Friday Night SmackDown Review - August 5, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Ricochet def. Happy Corbin

Pat McAfee started the show on commentary boasting about his win over Corbin at SummerSlam, which led to Ricochet challenging Corbin to an impromptu match backstage. It makes you think what would have been the opener otherwise from a storyline standpoint. In all seriousness, this was fun stuff. Ricochet was allowed to do Ricochet things and Corbin was the perfect foil for him. Ricochet was the right call and served as an optimistic sign for his future with Triple H now in charge creatively. As for Corbin, I hope his latest downward spiral leads to another gimmick change for him, either becoming broke again or The Lone Wolf (old entrance music and all).

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Ludwig Kaiser to Earn an Intercontinental Championship Opportunity

We've already seen Nakamura vs. Kaiser twice before, so running it back for a third time wasn't particularly interesting to me, but it was solid for the time given and thankfully this time it had stakes. I thought Nakamura challenging Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship might be saved for Clash at the Castle since it didn't happen at SummerSlam, but I'm excited we're getting it on next week's SmackDown instead. That could clear up someone else to face Gunther at the event (i.e. Sheamus).

Kayla Braxton Interviewed SmackDown Women's Champion Liv Morgan

Why the hell was Morgan booed for a vocal portion of the crowd? Yes, she did tap out at SummerSlam when the referee wasn't looking, but the finish wasn't that bad to the point where the crowd should've turned on her here. Based on Morgan's reaction to the chants, she wasn't prepared for that at all. In this particular case, I blame the audience and not WWE's booking, but we'll see if it sucks. Her promo was decent otherwise. I really hope they don't turn her heel coming out of this.

Shayna Baszler def. Raquel Rodriguez, Natalya, Xia Li, Shotzi, Sonya Deville and Aliyah in a SmackDown Women's Championship No. 1 Contender's Gauntlet Match

As a Gauntlet match, it wasn't very good. We've seen far better ones on Raw and SmackDown in the last few years, but this was never meant to be about the in-ring action. Rather, it was a means to an end in crowning Baszler as the new number one contender to the title. This had a logical layout with Rodriguez dominating most of it only to fall to Baszler in the end. I've advocated for Morgan to be champion through the end of the year, but I wouldn't be upset if Baszler left Clash at the Castle with the title. It's about time she was booked as a killer again.

The Viking Raiders def. Jim Mulkey and Tommy Gibson; Kofi Kingston def. Erik

I'm all for WWE bringing back local athletes and using them to get established talent over so they don't always have to beat other people on the roster. That isn't to say WWE hasn't done that at all in recent years, but it should become much more common because it's a smart tactic. Kingston smashed both Erik and Ivar with a kendo stick afterward, leading to Kingston vs. Erik in an impromptu match coming of the commercial break. Kingston winning erased any heat Viking Raiders got from their squash win, but at least it was in fluky fashion. Kingston had to get one over on them eventually.

Drew McIntyre Interrupted Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns Before Being Attacked by Karrion Kross

I'm honestly shocked Reigns appeared on this episode because I thought we wouldn't see him again until closer to Clash at the Castle. He spoke briefly about hating but respecting Brock Lesnar before McIntyre emerged, which led right into the surprise return of Scarlett and Karrion Kross. It was only just reported a few hours before the show by Fightful that Kross could return eventually thanks to Triple H, but no one thought it'd happen this soon, so that was an awesome moment. Kross wasn't given a fair shot during his original run on the main roster, so I'm in full favor of giving him a big push right out of the gate and positioning him as a top star on SmackDown alongside McIntyre and Reigns.

Overall Show

While this wasn't a drastically different show than what we're used to seeing on SmackDown, it was a definite improvement. In other words, I wasn't questioning my sanity by the time it was over, so that's always a plus. Kross' return was obviously the most newsworthy part of the show along with the announcement that a tournament will kick off on Monday's Raw to crown new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, but the rest of the two hours were enjoyable on the whole. The Triple H era of WWE is off to a strong start and I hope SmackDown can continue to trend upward in the weeks and months ahead.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews