WWE SmackDown Summary & Feedback (May 13, 2022): Unification

Pat McAfee said it best: “Sami Zayn supports himself in terrible situations all the time.”

I did it again Friday night smackdown this week.

Well, McAfee called him “Rusty,” because Riddle, who came up with Randy Orton to try to get the tag team title unification match they still wanted, decided Zayn’s hair was the color of rust. So it’s all now, much to Sammy’s dismay. Zayn was just trying to get favourite with The Bloodline by just persuading RK-Bro to go back to Monday Night Raw and do their work there. They don’t want to get involved in anything to do with Brand Blue.

That was coming from the self-proclaimed “locker room captain”.

Of course, Orton tried to turn that into Riddle vs. Don’t you know, Riddle won that match, because Zayn can’t win anything at all while still this version of Sami Zayn.

Weak rusty.

Next, the defeated Zain was walking backstage and confronted Shinsuke Nakamura, who gleefully told him, “Roman is the head of the table but you? You are the table ass!”

Wonderful.

I’m still deeply amused by Sami in this role. He actually thinks he’s a genius who keeps getting bad luck or is treated unfairly, and seeing him constantly crash into a brick wall for which he himself was responsible would never be unsurprising to me. I’ll bang her every time.

As for The Bloodline, they responded to all of this as you might expect – they completely ignored Zayn’s delusions before they were overtaken by the turf war mentality regarding the RK-Bro invasion. They promised to hit the scene later and did so in the main event.

Orton told Reigns that he would never or ever have been a wrestler John Cena, and it was a hell of a humiliation that hit hard with the live crowd. Honestly, it kind of made me want Orton versus Reigns.

Effect.

Orton explained the idea they had – unite the titles and call them the undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships. The Usos immediately accepted the challenge for this unification match, but they will do so next week at a SmackDown.

They walked out on Riddle’s face kneeling in their faces.

They did a great job maintaining as much hype as possible for the tag title match, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t notice that they’re doing very little for the WWE Universal Championship at the moment. Drew McIntyre wasn’t even on that show, and Orton may have inadvertently established himself as the best possible option out there.

shrug my shoulder.

all the rest

• Ronda Rousey decided she wanted to be a fighting hero, so instead of talking a lot (which she’s getting better at, by the way!) she released an open-ended challenge. Raquel Rodriguez, after winning her SmackDown solo match two weeks ago, answered the call. They had a match that was a million times better than anyone could reasonably expect, with Rousey eventually holding but shaking hands with Raquel before leaving the ring. It was a great way to help put Rodriguez some sparkle before there were any real plans for her to be on the main event scene while also beating the Division Champion. Very simple and very effective.
• She also enjoyed Schutzi and him arguing backstage about why the call wasn’t answered, with Schutzi claiming Rodriguez pushed her out of the way and Alya saying Schutzi locked her in a room. They took care to explain marginal details while also starting the problem with a little behind the scenes. It’s the little things.
• Madcap Moss was given the top of the second hour to continue his trouble with Bum Ass Baron Corbin, who used the Andre the Giant Battle Royal Trophy to knock a chair into the neck of the Madcap. There were many boos, who knows how many were piped, because the crowd mix looked awful to the whole part, but Moss made a stretcher. Before he got in, Corbin stopped him and said “You’re going to MOSSpital.” ha ha. he is. He is.
• Sasha Banks and Naomi successfully defended the women’s tag team titles against Shayna Baszler and Natalya in a match that fell short of most women’s tag matches in recent times. He was good enough for what he was, but it makes sense why he put him in this show where he was.
• Butch won a match and went straight into the crowd. He came back and celebrated, smiling madly. Butch is great.

Decent enough view.

Grade: C +

Your turn.