Friday Night SmackDown Review - July 28, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns and Jey Uso Went Face-to-Face

This was a definite improvement over last week's "Rules of Engagement" segment. Reigns questioned why Jey would think he could beat him, only for Jey to tell him he pinned him at Money in the Bank and he'll do it again at SummerSlam. It was what it needed to be and effectively set the stage for the SummerSlam main event. On a side note, it was teased that "Tribal Combat" at SummerSlam will essentially be a No Disqualification match, but the commentators clarified it here.

Santos Escobar def. Rey Mysterio by Referee Stoppage in the Finals of the United States Championship Invitational

This marked the first-ever one-on-one match between these two. It was many years in the making and I hope it won't be the last time. What we got was good, but they barely got out of first gear when Mysterio seemed to be accidentally injured heading into the second commercial break. I assume it was legitimate, but it's possible it was a storyline injury to protect Mysterio in defeat. Escobar will challenge Austin Theory for the United States Championship in two weeks on SmackDown.

LA Knight def. Ashante "Thee" Adonis

Knight interrupted and attacked Hit Row earlier this month at Madison Square Garden before SmackDown went live. I thought they were repeating that same segment here, but they had a match this time and Knight beat Adonis in under two minutes. Of course, Knight received a raucous reaction per usual. If Hit Row are heels, does this officially make Knight a babyface? We found out later in the night that there will be a Battle Royal at SummerSlam (nothing said to be at stake, by the way) and Knight will be a part of it along with The Brawling Brutes. I'm glad they found a way to get him on the card.

Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville (Non-Title)

This featured the typical "Can they coexist?!" crap with Flair and Belair. The match itself was solid, but I can't say this did anything to make me more excited for the WWE Women's Championship Triple Threat at SummerSlam. Asuka continues to feel like a total afterthought in this storyline, and having Green and Deville suffer their first loss less than two weeks after winning the tag titles wasn't ideal.

Karrion Kross def. Karl Anderson

Anderson told the rest of The O.C. that he wanted to fight Kross alone and not have anyone in his corner. He ended up looking like a moron considering he lost in a matter of minutes. This was hardly competitive, but then again, it shouldn't have been. This gave Kross an easy win and furthered his feud with AJ Styles, but does anyone honestly care about another match between Kross and Styles? This program has no heat.

Jey Uso def. Grayson Waller

Uso struck Waller backstage after the opening segment and that set up this match. I'm not high on Waller suffering a third straight loss, but at least he was able to hang with Uso in the main event. This was an an enjoyable outing, but I didn't expect Waller to beat the number one contender to the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, even after The Bloodline came out halfway through. Uso got a massive reaction for getting the better of Reigns afterward before The Bloodline teamed up and took him out. The Reigns/Solo Sikoa finisher combo is quite cool.

Overall Show

This very much felt like a filler episode ahead of SummerSlam next weekend. The Battle Royal was announced and the Bloodline/Uso stuff carried the show, but nothing else seemed to stand out. I'm glad Knight is getting consistent television time and Bobby Lashley's latest backstage interaction with The Hurt Business was intriguing, but Mysterio vs. Escobar getting cut short due to an injury to Mysterio was unfortunate and Kross vs. Anderson and the women's match were whatever. We'll see if they can deliver a hotter episode 24 hours out from the pay-per-view.

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