Friday Night SmackDown Review - May 20, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Bloodline Hyped the Tag Team Championship Unification Match

It's a little weird Reigns continues to make appearances on SmackDown if there aren't any plans for him to defend the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at Hell in a Cell next month, but I guess I shouldn't be complaining. He and Paul Heyman did an excellent job of hyping up the night's tag team title unification main event while The Usos stood in the background. That look from Reigns as he hugged The Usos and stared into the camera was money.

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Sami Zayn

While this obviously wasn't on the same level as some of their other encounters, it was entertaining for as long as it lasted. Considering they have terrific chemistry together, that shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Nakamura crossed paths with The Bloodline during his entrance, but at this point, Nakamura vs. Reigns feels more like a SmackDown main event than a pay-per-view main event. On a side note, Zayn wearing The Bloodline's shirt in recent weeks has been hilarious.

Happy Corbin Addressed Madcap Moss on Happy Talk

I appreciated that Corbin had a much more serious demeanor in this segment given the darker turn this feud took last week when he viciously attacked Moss. He delivered his promo well and furthered their feud just fine, but the problem is that I can't bring myself to care about an inevitable rematch. I'd actually prefer Corbin go back to being The Lone Wolf. As for Moss, here's hoping he comes back with a complete character overhaul.

Gunther def. Drew Gulak

Gunther slapped the shit out of Gulak's chest backstage last week on SmackDown, so that was how this bout came to be. Gunther already squashed Gulak a few weeks ago, so it wasn't anything new, but it was still fun to see Gunther destroy him almost immediately. Ricochet came to Gulak's aid afterward, indicating Gunther will be next in line for a shot at the Intercontinental Championship. As expected, Ricochet's reign as Intercontinental Champion has been a total afterthought, so they may as well fast-track the title onto Gunther because I assume he wouldn't be booked as poorly.

Raquel Rodriguez def. Shotzi

Shotzi and Aliyah were arguing beforehand that they should've answered Ronda Rousey's SmackDown Women's Championship open challenge instead of Rodriguez. I thought we might get Shotzi vs. Aliyah this week, but keeping Rodriguez's momentum going following her impressive performance again Rousey made sense. It sucks that Shotzi had to get beat so quickly and so decisively, but they clearly haven't valued her since she arrived on SmackDown. If Sasha Banks isn't coming back, then SmackDown needs to start building up women pronto beyond Rodriguez.

Xavier Woods def. Butch

It's the feud that will never end. In other words, SmackDown's roster is so limited that they probably don't have anything else of note for The Brawling Brutes (ugh) and The New Day to do. They went at it alone here, and with Butch losing to Woods twice before, you'd think he'd finally win here, especially after beating Kofi Kingston a week or two ago. However, Woods won yet again, making Butch look like even more of a loser in the process. The match itself was fine but too short to get out of first gear.

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos def. RK-Bro to Win the Raw Tag Team Championship and Become the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions

With RK-Bro and The Usos being the two top tag teams in WWE right now, you'd think they'd have a more epic encounter with tag title unification at stake. This honestly felt like a standard television main event up until the final stretch or so, but it was an enjoyable outing on the whole. Reigns costing Riddle the win was logical after Riddle kneed Reigns in the face last week and The Usos becoming the undisputed champs was the right call. If Reigns won't be in action at Hell in a Cell, will we see a rematch between The Usos and RK-Bro at the pay-per-view instead, this time inside Hell in a Cell to prevent outside interference?

Overall Show

This was easily the most newsworthy edition of SmackDown in ages. I was pleasantly surprised we got an actual clean finish in the main event and now we have unified tag team champions. Plus, viewers were informed that Sasha Banks and Naomi have been suspended and the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship have been vacated. The way the announcement was handled was highly questionable, and I'll have more thoughts on it in my audio review on Saturday. We also saw the former LA Knight make his SmackDown debut under the new name of Max Dupri, which is completely ridiculous. The middle portion of this show was passable, but SmackDown remains a chore to sit through.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews