Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 10, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sheamus and Drew McIntyre def. LA Knight, Xavier Woods and Karrion Kross in an Intercontinental Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal-5 Way Match

Kofi Kingston was originally scheduled to take part but suffered an injury last week and had to be replaced by Woods. As expected, this was very entertaining given the level of talent involved. Everyone had their time to shine and they kept the pace consistent throughout. I was hoping there would be some sort of a draw with both McIntyre and Sheamus winning and that's exactly what happened. However, they're having a match next week to determine a number one contender, but if that's going to have the same result (and it should because a Triple Threat for the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania 39 is the way to go), then what's the point?

Rey Mysterio Was Announced as the First Inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2023; The Judgment Day (Dominik Mysterio, Finn Balor and Damian Priest) def. Legado del Fantasma (Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde)

I've been saying for weeks how shocked I was by WWE waiting so long to announce inductees for the Hall of Fame, to the point where I was questioning if we were even getting a ceremony here. Then it was reported earlier today that The Great Muta would be the first inductee announced on this show, only for WWE to swerve us and announce Rey Mysterio as the first inductee instead. He's undoubtedly deserving of the honor, but it's quite the surprising seeing as how he's still very much active on the roster and hasn't hinted at retiring soon. Then again, WrestleMania emanates from his home state of California this year, so it makes sense. The subsequent six-man tag team match was fun with Dominik once again cheating to pick up the win. Rey didn't strike his son afterward, but I assume it's coming next week considering 'Mania is fast approaching and they need to make the match official.

The Viking Raiders def. Ricochet and Braun Strowman

Ricochet and Strowman work well together, but they haven't had a lot of luck teaming as of late. I'm not complaining, though, as Viking Raiders needed a victory to salvage whatever credibility they have left after back-to-back losses to McIntyre and Sheamus. This was good stuff, even if the crowd was quiet. I assume this feud will continue if only to keep these guys busy through WrestleMania. If there's an Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the SmackDown before 'Mania this year, expect them to be a part of it.

SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair def. Shotzi (Non-Title)

Flair asked Adam Pearce for a match and got one against Shotzi. It didn't really serve much of a purpose other than killing television time. Shozi wasn't squashed or anything, but it's not like she had a stellar performance. Rather, it was the usual rough outing we've come to expect from her and they didn't have great chemistry. Worse yet, the post-match verbal exchange between Flair and Rhea Ripley was fairly forgettable. I'm looking forward to their WrestleMania match, but they've done nothing to increase the excitement level.

Sami Zayn Saved Cody Rhodes From Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos

I'm disappointed Roman Reigns wasn't on this show. I was under the impression he'd be confronting Jey Uso (even after he revealed where his allegiance lies on Raw), but he was nowhere to be seen. Jey's explanation for staying aligned with The Bloodline was logical given that they're family and Zayn saving Rhodes was his way of paying Rhodes back for Rhodes saving him on Raw. Now the next step is convincing Kevin Owens to join forces with them so they can be a united front against The Bloodline. This wasn't as big of an angle as what we saw close Raw, but it was necessary to move the story forward.

Overall Show

It's interesting that the roles were reversed this week with Raw being the much better show than SmackDown. Mysterio being announced the first inductee into the Hall of Fame was obviously newsworthy, but nothing else was as eventful. We don't have an answer yet on what will be the Intercontinental Championship match at 'Mania, Rey hasn't hit Dominik yet, and the face-off between Ripley and Flair left a bit to be desired. This was a decent show but didn't feature much of anything you need to go out of your way to see.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews