Overall
Last night’s Friday Night SmackDown was notable for its fantastic matches separated by subpar and downright bad segments. Matt Riddle gave us a promo featuring a juvenile understanding of his character followed by a banger of a match against John Morrison. Sasha and Bayley, who have been hot recently gave a cringeworthy tribute segment, but Bayley came back with a really solid showing against Alexa Bliss. Don’t even get me started on the awful toast to Jeff Hardy segment that just shouldn’t have gone on if Sheamus wasn’t going to be in attendance.
Overall the incredibly stilted creative, and lackluster writing turned what could’ve been a standout episode of SmackDown into something that was just hard to watch. Luckily the fantastic wrestling performances this week keep it from being unwatchable.
All of that being said, let’s break down the good, the bad, and the ugly of WWE Friday Night SmackDown 7/3/20.
The Good
- I like this angle where Corbin gives Matt a gauntlet of different matches before he can face him. If this is where that goes I’m all in.
- John Morrison and Matt Riddle had a really fun match
- Great continuity between brands. Matt Riddle was able to hold his own in the fight pit with Thatcher just a month ago. He’s more than capable of kicking out of whatever John Morrison throws at him.
- Daniel Bryan zoom Q&A during Styles Gulak
- Gulak and Styles put on a banger. There’s more story to tell with AJ as champ but Drew deserves that Intercontinental Championship.
- Sasha finally volunteers Bayley for a match instead of the other way around.
- Sasha wearing the SmackDown women’s championship. It’s a good look for her.
- The amount of casual wrestling gear tonight. AJ was wearing a shirt his whole match. Bayley seemed to be in street clothes almost.
- Damn, I can’t tell if Alexa actually hit Bayley that hard or if it was a work. But it worked for me regardless I felt it through the tv.
- Nakamura and Caesaro are fantastic together. They need a team name!
The Bad
- Matt Riddle’s interview was really stilted. He said bro so much that you’d think that whoever wrote this has not seen any of his NXT work and just based it on his pre-SmackDown arrival video packages.
- Does anyone else feel like Corbin is also tired of this King gimmick? His heart was definitely not in it this week.
- For the most part Sasha and Bayley have added to every show they’ve been on, but going back to the heels making fun of the Undertaker well just one week later is obnoxious.
- Alexa and Nikki’s “facts” bit was also not fun. This feud could be fun, why isn’t it?
- Jeff Hard assaulted that poor bartender. Dude was just doing what he was told to do by the guy paying him. He didn’t deserve to have a drink poured on him, a bottle smashed on his head, and then get senton bombed.
The Ugly
- Let’s talk about this toast to Jeff Hardy bit. I get that it’s been teased for a couple of weeks now and that WWE wants to deliver on what they promised, but this didn’t need to happen like this. If Sheamus wasn’t able to be there in person they just needed to can the bit. It added nothing to the feud it was just more of the same. Sheamus says that Hardy is a junkie, and Hardy says he isn’t. Nothing new at all, and the impact was lessened by Sheamus being on the tron for the entire segment. It was bad and I hate it.
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