Welcome to the ring, it's rich and adam.
Breaking down the fights with flair and passion.
Tag teams grappling, belts are clashing.
Finishes and factions catching action.
Hi, I'm rich and hey, I'm Adam.
Welcome to this week's episode of
finishes and factions smackdown edition
available on all your favorite podcast platforms as an audible
or here on YouTube where you get to hang out with us as well.
So without further ado, let's crack in a smackdown.
We have got an opportunity to sit and discuss this week's smackdown
which was in Portland, Oregon and the first one on Netflix as well.
Yeah, and we started off smackdown with a raw recap,
a rather comprehensive raw recap.
Yeah, it took up quite a bit of time.
I don't think necessarily we needed to go into that level of detail with raw
to sort of recap what had happened but creative choices I suppose.
It could have been worse, we could have had another promo from The Rock.
We could have, that is the one thing that was missing from the, from smackdown.
He could have gone full house and decided not to.
We did however start the night off with an in-ring Paul Heyman promo.
We did and as normal Paul Heyman manages to grab a crowd at the start of an event
and really hook them in and yeah, this promo was no different.
Especially with the contents of it as well,
the celebration of Roman Reigns winning his tribal combat against Solo Sikoa
getting the Oolah Fahla back.
Yeah, I mean his unequivocal delight at the fact that he no longer has to answer
to Solo Sikoa
I mean can you blame the guy?
No, not really.
Well, it's almost like picking the bad boss based on sort of how they treat,
how their tenure as tribal chief went.
I mean yes, Roman Reigns spent like an unholy amount of days as WWE champion
in his initial tenure as tribal chief.
It's just over a thousand.
Yeah, Solo Sikoa just generally tended to treat everybody that little bit better
but just didn't have the, didn't have the strap out to be able to keep up with his run.
Yeah, but no, it was nice to see that, you know, Heyman bought out Cody Rhodes
to basically rub it in his face that Roman was entering the Royal Rumble
just to steal his title at WrestleMania.
But it started off at least as a, it was a very respectful conversation in fairness.
I mean, it definitely was.
But then that's normally Heyman's style.
Not really.
My experience of Heyman's style is that he can be quite sort of brass balls about it.
He will, he will find those little sensitive spots and just give him a good poke.
He does give him a poke but he's never over the top with it.
And he's never overly disrespectful with it.
He's normally pretty, he toes a line.
Yeah, fair play.
But yeah, as I think you alluded to, we had Roman Reigns,
Paul Heyman announced that Roman Reigns intends to enter the Rumble.
So we know at least two entrants now for the Royal Rumble being Roman Reigns and John Cena.
And yeah, this was a quite an action-packed promo for the beginning of the match
because not only did Cody Rhodes come out, but Kevin Owens interrupts and
Where you get one, you get the other at the moment.
They are very much sort of joined at the hip.
It's, yeah, they are pushing this story to the nth degree.
But they've got a ladder match at Rumble.
Maybe that will be the end of that little rivalry.
Well, that one's for both titles, isn't it?
You've got the winged eagle that Kevin Owens is currently running around with.
And then you've got the...
Right, so obviously you've got Cody in the ring with Paul Heyman.
And then Kevin Owens decides he's coming out.
He's got a bit of an issue with the bloodline.
He's building heat for his ladder match at Rumble with Cody.
And those two just go ham.
I mean, with Kevin Owens on a bloodline crusade and Drew McIntyre on a bloodline crusade,
are we heading towards not necessarily a rivalry, but are we heading towards like,
either a partnership or a faction of some kind?
Suggesting we could end up with Drew and Kevin Owens in a tag team, so to speak.
Potentially.
It's been an interesting perspective of it.
It's not one that I personally thought of, but it's definitely an interesting perspective coming up that way.
I mean, it leaves the door wide open for it as far as I'm concerned.
And it would give you something to start off with a 5v5 match somewhere,
or quite a big sort of...
I think I'm not necessarily like a Bat Royale, but if you get quite a high team, one fall in it.
I was going to say they could end up depending on how solo Sokoa returns
and what happens with Tonga and Fatu.
It could turn into something a little bit more that way,
but it's difficult to know how that one would play out.
But speaking of Tonga and Fatu, we saw those during this promo as well.
They seem to slide in the ring unnoticed to confront Heyman, the wise man.
There are a lot of things for Heyman at the moment.
Well, he's out there rubbing it in solo Sikoa's face essentially, that, haha, you lost.
They were his bodyguards, I suppose, so they were his enforcers.
But the commentary team made a big thing about saying throughout the night that they are without a master at the moment
because of solo Sikoa's absence.
Since he lost the Ula Fala, he's gone off licking his wounds a little bit, hasn't he?
Yeah, he has. And I don't think anybody can really blame him.
But then we saw Jimmy Uso run in, Uso coming in to save the wise man.
And then we just had a, there was loads of people in the ring by the end of that promo.
That was just an allowable rule.
And Cody coming back to the ring, it just, yeah, complete chaos to start smackdown.
Any people you didn't have in that promo were security. No security at all.
But that's because all the security was backstage for the next promo we saw,
which was basically Tonga and Fatou battling against backstage security for everybody's favourite Canadian wrestler at the moment.
L.A. Knight to come barrelling in, boot them out.
He made a remark, and I can't remember what it is off the top of my head.
I think it was something like, he wasn't using his inside voice, so I kicked him outside as he walked off.
That was precisely what he said.
And I must admit, it made me laugh. I chuckled.
Oh, 100%. It was pure community value.
Oh, yeah. But...
It's like a big target on his back doing that though.
Oh, 100%. I mean, it was never going to go any other way, but Sunday really was it.
No, it was not.
But then we moved into the first match, which was a women's US Championship match,
which was Mishin versus Chelsea Green as the current champion who came out with the...
He was bought by Piper Nevin.
Piper Nevin, that's right, yeah.
Looked very security-esque.
Very sort of glam security.
Very much so.
Only the way that WWE can honestly do that.
Pretty sure we saw Mae Young wear something very similar, but obviously a different size many times.
Oh, 100%.
But, yeah.
What can we say about this match really?
I mean, it's...
Chelsea Green to me was coming off.
I mean, Chelsea Green in that story, Chelsea Green is taking on a lot of heel characteristics.
I took a note of the fact that there was a lot of what good old JR used to refer to as chicken-shit heel moves.
It was a lot of in and out of the ring, a lot of ducking and diving for opportunity and all that stuff.
Whereas Mishin was doing some actually really solid technical wrestling when she could get Chelsea Green to stay in the ring long enough.
I mean, I was actually quite impressed with an early on over-the-top rope submission.
I don't know if you would have caught that as well, but...
I'm going to be brutally honest with you.
I struggled with this one and not too long into the match, I actually fell asleep.
So this is probably one of the few of the actual program that really couldn't get me enough to keep me up.
So, yeah, no, I definitely didn't see that one.
I was snoozing for that one.
Fair enough.
I mean, we finished that one with Chelsea Green retaining with another famous chicken-shit heel move,
which was gaining some extra leverage with a handful of Mishin's tights.
And yeah, that was all she wrote with that one.
Very every which way but loose way of doing it.
Yeah.
And I mean, if she is playing a heel character, then we're getting what we pay for, essentially.
Yeah.
And then it was a pre-recorded promo from earlier in the night with a SmackDown general manager, Nick Aldous.
The Motor City machine guns, pretty dangerous.
And a town downtown.
There was another team there as well, but I will be completely honest, my notes do not tell me who they are.
I believe was it not Legardo del Fantasma?
Possibly.
Because they faced off with pretty deadly in the next match.
They did.
And it was all about the pre-recorded promo was basically just setting up the back story for the next couple of matches that we see,
the first one, as you've just mentioned, was Los Garza versus Pretty Deadly.
I mean, not a bad match, but it was...
I mean, it started before the bell with a sort of brawl in the ring and sort of in and out with a lot of early sort of pin falls and kick outs.
Quite a high octane start.
It was a very sort of predictable match outcome, though.
We got one tag team, Los Garza came out with Electra and Legardo del Fantasma, who was running interference on the outside.
It went the only way it was ever going to, which was a win for Los Garza.
Yeah.
Then we moved into the third match, which was a men's US title match.
Did you notice anything different with the entrance for LA Night with the US title match?
No, I will be honest.
If you get an opportunity, go back.
They have actually started trying to rebrand LA Night in the middle of his run.
So when they introduce LA Night now, he is known as LA Night Yeah.
And the artwork on the screen that comes up and with his entrance on the big screens as well shows him as LA Night Yeah.
Oh, right. OK.
I know that Lily and Garcia, in-ring and out, had a bit of fun with LA Night.
We've had an attempt at a Yeah.
Yeah. We'll say that's now how he's introduced to the ring is LA Night Yeah.
Fair enough. OK. Yeah. No, I didn't really sort of pick up on that myself.
Go back and have a look. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Definitely go back and have a look at some stage.
But we've, yeah, LA Night versus Shinsuke Nakamura for a Men's US title.
This was a rematch as LA Night recently lost this title.
But I've got a bias on this one. I will be completely honest.
I'm not a huge fan of Shinsuke Nakamura.
He's a very, he's wrestling wise in general. He's pretty good. He's pretty good.
I'm not a credit given where credit's due.
He used to be a Jiu Jitsu specialist in MMA before he became a sports entertainer.
So the technicality, you can kind of see where he gets it from.
My issue with Nakamura has always been his lack of ability.
He's the lack of ability to cut a promo and yeah, he is, he's dull.
There we go.
I can't say that if I was booking his matches, I can't say that I'd be able to justify strongly enough the pushes that he gets.
All the title runs he has.
No, it's...
I don't get it personally.
Somebody somewhere sees something that I don't.
And do you know what? Fair play.
He's obviously doing something right because he keeps getting all these pushes.
I think as we said earlier, it's one of those cases that he was really, really good in other promotions.
But he's come to WWE and not really been able to use that same gimmick that he's had elsewhere in the same way.
And it's affected his ability to do so.
Yeah.
And I think it's very much, he runs that same sort of gimmick.
It's not much of a change when he rebrands.
No, this is it.
And the minute he's doing some kind of samurai shinobi...
Yeah, with the face mask.
The face mask, the face paint, which is a very striking image on its own. Don't get me wrong.
It looks cool.
Yeah, it's not enough to make him interesting.
No, he's not Jeff Hardy.
No, definitely not.
But yeah, I mean, there was a few spots in this match that I took note of.
I thought sort of the back and forth between L.A. Knight and Nakamura was believable.
There wasn't anything that was out of place.
We sort of returned to form of Raw rather than NXT, where we had, in NXT, we had quite a few matches where there were bits and pieces that just weren't believable enough to be true.
I mean, the exposed middle turnbuckle that we had partway through the map, the one that just went fly.
I don't remember seeing that being loosened.
It must have just pinged.
The commentary team tried to play it off like it had been loosened earlier in the match.
And I don't know if it was just I wasn't paying enough attention, but that thing went.
I mean, it went.
It was funny.
And blew off.
At first, I thought somebody had lost a boot or something.
We'll be completely honest.
But yeah.
Yeah.
We are.
We had another running by Jacob Fatou and Tamat Tonga getting a bit of a payback on L.A. Knight for.
Which I think we knew was going to happen at some point.
Like I said, you painted a target on his back when he threw them out of the building in the first promo at the start of the run.
Yeah. And it's just sort of broke down into more and more chaos because we had, I think we had Cody and Cody Rhodes and Jimmy Uso come out and restore some order.
And then Nick Aldis and a few other and a few refs and a few other guys came out which we had Cody shouting at Nick.
Come on. You know, we're here.
They're here.
We want to fight.
They want to fight.
Let's fucking fight.
Pretty much.
And that's how we ended up with the main event of the main event of the paper, that's the paper view, the main event of the, the episode.
It just sort of naturally evolved from there, I suppose.
Which is nice to see they're bringing back the off the cuff main events, you know, and then working it from that angle.
If you remember sort of 10 years ago where you'd have like an interference and then they'd have that match.
It was there.
It was then there was no like we're going to wait until this paper view or wait until that paper view.
We're fighting this week or next week at the latest.
Yeah, this is it.
It's it's a bit of instant gratification really.
Yeah, they built a lot of instant heat in this match and try to build it maybe a little bit too quickly.
It did.
It did work partly.
I mean, the crowd in Portland were loving it.
There was lots of lots of lots of chance going around that were very positive.
Lots of holy shits and this is amazing and this is awesome and with the standard things you get from a wrestling show.
Yeah, this is it.
But we had to wait a little bit for the main event to come around.
So in the meantime, we were treated to a VT promo of how Tiffany Stratton became became women's champion.
Well, that was after she cashed in her money in the bank 11 months after signing with Smackdown.
Yeah.
And yeah, kind of waited for Naomi and Naya to pretty much have as much fun as they could and then came in and finished the job.
I mean, how the money in the bank contract should be used.
Let's face it.
We've had we had a massive run when money in the bank was first introduced God God knows how many years ago where it was it was always done that way.
And don't get me wrong, they tease the hell out of the money in the bank cash in for Tiffany Stratton.
She was carrying that thing around like it was life itself and nearly cashed it in on several occasions.
And yeah, she played it well, though.
It was well presented because anytime you use it, you know, you can't really tell what's going on.
Because anytime you see that suitcase and that suitcase nearer someone else's match anything.
Oh, is that going to be are we going to get it now?
And there's so many times you think it's going to be handed in and then they go, actually, no, this is mine.
I'm keeping this.
Yeah, it plays into the psychology and we had a few instances where she was running into matches and everything running into matches with Naya Jackson.
And it was a case that she was, oh, yeah, no, no, I'm going to cash in.
I'm going to catch. Oh, no, no, no, not just yet.
Not today.
Yeah, not today. Good sir.
But yeah, I mean, the VT spoke for itself.
We know now if you didn't if you didn't catch the Smackdown the week before which Ed on YouTube for anybody outside of the US.
Which I've now found is actually on has been added into Netflix.
So if you did miss it, you've got the opportunity to go back and watch it.
So I found that out a little bit too late as well.
I watched the first half of that one really thinking it was this week's episode and it was like, whoops, my bad.
Better go back and rewatch the proper one.
I did it in the opposite order.
And it was a case that I finished watching this week's Smackdown for then Netflix to do its normal thing of, oh, we've got something else for you to watch.
Me thinking it was just a trailer and then all of a sudden this next episode starts and I was like, what?
There's two episodes. What did I miss?
And then I go back to realize, oh, wait, no, this was the one that Ed on YouTube.
Yeah.
But yeah, rolling on.
We've got fourth match.
Already. This was the second of the tag team matches, which was the Motor City machine guns, Chris Saban, Alex Shelley and 18 down under, which was, yeah.
Austin Theory and Grayson Waller.
Yeah.
Previously as far as I'm concerned used for comic value more than anything else, but I'm going to be honest.
I'm not. I didn't hate the match.
It wasn't bad to be fair.
It started off with a bit of a push for for down under. They were quite quite dominant.
But then after the first five minutes, it seemed to even out.
I think it served as a good reminder to remind everybody that.
Austin Theory and Grayson Waller are actually professional wrestlers. They're not just muppets with mouths.
It's a case that there can be both.
But it's a more it's a case that no, because Austin Theory and Grayson Waller can actually wrestle.
Oh, right. You've got me on that one.
Yeah. So eight, eight and down under a really solid showing. I mean, they didn't come out of it with the win.
I mean, Motor City machine guns are an established tag team. They've got a 20 year tenure.
Theory and Waller really didn't stand a chance with it.
I remember watching Motor City machine guns when they were in TNA and Impact Wrestling.
Yeah, a slightly different promotion, different presentation, but they were so dominant.
And the only thing that I'm a little bit I'm a little bit sad for them.
Have they done with them as they do with every other tag team they pull from other promotions,
like give them a little bit of a push and just completely destroy them.
No, that's not what I'm sad for them for that. They will do that because it's what WWE do.
But I'm sad for them, the Motor City machine guns, because I feel like they would have had so much more of a push.
Had they been had they made it to WWE sooner? Yeah.
These guys have been wrestling together for 20 years. If they'd have gotten 10 years ago, even five years ago,
they'd have had such a run because they were they were hot shit and they still are.
Don't get me wrong, they are a phenomenal tag team and have fantastic wing presence.
But it just, yeah, I just feel like they're not too old to wrestle, but I think they're they get into a point where they may be.
Not worth pushing, getting the push because they're on the more veteran side.
They'll get a championship reign. Don't get me wrong. I mean, the previous this match and the previous tag team match were a championship qualifiers.
Yeah, so you've got the number one contenders. I'm guessing will be next week, which will end up being Motor City machine guns.
And that's my prediction. I'm thinking, I mean, Los Garza, Los Garza won on the base.
They they had a solid match, but they won on the basis of outside interference.
Whereas Shelly and Saban, I just think they're going to come out of that with a big they're going to come out of that with a victory.
They're going to go to Royal Rumble, Royal Rumble, possibly elimination chamber to all of you in just a weekly episode challenge the tag champs and pick up the straps.
It's how that's going to work in my view. Yeah, I can't agree more with your number.
Speaking of the tag champs, they were featured straight afterwards in a promo between them and pretty deadly.
And I wasn't fantastically up on the storylines for this. So my understanding of what happened here was that pretty deep, pretty deadly seem to expect like DIY to
Yes, in their match or sort of guarantee a victory for them.
Something happened last week with pretty deadly given DIY a bit of help and they were expecting a back scratch back when they went in against their match and it didn't it didn't come that way.
And they were a little bit annoyed with it, which is fair enough, but you shouldn't do a favor to ask for a favor, you know.
But I think DIY have come out of this promo looking like the heel.
They come out of it looking smart dam site smarter than pretty deadly.
Oh, yeah.
But then if you look at pretty deadly's outfits, they don't look particularly smart.
No, but you can't always judge a book by its cover.
You can.
