Friday Night SmackDown Review - September 1, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

John Cena Attacked Jimmy Uso

Cena did his usual shtick where he talked about being grateful for the fans having him back and even mentioned that this return would last "months." He's currently advertised through the end of October, but maybe he sticks around beyond that. Regardless, the crowd ate up everything he said in addition to his announcement that he'll be hosting Payback. His interaction with Jimmy was interesting, if only because we saw more of Jimmy later on in the episode and it doesn't look like he'll be working with Cena soon. It's a possible program WWE can do in Jey Uso's absence, though. On a side note, Jimmy's new entrance music sounds like a banger.

Grayson Waller and Austin Theory def. The LWO (Santos Escobar and United States Champion Rey Mysterio)

Waller and Theory made for a fun team as they have quality chemistry together. Maybe they can become a permanent tag team after Theory (hopefully) fails to regain the United States Championship at Payback? It was weird that Waller picked up the win here considering Theory is the one with the pay-per-view match (Waller is just hosting The Grayson Waller Effect with Cody Rhodes as his guest), but I'm not complaining as I believe it gave Waller his first win on the main roster. This was an enjoyable outing.

Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits Discussed Their Alliance

Lashley and Street Profits have been appearing alongside each other for almost two months now and this marked the first time they've actually explained their alliance, or at least attempted to. We really didn't learn anything new here. Street Profits attributed their aggressive edge to Lashley, and we've seen that in some of their matches, but nothing was different about them in this segment other than how they dressed. We all thought they'd be a heel trio, but they didn't certainly didn't come across that way in this segment.

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens def. The LWO (Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde) (Non-Title)

I got excited when Del Toro and Wilde were announced as Zayn and Owens' opponents thinking that they'd get a real opportunity to shine here. Instead, they were squashed in a matter of minutes. I shouldn't be too surprised since they've been booked like lackeys on the main roster (not unlike their run in NXT), but I'm still waiting for them to showcase their skills. Owens and Zayn have a title defense coming up at Payback, so in reality, it made sense to give them a quick and decisive win before then.

The Miz and LA Knight Exchanged Words

This was far and away my favorite part of the whole show. They had an excellent exchange a few weeks ago on Raw and I'm happy they got even more time here to hype up their upcoming clash at Payback. Props to both guys for the great mic work and that includes Miz, who has done much of note over the last year. This was exactly the segment you want to see on a go-home show as it left me looking forward to their match.

Shotzi def. Bayley

There has been zero progression with this program in weeks. The gimmick change for Shotzi was long overdue, but she can't connect with the crowd if she doesn't make consistent appearances. Unfortunately, this was not very good. Shotzi has had more misses than hits when it comes her matches on the main roster and this fell in the former category. The crowd not caring didn't help, either. Can we get more focus on IYO SKY as the WWE Women's Champion, please? The Damage CTRL stuff still falls flat most of the time.

Solo Sikoa def. AJ Styles

This was set up earlier in the show when Styles got bothered over Uso interrupting Mia Yim in a backstage segment with Adam Pearce, and Sikoa stepped up to face Styles. The story is that Uso apparently wants back in The Bloodline and Sikoa doesn't approve but Paul Heyman didn't want Sikoa attacking Uso. It's something to keep the Bloodline drama going in the absence of Roman Reigns and Jey, but Jimmy rejoining The Bloodline would be a step backward. It feels like the storyline is going in circles. As far as Sikoa vs. Styles, it was a solid main event but nothing special.

Overall Show

The biggest hook coming into this episode was Cena's return, but the drama surrounding Jimmy Uso was the focal point throughout. The problem was that no one from the Bloodline angle is currently slated to appear at Payback. You know, the pay-per-view coming up tomorrow night. This is the least amount of buzz a WWE event has had in a long time, but it could still be entertaining. As for this edition of SmackDown, it wasn't a strong go-home show by any means due to the Bloodline stuff being back at the forefront, but I did like the show on the whole.

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