Friday Night SmackDown Review - April 21, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Finn Balor) def. LWO (Santos Escobar and Rey Mysterio)

This was a rematch from two weeks ago, except Balor filled in for Dominik Mysterio this time. I thought there was a chance the LWO might win because they've done a lot of losing since WrestleMania 39, but nope, Priest pinned Escobar again. That's fine provided that Escobar eventually turn on Rey and blame him for his the constant losses. It was a well-worked match, and with Bad Bunny returning on Raw this Monday, you have to assume that will be where it's announced he's teaming with Rey against Dominik and Damian at Backlash.

Ricochet and Braun Strowman def. The Viking Raiders

This has been an ongoing rivalry for the past month or two, but it's been pretty pedestrian stuff each week. Hopefully the idea is that Ricochet and Strowman will challenge for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship eventually to make this rivalry/win worthwhile. The match itself was fun as Ricochet and Strowman continue to develop strong chemistry together and Viking Raiders are talented in their own right, so I applaud their ability to get the crowd invested.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez def. Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville

It's going to take a lot for WWE to get fans to care about the women's tag team division after all the bad booking it's endured since 2019, but this mini feud is a solid step in the right direction. Rodriguez and Morgan have been all over Raw and SmackDown since WrestleMania as well, so that has helped. This was a fairly average outing, but it was what it needed to be and the fact the babyfaces didn't win clean may set up the need for a rematch.

Intercontinental Champion Gunther def. Xavier Woods

This was my favorite match of the night, which should be expected any time Gunther is in action. He's put together a tremendous batch of matches since becoming champion and you can add this one to the list. Woods had one of his strongest showings ever in a singles match and even came close to winning at one point, a nearfall that the crowd bought into. This was a blast and I'm happy Woods got this opportunity to shine on his own for a change. Will Imperium remain intact coming out of the WWE Draft?

Solo Sikoa def. Matt Riddle in a No Disqualification Match

Could WWE not be bothered to advertise this ahead of time when three other matches on this show were advertised? And maybe this was explained, but where the hell were Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to help Riddle thwart The Usos' interference? The Usos aiding Sikoa to victory was predictable, though it was slightly surprising Riddle would lose two weeks in a row. WWE must be really determined to put heat on The Bloodline and protect Sikoa. It was an entertaining main event and they made good use of the stipulation.

Overall Show

Despite there being two title matches and a No Disqualification main event, this was easily the weakest edition of SmackDown since WrestleMania. That's not to say it was a bad show as I enjoyed the emphasis on the in-ring action and thought the show flowed really well, but it's apparent that we're in a placeholder period until the Draft next week, so there wasn't much meaningful storyline progression and nothing you need to seek out beyond possibly Gunther vs. Woods.

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