Friday Night SmackDown Review - May 8, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sonya Deville def. MAndy Rose

This match has been building for not just weeks but years if you want to go all the way back to their friendship on Tough Enough in 2015. Thus, I'm honestly stunned WWE would give it away with a straight finish in roughly five minutes, especially two days before a pay-per-view. Why not save it for Sunday? That said, I loved how you could feel the animosity between the two and the aggression from both ladies was appreciated. Hopefully Deville winning keeps their feud alive.

The Miz & John Morrison and The Forgotten Sons (Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler) def. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day and The Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik)

It was obvious that this went as long as it did so it could kill as much television time as possible. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entertained during the final stretch, but I wish a few of those minutes early on could have been given to Deville vs. Rose instead. Other than that, this was a fun eight-man tag team affair with everyone getting a chance to shine. The heels going over was the right call if New Day retain their titles at Money in the Bank as I expect them to.

Jeff Hardy Attacked Sheamus

Although this played out pretty much as I figured it would, I thought it was a solid segment on the whole. Hardy came across as genuine when he said he wants this to be his last good run with WWE while speaking to Renee Young, but he's said that before and has gotten himself into more legal trouble since, so hopefully he means it this time. Hardy getting the better of Sheamus here will likely lead to Sheamus winning their first match, whenever that may be.

Universal Champion Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt Went Face-to-Face

This was the first time that these two have faced off since the feud started a month ago. For whatever reason, Wyatt's promos have been much better in the empty arena environment. Unfortunately, this storyline hasn't sparked much excitement lately. They need to give fans more of a reason to want to see them go at it aside running their brief history in The Wyatt Family into the ground. Maybe we'll get it after Money in the Bank. It's nice that Wyatt isn't acting unphased by Wyatt's mind games, though.

Tamina and Lacey Evans def. SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley and Sasha Banks

I still have zero interest in seeing Tamina in the SmackDown Women's Championship picture, but at least she was kept limited here. On the whole, this was a decent match that was designed to further the feuds between Bayley and Tamina as well as Banks and Evans. Tamina pinning Bayley could be seen coming from a mile away, but one can only hope that means Bayley will beat her on Sunday and we can finally move on from Tamina as a championship challenger.

King Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro def. Drew Gulak, Daniel Bryan and Otis

Elias would have been a logical pick for Bryan and Gulak's partner, but Otis was always who I expected it to be because of how he'll join Bryan and Corbin in the men's Money in the Bank Ladder match on Sunday. This was an enjoyable main event with the six Superstars working well together and keeping the pace consistent throughout. The post-match stuff with Bryan, Corbin and Otis all trying to retrieve the briefcase above dragged on a little long for my taste, but they do it every year, so I'm not surprised at this point.

Overall Show

It was a tag team-heavy edition of SmackDown ahead of the upcoming pay-per-view with everything having to do with the event for the most part. Rose vs. Deville and the segment with Sheamus and Hardy didn't have any Money in the Bank implications, but it's possible one or both bouts are added to the card at the last minute. I don't think it'd be fair to say that this episode was as insufferable as most SmackDown shows since its move to FOX in the fall, but as a go-home show, it was largely forgettable and didn't feature anything I'd recommend going out of your way to see.