Friday Night SmackDown Review - January 6, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kevin Owens Interrupted The Bloodline

This ongoing storyline with Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn and Owens is the best thing going in wrestling right now, at least in my opinion. This was more tremendous television with the three of them playing their respective roles remarkably well. Owens interrupted Reigns before Reigns could make Zayn pay for losing last week, but I'm sure Zayn's exile from the group is coming sooner rather than later. This also did an effective job of setting up/officially announcing Reigns vs. Owens for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble.

Santos Escobar def. NXT Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston

Legado del Fantasma are one of the few teams The New Day hasn't feuded with yet, so if New Day are going to continue pulling double duty on SmackDown and NXT, at least they're being put to good use. This wasn't a standout singles match by any means, but it was well wrestled and had the right outcome. I wish Escobar won more matches clean, but I understand WWE wants to put heat on him by having him win with help from the rest of Legado.

Karrion Kross and Scarlett def. Madcap Moss and Emma

This marked the vey first time Scarlett has wrestled on WWE TV. She's had matches for other promotions in the past such as IMPACT, Ring of Honor and MLW, but she's definitely better off in a managerial role. She ended up doing perfectly fine here whenever she was in there with Emma, and her and Kross winning was needed to keep them looking strong as they resume their rivalry with Rey Mysterio.

SmackDown Women's Championship Charlotte Flair def. Sonya Deville

This was the second straight week we got an unadvertised SmackDown Women's Championship match. I doubt Flair vs. Deville would have been much of a ratings draw, though, so I didn't have an issue with that being an impromptu match. It was decent but nothing out of the ordinary. Deville was hardly a threat to the title. She firmly established herself as being a babyface with her pre-match promo, but the problem is that there aren't any heels right now on SmackDown interesting enough to challenge her.

Ricochet def. Top Dolla to Qualify for the Men's Royal Rumble Match

I'm all for doing Royal Rumble qualifying matches, but it's a little inconsistent when Kingston randomly declared himself for the men's Rumble last month and these two instead had to fight for a spot. For the record, no one else has declared themselves for the Rumble since then, so surely there's enough spots to where Top Dolla can enter, anyway. Nonetheless, this was adequate while it lasted with Top Dolla dominating a majority of the match before Ricochet pulled out the victory. The bigger takeaway was that Hit Row finally turned heel afterward by laying out Ricochet. Hopefully this is a turning point for them because their return run has been very underwhelming so far.

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos def. Sheamus and Drew McIntyre

I'm really glad we got this match after it was originally advertised to take place last month but had to be bumped due to McIntyre not being medically cleared at the time. Of course, Sheamus and McIntyre work wonderfully as partners, so I wouldn't mind seeing them team up some more despite their loss here. The Usos shouldn't be losing the tag titles until at least WrestleMania 39 (preferably to Owens and Zayn), so unfortunately, Sheamus had to eat defeat yet again.

Overall Show

Last week's final show of 2022 was much more entertaining and eventful than this edition. That isn't to say this was a bad show, but it peaked with the opening segment and didn't pick up again until the main event. In other words, the Bloodline stuff carried this episode and everything else was mostly mediocre. Hit Row turning heel was a step in the right direction for them, though, and the video package for next week's Intercontinental Championship match between Gunther and Braun Strowman was well done.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews