Friday Night SmackDown Review - February 11, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Naomi Attacked Sonya Deville

Deville did what I thought would happen after what went down at the end of last week's SmackDown by "suspending" Ronda Rousey, but then this segment took a turn with Adam Pearce reprimanding Deville instead and rendering the suspension null and void. It was Mr. McMahon who apparently issued the order. I have no idea why he's only just now saying that Deville has been abusing her power and not months ago, but better late than never, I suppose. It was also nice to see Naomi get a measure of revenge on Deville for a change by slapping her.

Los Lotharios def. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E)

SmackDown has featured an excessive amount of rematches for the better part of the past month, but I actually didn't mind this one because last week's encounter was so entertaining. Los Lotharios are an awesome team, and while I want them to win more, it was a shame to see their victory here come at the expense of Big E, who was WWE Champion literally a month ago. For what it's worth, it was reported earlier today that Kingston and Big E are intentionally not being referred to as The New Day, but I will continue to call them that because that's what they are. They're being booked as a team, so why wouldn't they be New Day?

Michael Cole Hosted a Sit-Down Interview with Universal Champion Roman Reigns

Reigns comes across so damn great in these sit-down, pre-taped interviews. That line about how WCW would still be around if he was in it was terrific. He completely dismissed Goldberg's quick win over Brock Lesnar from 2016 and played up how he's the longest-reigning Universal Champion of all-time as he should have. This was the usual strong stuff from Reigns. He and Goldberg will go face-to-face on next week's show, so I liked that they went with the pre-taped interview route for this week.

Natalya def. Aliyah

This match could only be won by pinfall or submission after Aliyah previously beat Natalya by disqualification and count-out. They were hyping it up as a "dungeon style showdown" coming into this show, but there was no mention of that here, so they must have ditched that tagline for whatever reason. As expected, the match was fine for what it was. I just find it impossible to care about either woman and it's not like any of these matches have been exciting enough to change my mind. Maybe Aliyah will get over in the long run, but this feud has done nothing for me. On the bright side, Natalya likely won so she can lose to Xia Li when they face off soon.

Sami Zayn Attacked Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamuara and Rick Boogs on In-Zayn

In-Zayn has now taken on the form of a podcast. I guess it's better than yet another talk show in WWE, so there's that. I honestly completely forgot that Zayn once served as Nakamura's manager until Zayn brought it up here. How the hell was that not acknowledged prior to this point?! I applaud Zayn for making the most of the material here, but this was a lame segment. This feud has been a failure and it's amazing to think that these two had one of the best matches of the year just six years ago.

Happy Corbin def. Cesaro

It's wild to think that this marked the first-ever one-on-one encounter between these two despite both of them being on the main roster since 2016. What we got from them was good, but I'm sure they're capable of better with more time. Cesaro not getting a televised entrance told you from the get-go that this was essentially going to be a showcase for Corbin. I feel bad for Cesaro, who was getting the biggest push of his career at this time a year ago.

Michael Cole Hosted a Sit-Down Interview with Goldberg

I appreciate Goldberg's intensity, but almost everything he said was comical because it's the same stuff every time he comes back. He talked about how he's back to being the Goldberg of old and how he shouldn't be underestimated. If that sounded familiar, it's because he said it the last time he returned and the time before that. I'm in minority of people in favor of doing Reigns vs. Goldberg at Elimination Chamber, but this truly needs to be it for Goldberg as a wrestler because it's almost impossible to care about anything he says or does at this point.

SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair def. Naomi

Charlotte and Naomi collided two times before this year, but neither match was given much time and they were overshadowed by interference from Deville. Thankfully, Deville didn't factor into this at all. Rather, they were given a ton of time to work with and had an excellent main event. The crowd went nuts for some of those nearfalls. It was without a doubt the best bout Flair has had since Survivor Series and one of Naomi's best ever. Their chemistry together is top-notch and I'm happy they had this chance to shine. The post-match angle with Ronda Rousey saving Naomi from Flair and Deville was hot as well.

Overall Show

Per usual, this was very much a mixed bag of a show featuring more bad than good.​ The main event was above-average and is well worth going out of your way to see, but other than that and New Day vs. Los Lotharios II, nothing else on this show stood out in a major way. There was some build for Elimination Chamber as well as for next week's Intercontinental Championship match, but the blue brand remains in a rather abysmal state at the moment. Several storylines will need to heat up in the coming weeks in order for this show to improve en route to WrestleMania 38.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews