Friday Night SmackDown Review - May 5, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Judgment Day Confronted LWO

Man, what an electric opening segment. The San Juan crowd went wild for LWO and gave Dominik Mysterio tremendous heat. The setup for the mixed tag team main event was solid and everyone played their roles well. I couldn't have been the only one who was left wanting Rhea Ripley vs. Rey Mysterio one-on-one, right? I know that's never going to happen, but I just think that'd be an absolute blast.

The O.C. (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) def. The Viking Raiders

The O.C. returned and got the better of Viking Raiders last week. We found out afterward that Viking Raiders are Raw bound thanks to the Draft, so it made sense to do the match on this show. Neither of these teams are particularly exciting at the moment and arguably peaked in WWE years ago, but it was an average outing. I'm really hoping this renewed push for The O.C. leads to something significant for AJ Styles soon, specifically a return to the main event scene.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez Saved Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair From Damage CTRL

When WWE announced on social media earlier in the day that Belair would be on this show, I feared this would be where we were getting a belt swap, completely forgetting that Belair is now a SmackDown Superstar. We didn't get one here, but perhaps it's still coming. Instead, Belair spoke about making history as the longest-reigning Raw Women's Champion as of this weekend. Damage CTRL attacking her before Morgan and Rodriguez made the save served as hype for not only Belair vs. IYO SKY at Backlash but also Morgan and Rodriguez vs. Bayley and Dakota Kai for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship next Friday on SmackDown, so this was effective.

The Street Profits def. Imperium (Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci)

Imperium are obviously headed to Raw post-Draft, so this was their swan song from SmackDown in a way. It didn't serve much of a purpose other than killing time, though it only got around four or five minutes and thus felt like filler. It was a nice little match while it lasted and the crowd was into Street Profits (much like most people on the show), but it didn't feel overly important. The commentators teased Street Profits potentially being in the line for a future Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship opportunity.

Cody Rhodes Addressed Brock Lesnar

Few people in WWE today can hype up a crowd quite like Cody. We've heard a lot from him heading into Backlash (and not nearly enough from Lesnar), but he's done a great job of not getting repetitive and emphasizing why Saturday is a must-win situation for him. I still assume Lesnar wins to extend the program at least through Night of Champions, but it has to done in a way where Rhodes is protected in defeat so he doesn't look like a moron for being beaten clean coming off this strong promo.

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Karrion Kross

The common theme throughout the show was newly-acquired Raw wrestlers losing to SmackDown Superstars, so I was surprised with the outcome here. I understand Nakamura is in the process of being pushed again, but when will it ever be Kross' time? He's had multiple feuds since returning to WWE last summer but has felt like a stepping stone more often than not. His lack of standout matches hasn't helped, either, but I thought this was a quality contest despite the crowd not being as hot for it as they were for other stuff on the show.

LWO (Rey Mysterio and Zelina Vega) def. The Judgment Day (Dominik Mysterio and SmackDown Women's Champion Rhea Ripley)

This felt like a fitting conclusion to the LWO vs. Judgment Day, at least for now. Judgment Day have dominated LWO since right after WrestleMania, so I liked that LWO picked up the victory here with Rey pinning Dominik. They'll be on separate shows post-Draft and thus they had to settle their score. Vega's team winning also gives her more of a credibility boost heading into her championship clash with Ripley at Backlash. The post-match angle with Bad Bunny going after Damian Priest was wonderful and felt like something you'd see years ago with how hot the crowd was for it. You just don't get that level of reaction often nowadays.

Overall Show

This San Juan crowd really enhanced my enjoyment of this episode and left me more excited for Backlash than I was previously because of the enthusiasm they're going to bring on Saturday night. Without them, this wouldn't have been as entertaining of a show. The stuff with LWO, Bad Bunny and Judgment Day carried the night and Rhodes' promo was also a highlight. Roman Reigns will be back next Friday night, so we'll see what he has in store. On a side note, it was said multiple times that Raw and SmackDown Superstars will be taking part in the tournament to crown an inaugural World Heavyweight Championship that kicks off next week, which is an odd concept when you consider we're coming off a draft.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews