Friday Night SmackDown Review - May 24, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Nia Jax def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Bianca Belair in a Queen of the Ring Semifinal Match

I believe this marked the first-ever one-on-one encounter between these two, which would make sense since they've largely been separated by the Brand Split over the years. They had a good match that told a nice story with Belair selling her "injured" knee throughout. I assumed Jax would advance with Lyra Valkyria also being in the finals, but I was pleasantly surprised to see Jax win clean.

The Street Profits Saved LA Knight from Carmelo Hayes and WWE Tag Team Champions A-Town Down Under on The Grayson Waller Effect; Street Profits and Knight def. A-Town Down Under and Hayes

The segment that preceded the match was house show stuff. Hayes, Theory and Waller attempted to play off of each other, but it just felt like they were repeating themselves over and over until Knight finally came out (to the usual big pop, by the way). It was a fairly standard six-man tag team affair, but the crowd was into the action and the babyfaces bounced back from their recent losses with the win.

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and United States Champion Logan Paul Came Face-to-Face

Now that the United States Championship isn't on the line at King and Queen of the Ring (which was the correct call), Rhodes vs. Paul is rather predictable, but I've been digging their mic work leading into the event. Sure, all of the nonsense about the brass knuckles was silly, but this was a strong segment otherwise. And yes, I do expect Paul to at least attempt to cheat on Saturday to make it look like he could actually win.

WWE Women's Champion Bayley def. Chelsea Green (Non-Title)

Bayley hasn't done much in recent weeks with the focus being on the King and Queen of the Ring, but I'm glad she was back in the ring here for a fresh match. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it nor did it last long, but it didn't need to. It served as a showcase for the champ. Plus, with Piper Niven attacking Bayley afterward, it looks like she could get a shot at the WWE Women's Championship at Clash at the Castle in Niven's native Scotland (or on the SmackDown the night before in the same arena).

Randy Orton def. Tama Tonga in a King of the Ring Semifinal Match

As soon as Gunther advanced to the finals on Monday's Raw, it was pretty clear Orton was advancing here. I thought Kevin Owens would return toward the end and cost Tonga the win, but his return was actually saved for afterward. It was a solid main event, though I enjoyed Orton's other tournament matches more. Gunther is still my pick to become King of the Ring, but Orton is very much a possibility now that it's been announced the winners will get world title shots at SummerSlam.

Overall Show

WWE has been holding shows in Saudi Arabia for years, but this marked the first time they've ever had SmackDown emanate from over there. You can tell it was a taped show just by watching it as there wasn't a lot of stuff of real consequence, but the tournament matches were obviously important even if they weren't too special from an in-ring standpoint. It was a serviceable show, albeit a tad step down from the standard SmackDown has set as of late.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews