran Knight down as a “hillbilly looking ass Aladdin” and claiming he’s not on Logan’s level. It was a pretty good little promo
• While Tommaso Ciampa was able to defeat Austin Theory last week, his DIY teammate, Johnny Gargano, wasn’t able to do the same against Grayson Waller this week. Waller continued to do what he needed to do to win, which included using his partner to avoid taking damage. They made sure to continue teasing out issues because of it. There isn’t yet enough there to sink our teeth into but there could be a good story here.
• Nia Jax and Michin had one of the funniest confrontations of the year backstage on this show, with the latter throwing soda on the former and Jax throwing her over a table but repeatedly slipping on the drink while trying to continue the brawl. It wasn’t supposed to be this funny but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a real knee slapper.
• Bayley and Piper Niven got the chance to promote their title match in Glasgow in a promo segment in the ring where the champ said she respects Niven enough that she would have just given her a title match if she asked. They actually allowed Piper to give her character some depth here, dressing Bayley down by calling out the fact that the Mae Young Classic was in 2017 and she’s been scratching and clawing for everything for years now. Bayley shouldn’t be claiming to respect or even know her much at all. What’s more, if she knew what was good for her she wouldn’t be comfortable even standing next to her. This was a pretty badass promo from Niven, easily her best since she’s been in WWE. Bayley did well to put her over by trying to look brave in the face of this but not being able to help coming off a bit afraid. This was pretty damn good overall.

This was a pretty damn good show.

Grade: B+

Your turn.