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Friday Night SmackDown Review - August 4, 2023

8/4/2023

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By Graham "GSM" Matthews

LA Knight def. Sheamus

Knight kicking off the show with a promo is a pretty good indicator that WWE is aware of how over he is at the moment (how could they not be?) and hopefully that they plan to push him post-SummerSlam. I don't want to expect anything, but that push should start with him winning the Slim Jim Battle Royal on Saturday night. He and Sheamus had a quality contest until it fell apart with that unfortunate botch on the top turnbuckle at the end. There was chaos at ringside with the other Battle Royal participants, so Knight didn't win completely clean, but the fact he won at all was the right call.

The Brawling Brutes (Ridge Holland and Butch) vs. The O.C. (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) Ended in a No-Contest

This came about after they brawled at ringside during the opener. The match was fine albeit forgettable, but it didn't matter because the focus was on The Street Profits attacking all four guys while wearing suits. They looked like stars and they got a great reaction from the fans in attendance. This was an excellent angle as it confirmed their alliance with Bobby Lashley, who they stood on the stage with. The new and improved Hurt Business has arrived.

Jey Uso Confronted Paul Heyman and Attacked Solo Sikoa

The video package hyping Uso vs. Roman Reigns at SummerSlam was just fantastic. This segment couldn't measure up, but I appreciated the last-minute build to the bout with some solid mic work from Uso and Heyman. Uso getting the better of Sikoa hyped their match in the main event later in the night, but this segment suffered without Roman Reigns being around. Why wouldn't they have him appear on the go-home show?

United States Champion Austin Theory def. Cameron Grimes (Non-Title)

Theory will defend the United States Championship against Santos Escobar on next week's show, so this gave him a much-needed momentum boost before then. I hate that Grimes was thrown in there as a random opponent for Theory, but at least he scored a decent amount of offense before losing. I still want Knight to take the United States Championship off Theory at some point, but I wouldn't complain if it was Escobar next week. Either way, Theory needs to drop the belt sooner rather than later.

Shotzi Interrupted Bayley and IYO SKY on The Grayson Waller Effect Hosted by Grayson Waller; Zelina Vega def. SKY

Waller gained a lot of credibility by making his main roster in-ring debut against Edge at Madison Square Garden last month, but there hasn't been any follow-up and Waller has gone back to being your average talk shot host, which is a bummer. The segment itself wasn't strong, but at least it furthered the feud between Bayley and Shotzi. The subsequent match between SKY and Vega was okay but too short to be anything out of the ordinary. SKY losing makes me think we might indeed see a successful Money in the Bank cash-in from her at SummerSlam.

Jey Uso def. Solo Sikoa

Considering how big of a match this was, I'm surprised WWE waited until so late in the day to announce this for the show (Bleacher Report getting the scoop!). Nonetheless, they had an entertaining outing. It wasn't a barn burner by any means, but the crowd was into the action and Uso winning was big considering the only other time Sikoa lost clean was on Raw right before WrestleMania 39. That said, I think this makes it even more obvious that Uso is losing to Reigns. He's super over, though.

Overall Show

This was your typical go-home show filled with video packages and the standard SummerSlam hype. Even still, I enjoyed the episode on the whole. The Street Profits angle was the highlight of the night, but the main event was what it needed to be, Knight and Theory picked up necessary victories, and Shotzi debuted her new look. In other words, the show wasn't total throwaway and I was left looking forward to SummerSlam.
SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews
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