“WWE SmackDown” in Saudi Arabia on Friday night set the table for “WWE Night of Champions” with three title matches and one of the presumed final interactions between John Cena and CM Punk. Next week, “WWE SmackDown” returns to a two-hour time slot, so the company did its best to pack in all the goods it could.
I have no idea where to start with the final promo battle between Cena and Punk.
First of all, “Dr. of Thuganomics” Cena is what I would have preferred most for this heel run if he wasn’t going to go with the “Hollywood Cena” type of gimmick we anticipated. And admittedly, when Punk emerged with Cena’s old “Word Life” theme, the kid inside of me got chills from the nostalgia hit.
That said, Punk looked absolutely ridiculous dressed up like that.
It worked and it didn’t work because, mind you, this wasn’t Punk’s first cosplay. My mind went right to his Jeff Hardy feud, when he impersonated the “Charismatic Enigma” at the end of their feud. This was somewhat similar, but as great as the crowd was, the roast rapping did not land for most of these lines.
Cena just going back to speaking how he was before last week’s pipebomb promo also felt kind of weird. Because, don’t get it twisted, he is fully the face to Punk’s heel in Saudi Arabia.
Ultimately the go-home segment between these two was fun for those who have been fans for all of Cena’s career, but this felt like the wrong place for it.
That’s a genuine question.
For me, I think it has to be because I can’t think of anything worse than this, simply because Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax shouldn’t be having any more matches of any kind. But this was purely a slow, plodding weapon spot fest, and one that admittedly made Stratton look invincible getting through that table splash spot alone.
It can’t be what the intention was, but in a way this legitimately felt like WWE’s attempt to replicate the magic of Mariah May and Toni Storm’s “Hollywood Ending” in AEW. And, well, let’s just say it wasn’t. It was a waste of a great champion in Stratton. Thankfully she retained by knocking Jax through a pair of tables (after Naomi failed at attempting to initiate her cash-in).
To conclude all of this, I still wonder why more people in this match type don’t try to prevent their opponent from getting back up or standing on them. Yeah, yeah, suspension of disbelief, but something that feels like a no-brainer, you know?
It’s almost as if WWE realizes how absurd the recent booking of the loaded “WWE SmackDown” tag-team division has been. The Wyatt Sicks challenged The Street Profits for their WWE Tag Team Championships on this show, which was another one of those classic WWE tropes where someone “earns” a title shot by attacking opponents without winning matches. So theoretically, if the Wyatts lost, which they should have, then what? The Profits tried to justify it by saying the Wyatts are the only threat. But … in that case, shouldn’t they prove that?
Plotholes galore.
We’ll get to the title match momentarily. But backstage, DIY questioned the match coming together with all the other tag-teams when talking to “WWE SmackDown” general manager Nick Aldis. That was a perfectly logical thing to do. And what did Aldis do? He kayfabe booked DIY into a match against Andrade and someone of his choosing (Rey Fenix). That’s despite Fraxiom, Los Garza and Motor City Machine Guns literally standing right there.
This has all been handled awfully, but the bad didn’t end there.
Andrade and Fenix beat DIY clean in the match and delivered several great sequences. Quite frankly, it was a banger, despite being a wicked blow to DIY since they lost to a newly paired team.
What wasn’t a banger was the tag-team title match which was barely a match, and as it turns out. It once again ended in a DQ when Los Garza attacked the Wyatts outside the ring.
This is just an absurd mess, man. It’s turned into everyone against the Wyatts, as every team worked together to take them out, so they’re in an impossible position now. WWE has booked the group to be so strong that they can battle four different tag teams.
The Wyatts have been booked into a corner where, if they can’t win the tag-team titles, then they look downright pathetic. It wouldn’t make any sense. It already hasn’t though, so brace yourselves for the inevitable.
Is that too corny of a headline? Yes, probably, but we’re sticking with it because Giulia is officially here to give some merit to the Women’s U.S. title, as she dethroned Zelina Vega on this “WWE SmackDown.”
Each women’s midcard singles title got off to a seriously bumpy start, especially the U.S. variant, which, until now, was just Chelsea Green going back and forth with Michin and Vega. As a well-established global talent, Giulia makes for the perfect wrestler to help elevate this title, and hopefully, she gets the proper opponents to support that.
I don’t mean for this to sound like a knock on Vega, because it’s not. The match between the two was solid for what it was, but essentially a dominant effort for the new champ. It just appears we’ve reached Vega’s ceiling, and it’s evident WWE sees that too. Outside of the pin tradeoff that started the match, I don’t think Vega was given anything to kick out of.
Thankfully, Ron Killings isn’t just ignoring how last Friday’s “WWE SmackDown” ended despite his burial of a disappearance to set up Cena’s pipebomb promo. “The Truth” rightfully approached the managers backstage and angrily demanded Cena before he took matters to the ring. In the middle of all this was Aleister Black, whom Killings “interrupted” again.
Killings called out Cena in the ring and immediately ate a Black Mass from Black, who snuck up behind him, thus providing two forms of understandable continuity. Even if this veers Killings slightly off track for an obvious match against Black, he should not forget all this Cena stuff.
I have mixed feelings regarding this direction, but hopefully Killings can remain somewhat notable after this saga, as the luster has already worn off quickly.
Despite the massive negative that’s coming in our next section, the Saudi Arabia crowds are insanely hyped for any WWE visit, and they let Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes hear it right as “WWE SmackDown” began.
1. Regarding Rhodes and Orton, their opening segment together was good, as should always be expected. However, it doesn’t receive a full upvote because of how short this program will last.
There’s so much that can be dug into with a proper feud, and we got glimpses of that when they made great callbacks. Orton mentioned last year’s King of the Ring, and Rhodes went back to when he first arrived in WWE. He countered Orton’s opening lines, stating that he needs the win more. Again, it was good, just bittersweet because of how little we had here.
2. JC Mateo beat Jimmy Uso in a relatively nothing match that followed Rhodes and Orton’s opener segment. It was essentially set up to determine Uso’s allegiance, which resulted in the weakest slap ever seen when he hit Solo Sikoa after the loss. Jacob Fatu made the save after they started to attack, and surely Uso will help make the save tomorrow at WWE Night of Champions when Fatu struggles against Sikoa with Mateo in his corner.
Saudi Arabia shows as a whole.
Sorry, not sorry. Seeing the female wrestlers at these WWE shows is always a reminder of why this whole partnership is morally problematic, thanks to the human rights discrimination. But on top of that, you would think there’d be more creativity with so much money invested in the partnership. For example, take the LED wall.
WWE has propped up a massive wall of screens for this trip to the country, and it just boggles the mind how this is viewed as better than the unique set designs of days past.
Additionally, “WWE SmackDown” suffered from technical difficulties with the hard cam almost immediately.
Asuka is such a vibe. It’s incredible having her back, getting these great reactions, and her being treated like a big deal assuming she keeps it going and beats Jade Cargill tomorrow night, of course. Nonetheless, she’s our Uncrowned Gem of the Night.
The brief “interview” segment she had with Cargill alongside Wade Barrett gave her a moment to shine before Naomi teased that it doesn’t matter who wins as long as she holds the Money In the Bank. Asuka looked great and stood tall at the end, and despite her unique, minimal English promo style, she still made Cargill come off as incredibly inauthentic.
Asuka has a heel vibe to her at the moment. It might be because of the all-black aesthetic since her return, but everyone still loves her. I’m very curious to see how this run plays out for her.
I give this show a Crown score of: 6/10.