Friday Night SmackDown Review - November 29, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair, Naomi and Bayley Brawled with WWE Women's Champion Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton, Candice LeRae, Women's World Champion Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez

The babyfaces' mic work was fine, but I actually really liked the rebuttal from the heels with Jax and Morgan bringing up the past issues between Belair and Damage CTRL, Bayley and SKY, and the possibility of Bayley being the one who attacked Jade Cargill to take her spot on the team. The subsequent brawl was what I expected to close out Monday's Raw, so I'm glad we got it here as it was effective final hype for women's WarGames.

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Andrade

Before the bout even began, I was distracted by Nakamura's awful entrance music remix that he came out to. Man, def Rebel can't be booted soon enough. At any rate, this was the quality contest you'd expect from Nakamura and Andrade despite the obvious outcome with Nakamura challenging LA Knight for the United States Championship at Survivor Series. On a side note, it was cool that Michael Cole acknowledged that these two previously fought for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship years ago, which I was unaware of.

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes def. Carmelo Hayes (Non-Title)

I appreciated that Hayes got some mic time beforehand to establish why this match was happening and to get some last-minute heat from the crowd. Hayes has proven himself as a first-round draft pick with the run he's had on SmackDown so far and that was once again evident in this rematch with Rhodes. They had an entertaining encounter and Hayes looked credible in defeat. That said, it's important how WWE follows up with him now that his feud with Andrade is over. He shouldn't be directionless heading into WrestleMania season.

Michin def. Piper Niven and Lash Legend in a Women's United States Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Triple Threat Match

Of the three Triple Threat matches we've gotten since the start of the tournament, this was the weakest, but that isn't to say it was bad by any means. Although it lacked an established star, they had a well-worked match and, to her credit, Legend had an impressive performance. It was reported around Crown Jewel that she and Jakara Jackson were officially a part of the main roster, but we haven't seen them on SmackDown since then before Legend replaced Cargill in this tourney. Nonetheless, I'm happy Michin advanced to the semifinals. I don't think she'll be the inaugural Women's United States Champion, but I certainly see her holding it eventually.

Jacob Fatu def. Jey Uso to Earn the WarGames Advantage

​Nick Aldis informed O.G. Bloodline and Solo Sikoa's Bloodline that everyone was barred from ringside. Amazingly, this marked Fatu's first televised singles match. This gave him the chance to show what he could do on his own and he definitely made the most of the opportunity. It would've been easy for him and Uso to phone it in with this being a main event on a taped show, but they ended up having a great match that the crowd was into. Of course, Fatu getting the WarGames advantage for his team was the logical move.

Overall Show

The best parts of this episode didn't happen in the ring. Rather, it was Paul Heyman's sit-down with Roman Reigns and CM Punk and Kevin Owens' pre-taped promo discussing his Saturday Night's Main Event match against Rhodes. That stuff was fantastic and made this go-home edition of SmackDown significantly better than it would have been otherwise. All in all, it was a super solid show that held my interest throughout and left me looking forward to Survivor Series on Saturday night.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews