 SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos Addressed Their Competition; The Viking Raiders def. Los Lotharios, Jinder Mahal & Shanky and Cesaro & Mansoor in a SmackDown Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way Tag Team MatchThe Usos almost never start off SmackDown on their own, so I was hoping some serious competition would step up to challenge them. Instead, they introduced all of the teams in the subsequent Fatal 4-Way and none of them are true threats to the titles. We also found out during that segment that King Woods is out injured following last week's Street Fight, which is another blow to the blue brand's depth chart. The match itself was decent but only illustrated how thin the tag team division is at the moment. I like the idea of Viking Raiders vs. Usos, but Viking Raiders' loss to Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss last week makes even less sense in retrospect. Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs Attacked Sami ZaynZayn was his usual goofy self in this segment. It was so silly and stupid that I actually found it entertaining. You had to know he wasn't going to go through with the stunt, but it would've been funny if Johnny Knoxville showed up and did it instead. Zayn is still feuding with Nakamura and Boogs, but the feud feels completely cold and Zayn losing to Boogs last week didn't help. Apparently Boogs said in an interview earlier this week that Nakamura has had a hurt hand for the last month, so that's probably why WWE has held off on doing Nakamura vs. Zayn. Aliyah def. NatalyaYes, the only women's match on the show was almost three seconds long. You knew where this was going as soon as Natalya brought out the Guinness Book of World Records and they had Natalya attack Aliyah beforehand. I'm not sure this will be remembered in the long run, but it did lead to a nice crowd pop on this show. Aliyah won her debut match in November and WWE proceeded to do nothing with her, so time will tell whether this will lead anywhere as well. SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair Confronted LitaI'm totally fine with Lita appearing prior to the Royal Rumble if WWE was going to spoil her return ahead of time. She hasn't done anything of importance on WWE TV since 2018, so it was cool to hear from her here and she still looks fantastic. She and Flair had a fine exchange and Lita leaving her laying with a Twist of Fate was interesting. I don't think we'll get Flair vs. Lita one-on-one at some point, but I'm positive the payoff will be Flair eliminating Lita from the Rumble. Sheamus def. RicochetThis stemmed from Ricochet eliminating Sheamus from the 12 Days of Christmas Gauntlet match three weeks ago on the Christmas Eve edition of SmackDown. Sheamus also beat Ricochet in what was basically a two-on-one Handicap match at Day 1 following the injury sustained by Ridge Holland. As expected, this was a very fun outing. Ricochet got to do Ricochet things while Sheamus delivered as always. All of these wins should ultimately amount to him winning the Intercontinental title. Madcap Moss def. Kofi KingstonKingston mentioned in his pre-match promo that Woods' injury is going to keep him out of the men's Royal Rumble but that he'll be taking his place. Kingston won't win, obviously, but I'm curious if he'll do something cool as he's been known to do for the better part of the past decade. With Woods and Drew McIntyre both out with injuries, this match was essentially an excuse to fill television time. I know they're trying to push Moss, but a former WWE Champion losing to him just feels wrong. The Bloodline Attempted to Attack Seth "Freakin" RollinsThe entrances for both men may have gone longer than the talking portion of the segment. We got was good, but there's so much history between the two that there was so much more they could have gotten into. All in all, it was a slightly underwhelming encounter, but I hope that means the best is yet to come before the Rumble. Rollins came off like a babyface by dodging The Bloodline's attack, but that's what happens when you book a heel vs. heel feud. Overall ShowI'm probably biased because I was there last week, but I found last week's edition of SmackDown to be stronger, and even that wasn't an amazing episode. This show didn't have a lot going for it at all aside from Lita's return. The Rollins and Reigns stuff fell flat for me but was still solid, while everything else was just sort of there. Sheamus vs. Ricochet was the best bout of the night, but there's not a ton worth getting excited about right now with SmackDown and I don't necessarily blame it on the fact it's Rumble season. Rather, several Superstars are injured and the overall creative direction is severely lacking compared to what Raw has been doing lately.
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