Friday Night SmackDown Review - May 13, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Raw Tag Team Champion Riddle def. Sami Zayn

RK-Bro started off the show doubling down on their challenge to The Usos about unifying both sets of tag titles. They called out The Bloodline but got Zayn instead, which led to an entertaining exchange on the mic and subsequently in the ring. Zayn has been playing his role exceptionally role exceptionally well over the last year or two and I'm happy he remains a regular on TV. He and Riddle were given plenty of time and what we got was great.

SmackDown Women's Champion Ronda Rousey def. Raquel Rodriguez

I remember when Rousey was doing post-pay-per-view open challenges for the Raw Women's Championship during her original run with the company, so I liked that she brought that back here. We'll see if she keeps the gimmick going or if this was a one-time thing, but I certainly wouldn't do it every week because she'll run through the division pretty quickly. I don't love the idea of Rodriguez challenging for the title in only her second match, but I appreciated that she scored as much offense as she did and I thought it was a pretty good match all things considered. I wouldn't mind them revisiting this at some point, especially once Rodriguez turns heel (hopefully).

Happy Corbin Attacked Madcap Moss

Kayla Braxton was interviewing Moss in the ring about what he wants to accomplish (which includes forming a team with Sasha Banks, apparently) when he was ambushed from behind by Corbin. I mean, the way it was executed was vicious, so props to them for that. Unfortunately, I simply have no desire to see this rivalry continue. Maybe Moss will get over as a singles star and surprise us all, but this dumb gimmick isn't doing him any favors. In fact, can both guys go back to what they were doing previously? That would make this feud (marginally) better.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Sasha Banks and Naomi def. Natalya and Shayna Baszler

The WWE Women's Tag Team Championship practically means nothing due to the division being nonexistent, but to their credit, they had a quality match here and put forth a commendable effort. I'd love if Baszler branched back off on her own following this loss and did something with Rousey, but like I just said, Naomi and Banks barely have any challengers, so I assume this feud continues. That would explain the finish not being decisive.

Butch def. Kofi Kingston

Butch returned at the end of last week's tag team Tables match between The New Day and Sheamus and Ridge Holland. I was hoping that would be the blow-off, but no suck luck. This was well wrestled and I'm happy the former Pete Dunne finally picked up a victory (over a former WWE Champion, no less), but I'm so beyond ready for this rivalry to be over so everyone involved can move on. It's clear they're just killing time at this point and that there's no endgame in sight unless New Day recruit an ally in Big E's absence.

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos Accepted Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro's Tag Team Title Unification Challenge Before Riddle Attacked Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns

This segment started so close to the top of the hour that I knew it wouldn't last long, and Reigns' entrance took up half of the time. I was worried was Reigns would boast about his dominance and then the show would end in underwhelming fashion (much like it has many times in the past). Thankfully, RK-Bro came out to accept The Usos' challenge, and not only that, Riddle was also able to sneak in a jumping knee on Reigns before quickly escaping the ring. With the tag title unification match being announced for next week's SmackDown, my guess is that will have a non-finish after Reigns interferes, though I'm not confident we're getting Reigns vs. Riddle at Hell in a Cell considering Reigns isn't currently advertised for that event.

Overall Show

I've been down on SmackDown for a while now (specifically since the Draft and they lost a lot of star power) and rightfully so, but in all fairness, this was a slightly better episode than usual. We got two title matches and the announcement that the tag title unification match is happening on next week's show (which I doubt ends clean), which is certainly more eventual compared to what we normally get from the blue brand. It was far from a must-see show and I wasn't overly enthused for the entire two hours, but it was enjoyable enough and nothing was egregiously bad or boring, so I can't complain too much.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews