Jimmy Uso spent most of this week’s Friday Night SmackDown nagging about his brother Jey and how things have changed, first at the Royal Rumble and then back in Montreal at Elimination Chamber. Paul Heyman delivered a message from Roman Reigns that Jimmy needs to deal with this before next week or he’ll deal with it himself.
He edits an impassioned promo talking about always being there for his brother no matter what as he now needs Jey to be there for him.
But Jey wasn’t there.
Instead, Sami Zayn showed up.
He told Jimmy how much it all hurt, that he felt like they were brothers too, and when Jimmy beat him at Royal Rumble without hesitation, it really hurt him. Jimmy seemed ambivalent, but then quickly made it clear where he stood.
“You’re so damn selfish!”
It was Sami who had the chair and Sami who made the choice and Sami who tore it all apart. Things were going well without him and then he came along and everything changed.
Zayn, of course, turned to Jimmy as much as he did to Jey. And then Jey showed up in the arena, walked through the crowd and Jimmy used the distraction to launch an attack on Sami.
Zayn defeated the ensuing confrontation – partly because Jimmy was looking at Jey – and knocked him down with a Helluva Kick. Jey just stood in the crowd and watched it all happen. Sami was pushed out by Solo Sikoa, but what landed us here were more questions.
Jey is undecided.
It’s an impossible position to have to choose between two people he loves, but it’s clear that a decision has to be made and he’s running out of time. Soon that choice will be made for him.
This story is far from over and I’m still on the edge of my seat.
For the first time since the match became official, SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair faced off against her challenger at WrestleMania 39, Royal Rumble winner Rhea Ripley. At least that was the plan.
And then the only Dominik Mysterio came on stage to have a back and forth.
It was amazing.
Dom held his own verbal sparring with flair, allowing Charlotte to snap some nice shots about the much stronger Latino heat she has at home — with an accent, of course — and Dom to bring their dads into the game. They both had to bring out the best in themselves under that shadow. Confronting the two like this worked wonders to show just how well Charlotte actually did.
Ripley didn’t appear until Charlotte Dom was about to put her boots on. They stared at her briefly before he pulled her away. I like the idea – keep them at arm’s length for a bit and let’s see them confront each other more and more as time goes on.
Dom really helped make this work.
The Firefly Fun House returned and it didn’t look like what we’re used to:
I don’t know what the hell to make of this.
At least it actually looks like Wyatt vs. Bobby Lashley looks like the match at WrestleMania 39.
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- Madcap Moss may have teased a heel turn after TV with Emma last week, but he kicked off this week’s show with Braun Strowman & Ricochet in a six-man tag team match against Imperium. He ended up taking the fall for the team, so it’s worth keeping an eye on his reaction to that. Meanwhile, about halfway through the game, Drew McIntyre went out and watched the game, which apparently made it obvious that he plans to pursue GUNTHER and the Intercontinental Championship. The Viking Raiders arrived to intervene before anything could go off that way, but they started teasing here. There’s still plenty of time between now and WrestleMania 39 to work that out.
- I will never stop laughing at Dominik Mysterio overcoming himself like he did and doing the part about how tough his time in prison was. It just works so very, very well for the character and Rhea Ripley, who doesn’t even need it, benefits from being with him because she’s the real muscle. The whole thing is beautiful.
- After spending some time at NXT handling their tag team division, The New Day are back on the main roster. They showed up to interrupt LA Knight as he was talking about celebrating his moment at WrestleMania 39, and an argument led to a match where Knight faced Kofi Kingston. They had a surprising amount of time – two commercial breaks! – and Kingston won via pinfall.
- Shayna Baszler had a match with Natalya and they let her enter to Ronda Rousey’s music. I’m not sure what that says, if anything. Earlier in the night, Nattie begged WWE Medical to let her wrestle and she was cleared to do so, but they still advised against it. Tegan Nox was there to say she would provide support if needed. It wasn’t a great match as Nattie was distracted by Rousey and quickly resigned shortly after. The attempted post-game beatdown was thwarted by Nox. Rousey’s response was, “Who is that? You’re done next week, Skittles. You’re going to try the rainbow next Friday!” I’ll let that speak for itself.
- What does everyone think about Karrion Kross full performance? I go back and forth but I definitely think it should be a PLE thing and never on TV. Meanwhile, Kross won back Rey Mysterio thanks to Dom interfering and preventing him from hitting the 6-1-9. After the match, Dom pushed his dad around and told Rey, “Be a man, hit me.” Rey eventually came in his face and hit back with his fist — but he couldn’t do it. The fans sang for it. And he still couldn’t. This whole story was awesome and they will blow the roof off when dear old dad finally decides to teach his son a lesson he so badly needs.
This show was mostly about setting things up for later. Still a strong blue brand effort.
Her thoughts?
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