Friday Night SmackDown Review - April 28, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens Exchanged Words with The Usos

Triple H announcing the Round 1 picks for the WWE Draft preceded this quick exchange. The two teams didn't say anything new, but it was an effective last-minute effort to hype up the tag team title main event. Honestly, I found the backstage segment with The Usos, Paul Heyman and Solo Sikoa later on more intriguing teasing that there would be consequences for The Usos if they failed again.

LA Knight def. Butch

As seen in the footage that aired beforehand, this was set up on last week's edition of The SmackDown LowDown. Aside from that one fluke win over Rey Mysterio last month, Knight has lost pretty much every match he's had in the last few months, so this was a welcome win for him. They had a well-worked match. The Brawling Brutes likely won't be split up in the WWE Draft, but I would like to see the former Pete Dunne branch off on his own and go by that name again.

The Street Profits def. Ricochet & Braun Strowman and LWO (Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde) in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match

I doubt all three of these teams will remain on SmackDown once the Draft concludes, so it was cool that they got to clash here and have a fun match. It was all action from start to finish. Street Profits have gotten drafted every year since 2019, so them heading back to the blue brand should come as no surprise. I am surprised that they weren't split up, but maybe they can do singles stuff on SmackDown while teaming occasionally. I can see the other two teams going to Raw.

Zelina Vega def. Sonya Deville

This was also set up on The SmackDown LowDown last week. No, I don't think the show is starting to become more significant, but you can check out my reviews for all the highlights! Shameless plugging aside, this was a match. Yes, a match that existed. It wasn't good or bad, just a match. The win and Vega getting the better of Rhea Ripley afterward were supposed to send the message that she could upset Ripley at Backlash. Personally, I don't buy it, but I appreciate attempt.

The O.C. Attacked The Viking Raiders

All of The O.C. were drafted to SmackDown earlier in the evening. We haven't seen AJ Styles since he got hurt at the end of last year, or Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows for that matter. Styles being back on SmackDown just feels right, and hopefully the whole group can get a fresh start on this show. They briefly brawled with Viking Raiders and got the better of them to set up a match for next week's show. Styles challenging for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at some point would be awesome.

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens def. The Usos

Nothing was going to top their WrestleMania 39 Night 1 encounter, but this was still a strong main event. They were given an ample amount of time and there were a number of suspenseful nearfalls. I was legitimately worried The Usos might regain the gold with help from Solo Sikoa, but I'm glad they didn't go in that direction. The Usos being on the outs with Roman Reigns is an intriguing story to tell and may very well lead to The Usos being drafted to Raw. If the tag titles remain unified (and they should), one set of title belts would be ideal.

Overall Show

Obviously, a bulk of this show was focused on Night 1 of the WWE Draft with the first four rounds being televised. I'll have a full breakdown of all the picks up on the site sometime this weekend, but all in all, more questionable moves were made than ones I was happy with. Is Cody Rhodes really finished with Reigns? Are Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley going to do a dumb belt swap? Will the women's champions from NXT have to vacate their titles now that they've been called up? Time will tell with a lot of this stuff, but I'm not overly optimistic, and it all depends on whether they'll stick to the Brand Split rules this time. For better or for worse, this was certainly an eventful episode, and although the Backlash hype was weak, at least the main event was entertaining.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews