European crowds can’t be beat when it comes to professional wrestling, and the Dublin crowd in attendance for Friday’s “WWE SmackDown” immediately let their voices be heard. Despite her spot on the “Raw” roster, WWE Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch was the centerpiece of the return to her home country, and she delivered the goods right out the gate with our…
👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
The start of “SmackDown” in Dublin was unreal levels of good. If sending out Becky Lynch alone wasn’t enough, her mic work exemplified exactly why she’s an all-time great. She absolutely crushed this segment so, so, so hard.
Lynch unsurprisingly received a hero’s welcome from her hometown crowd and played the face — for a moment. The champ then turned heel to her own country, claiming she tried to cancel the show earlier in the week because these people didn’t deserve to be on TV. This was diabolical work on her part, which led to Lyra Valkyria chants. The crowd was equally as good as Lynch. She went on to drop slander upon fellow Irish stars and make the moment feel so special despite being nothing more than that: A moment.
Some sort of Nikki Bella interruption felt inevitable, but it never came. Instead, we got an interjection of absolute slop to soil the ending of Lynch’s epic work.
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🤮 Booking Blunder of the Night
Lynch’s promo was a vehicle to get to the main event, as she teamed alongside Nia Jax against Tiffany Stratton and Jade Cargill. The teasing between everyone, excluding Jax, was excellent. But that’s the problem — Jax is continually getting shoehorned into her played-out rivalry with Stratton.
Triple H can’t think this is a good idea, right? All this proves is that a draft or roster shuffle is needed because “Raw” has plenty of powerhouse wrestlers that should be dancing with Stratton — not this completely unnecessary rehashing.
In the match, Stratton and Jax played all the hits we’ve seen countless times, before the action centered around the Cargill hot tag. She inevitably got the pin on Jax after Lynch bailed on her, allowing for a Prettiest Moonsault Ever from Stratton, followed by the Cargill Frog Splash. You know, to (for some reason) keep Jax perpetually strong.
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It felt like somewhat of a miss to not have Lynch close this show on top, but it was an OK, quick match nonetheless.
Evidence of another miss
John Cena verbally eviscerated Logan Paul on the mic on this “SmackDown.” It was good in a vacuum, as the all-time great channeled essentially every word and detraction the world has about Paul. However, it surely boosted Cena’s presence when he spoke after Paul, who was just kind of “meh.” Not that that’s anything new, but this was some phenomenal work from Cena.
So, where’s the miss? Well, Cena felt like the heel version of himself we had just seen, but directed it all at Paul in a completely truthful and borderline shoot style. Why couldn’t we have had him doing that throughout that whole heel run? Complaining about the fans worked for roughly five minutes, yet things never shifted until CM Punk came along.
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This was just a night for the legends like Lynch and Cena to shine, because they both magnetically demanded their attention. Ultimately, it concluded with an AA on Paul, which he kind of no-sold once the camera cut away from him.
Drew McIntyre appeared for a Paul pep talk after the commercial break ended, essentially imploring Paul to beat Cena down like he did with Cody Rhodes. Instead, Paul punched Cena to end the night. Close enough, I guess.
McIntyre and Paul’s alliance, or friendship, is kind of funny with the Jelly Roll and Randy Orton stint out of the way. But it is what it is.
🔮 Prediction of the Night
We would call this “fantasy booking,” but I’m not entirely sure it’s the outcome I want.
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The weird Carmelo Hayes and Miz storyline progressed at the expense of Motor City Machine Guns when Miz stole the pin on Chris Sabin off a Hayes Lung Blower. Although I don’t love that first part, the matches have been objectively great so far, and Miz was mighty over in Dublin.
I expect this to culminate with a mini-swerve of Miz turning on Hayes rather than what feels apparent in Hayes doing so. They’ll earn their title shot at The Wyatt Sicks (who keep watching in the distance of segments), and from there, Miz will ultimately save himself at the expense of Hayes to avoid his past dealings with the faction.
It would be far from the worst route to take, but it feels like a waste of time in this loaded tag-team division. Ultimately, that’s just another problem with the Wyatts holding the titles.
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👍 FRIDAY NIGHT FIRE 👍
1. The Street Profits beat MFT’s Tonga Loa and JC Mateo clean after Jimmy Uso and Sami Zayn took out Talla Tonga and Solo Sikoa on the outside. It’s funny that’s what it takes to score a clean finish on these shows, but we’ll take it if it means no DQs. What a stunning stretch WWE has been on lately.
2. Aleister Black vs. R-Truth did not happen, but for good reason. When it was time for the match, Truth hilariously appeared on the screen via video call to let the crowd know he had accidentally flown to Dublin, Georgia, rather than Ireland. Rather than the typical goofy, clueless Truth we were used to, he seemingly made fun of that version of himself with this moment.
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Ultimately, Damian Priest was always going to intervene here, and he did, as he brawled with Black out of the ringside area.
3. Orton returned for a surprise RKO on McIntyre mid-promo on Rhodes. That’s always fun, regardless of the confusion this creates with McIntyre’s direction.
👎 DOWN & OUT 👎
1. Piper Niven picked up a win over Charlotte Flair. Yep. You read that right.
The match was pretty fine, but the booking was awful, and quite the nerf on Flair, who realistically never should lose this easily. Sure, it came after Chelsea Green raked her eyes to stop the Figure-8, while Alba Fyre distracted the referee. Then Niven hit the Michinoku Driver for the win. Next week, The Secret Hervice will challenge for the titles.
Joe Tessitore was atrocious on commentary here, acting like we don’t see shenanigans from Secret Hervice weekly. It’s literally what they do, man. And where the hell was Alexa Bliss? She was nowhere to be seen. This is a colossal waste of time for the Women’s Tag Team Champions, but unsurprisingly terrible booking for those belts.
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2. Michin confronted Giula backstage and hilariously acted like she deserved a U.S. title shot — while Nikki Cross lurked in the background. I mean, I guess considering the standard (or lack thereof) of the U.S. title, Michin certainly does deserve the shot. But again, this is recycling. “SmackDown” has some serious, serious booking issues right now.
👑 Crowds like this one always enhance a show, but this one was all about the legends. I give this “SmackDown” a Crown score of: 7.5/10. 👑
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