 IYO SKY Challenged WWE Women's Champion Jade CargillTalking segments starting SmackDown is hardly uncommon, but it's certainly uncommon for the segments to be as short as this was. I'm not complaining, though. I actually wish more talking segments in WWE were as straight to the point as this was. It established that SKY wanted Cargill in the night's main event with Ripley giving SKY her endorsement. It was what it needed to be. Alexa Bliss def. BayleyBayley and Bliss have had a ton of run-ins over the last decade-plus, dating back to their days in NXT. They've probably fought over every women's championship WWE has as well. Bayley was in her hometown here, so it made sense for her to win, so the fact she lost was lame. What makes even less sense is that Bliss is a babyface, so it's not like the win was designed to put heat on her. Very strange. The match itself was good, though. Royce Keys def. BertoYes, it's rather random WWE waited over two months to put Keys back on WWE TV after he debuted in the men's Royal Rumble, but the only thing I can think of is that they wanted to formally introduce Keys in his home state, not to mention the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is on next week's SmackDown and he could very well win that. I thought he came off great here. I hope he can continue to be featured and build momentum. Randy Orton and Pat McAfee Attacked Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Jelly RollAs if this storyline couldn't get any worse. Ugh. The thing McAfee was hyping up on his talk show all week ended up being the announcement that tickets for Night 1 of WrestleMania 42 will be 25 percent off between now and Monday's Raw thanks to a sponsor. To recap, McAfee repeatedly said the current product sucks and that there's no reason to watch WrestleMania outside of Orton, yet he's out there shamelessly promoting a discount because tickets aren't selling the same way they were last year. The rest of this segment was equally abysmal. WWE has completely lost the plot with this program, unfortunately. Jacob Fatu def. Tama TongaThe MFTs confronted Fatu backstage earlier in the night to set this up. I had no desire to see Fatu rekindle his rivalry with The MFTs, but the bout was fine. It also played into Tonga wanting to prove himself on his own. The focus was more so on the post-match angle with Drew McIntyre attacking Fatu with a chain, which was well done. I'm looking forward to their Unsanctioned match, but imagine if it was a Dog Collar match instead. Trick Williams and Lil Yatchy Confronted United States Champion Sami Zayn; Williams def. Matt CardonaMost of SmackDown is terribly uninteresting these days, but the United States Championship picture has been the best thing on the blue brand for many months. I hate that Carmelo Hayes won't be involved in the WrestleMania match, but Williams and Zayn are playing their respective roles exceptionally well. Zayn did a terrific job acknowledging the boos he's been getting recently here. The full-fledged heel turn has to be imminent. Danhausen def. Kit WilsonI'm surprised they didn't bother to advertise this prior to the show. That's not to say Danhausen is any sort of major star, but he's gotten over with the WWE audience fairly quicker and that may have been a draw for some people coming into this episode. Nonetheless, call me crazy, but I thought this was fun. Danhausen's "curses" mean something and Wilson has been the perfect foil for him. WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill def. IYO SKY (Non-Title)This started so close to the top of the hour that I thought it'd be more of an angle than a match, but nope, they just started way later than they should have despite SmackDown being a three-hour show as it is and there being zero reason for an overrun. What we got was enjoyable, but it's not ideal that WWE has had to rely on SKY to add fuel to the bland feud Ripley and Cargill have had so far. Overall ShowI didn't hate the entire episode as others did, but there's no denying that the stuff with Rhodes, McAfee, Orton and now Jelly Roll is dominating the show and therefore brings the whole thing down. What an absolute mess that's turned into. Everything else was hit or miss for me, making for a subpar show. The only thing SmackDown can do coming out of WrestleMania is blow everything up and start from scratch because a majority of these episodes feel like a chore to sit through.
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