 Damian Priest Confronted LA Knight; Priest vs. Knight Ended in a No ContestKnight blamed Priest for interfering in his United States Championship number one contender's match last week and costing him the win by disqualification, but what he forgot to mention was that he was probably going to lose anyway after Solo Sikoa attacked him at ringside. Their back-and-forth on the mic to start the show segued into a very good match. The non-finish was disappointing yet logical to protect both guys and set up the Fatal 4-Way for the U.S. title at Backlash. Fraxiom def. Pretty DeadlyFraxiom had a bit of a better outing against Los Garza last week, but this was still fun for what it was and I appreciated that it received an ample amount of time. Pretty Deadly lose a lot more than they win, but they're an entertaining act and deserve to featured weekly the way they have been. They're off to a strong start on SmackDown. They're such a talented team that it may not be long before they're in contention for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Jade Cargill Saved WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton from Nia Jax and NaomiThis came off like a typical talking segment in WWE where it's just a revolving door of promos, none of which were anything special. Stratton did a decent job recapping her history with Jax and reminding viewers of their unfinished business, but the rest of this was standard stuff, including the expected announcement of a tag team match with these four women in the main event. Aleister Black def. The MizIdeally, I would've liked to see Black straight-up squash Miz in a matter of minutes, but I understand they wanted to make this a little longer to allow Miz to maintain some shred of credibility in defeat. The important thing is that Black was dominant throughout and went over decisively. There was a tease for Black vs. Carmelo Hayes afterward, and while that should be a banger, I am worried that Hayes is going to stay in the stepping stone role for right now when he deserves better. Women's United States Champion Zelina Vega def. Piper Niven (Non-Title)Nick Aldis said that Niven would've earned an opportunity at the Women's United States Championship had she won here. She previously beat Vega, so it was necessary for Vega to avenge that loss now that she's champ. The crowd was quiet to start, but they came alive down the stretch. Ultimately, this was a nice match and I'm glad they went for a while. Randy Orton Addressed Undisputed WWE Champion John CenaYou knew Orton wasn't going to say much of note without Cena being there in person, but I did like how he said he's been able to "see" through Cena all along. Won't that make it a little weird when Cena eventually goes back to being a babyface? Nonetheless, this was the usual quality mic work from Orton. It was announced that Cena will be on next week's episode for one last face-off. Rey Fenix def. Santos EscobarIt's a shame the crowd was so quiet for this match because it was fun and very well wrestled. It was only made official earlier in the evening in a backstage segment and neither of them are too over at the moment (Escobar has been afterthought for ages and Fenix is still in the process of being established), so I don't blame the fans too much. The key is that Fenix was able to rebound from his WrestleMania 41 loss to El Grande Americano. Jade Cargill and WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton def. Nia Jax and NaomiThis was very much a paint-by-numbers main event. That isn't to say it was bad by any means, but they followed the typical tag team formula and I was ready for the show to be over by this point. It's interesting that Jax was the one pinned and not Naomi, but that does leave me assuming Jax will win next week's number one contender's match so Naomi and Cargill can continue their feud. Overall ShowEven though this was hardly the most thrilling edition of SmackDown (it was actually rather dull on the whole), it's cool that is was so wrestling-heavy. That isn't ordinarily the case with SmackDown, so that was a refreshing change of pace for this week. That said, the blue brand can't go back to the two-hour format soon enough. The three hours are such a drag and WWE is filling the time in the most tedious ways possible. There were some solid aspects to this episode, but the latest round of releases being announced online right beforehand hardly helped matters and made for an uncomfortable viewing experience.
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