I think they I think I think even Apollo crews sort of popped onto the fact that DIY were even something pulling their pulling their pitter as it goes.
It's it wasn't.
Yeah, it's one of them.
It was strange.
It's going to degrade down eventually.
But yeah, then we're building back into back into the ring, but not with the next.
We went straight to a promo with an obviously upset Nia Jax and Candice Loray.
She was pulling Nia Jax's purse from that one trying to upset the apple cart.
So.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it would have taken much realistically what we know of Nia Jax's.
Nia Jax's personality.
She's not one to lose and doesn't like it.
Nobody likes to lose.
But I have a little bit more than the most people dislikes losing.
Yeah, Nia Jax is not going to take losing lying down and definitely not to Tiffy.
Yeah, then well, funny we mentioned funny we mentioned Tiffy.
We had in ring Tiffy time.
Yeah, that was fun.
I am.
Yeah.
She plays the character really well and it's just a hard character to watch.
I can't say what I was going to say because yeah, we've got to have certain limits on what we can say.
But.
Me, I voiced is my did my tree.
Yeah, the over the top Barbie sort of style gimmicks a little bit close to the knuckle for me.
I can work with it for a little while.
She went overboard with the sweet to the point that I felt like I might get diabetes.
Yeah.
And a little bit too overboardy with screechy as well.
That was a little bit like, oh, come on, we don't need quite as much as that.
But fair play.
Yeah, but yeah, I mean, Tiffy's running her mouth basically until Nia Jax, the.
And runs hers a little bit.
No, she's not.
No, not the immovable.
She's the irresistible force.
That's that that's Nia Jax.
Sorry.
Wrong nickname.
Who's the moveable object?
I don't know.
I might have to think about that one, but never mind.
And yeah, so Jax is basically saying, yeah, you're going to give me my title back.
Or I'm going to kick seven bells of shit out of you.
That's a which Tiffy didn't really respond.
But Bailey did.
I was going to say, I don't think she really had time to respond realistically because we had Bailey who took great pleasure in calling them both stupid, which.
Yeah, I'm not going to lie.
My personal stock in Bailey went up just with that part of that promo alone.
I am going to pull up.
So I just had a quick Google about the irresistible force and we have just managed to mistake Nia Jax Andre the giant.
No, it's different.
I dare you to say that to her face.
Yeah, I'm not that stupid.
Yeah, carry on. Sorry.
But yeah, no, so Bailey walks out calls them both stupid.
Which yeah, I mean, she think I think she makes completely valid points.
She does need to explain don't need to explain why Tiffany Stratton is coming across as stupid.
Nope.
And Nia being led astray by Tiffany just.
Yeah, makes it look stupid.
Stupid is a stupid does exactly.
But yeah, Bailey throwing her hat in the ring for the title shot.
And which is a valid shell because she was the champion before Nia held it.
So after beating the ice sky and WrestleMania for it.
Yeah.
And then we've got Naomi and Bianca Bella coming out the current women's tag champs.
Naomi was pissed for the fact that she had Nia pretty much beat until Tiffany came and cashed in.
So the fact that for the most part Bianca Bella managed to insert as she came out.
To my view, she came out in support of Naomi.
Yeah, as the tag champion with a with a tag team.
And then got into a match for a number one contender.
Without saying a word.
Yes.
She didn't say anything.
Although in fairness Nia tried having a quick start in some beef with Bella and yeah, just breaks out into a ball where we've got Nick Aldous who comes out right.
Okay, fair play.
You've all got a stake to a claim.
Yeah, go and fight it out and the winner can have their shot.
So yeah, we had another incident decision by SmackDown GM, Nick Aldous.
And that literally was the next match.
Yeah, we put them all into a fatal four way right now.
Where it basically turned into another brawl.
And all on Nia Jax occasion to be fair.
Yeah, Nia Jax got well in fairness.
It happens every time we've got a bigger superstar in the ring is that it makes sense to get rid of the biggest threat first.
Yeah, which they tried to do.
But then they kind of Bailey felt a little bit like a spare part in this sometimes because you had the tag champions in that Bailey and Nia Jax.
At one point there was always a three on one.
In fairness, this match fell really flat for me.
And it's sort of the same thing that we said about the NXT Fatal Four Way is that it could have quite easily been a triple threat.
Yeah, it's been a lot more competitive.
And in this case, it was Bianca Belair that just didn't seem to make any impact.
Because she got you got Nia Jax outside drags Belair outside with her after that.
You don't really see much.
You don't I'm not going to sit here and say that you didn't say anything from Belair.
It wasn't a huge amount and there was no highlights from her time in that match.
There's no one point that stands out for me.
Apart from maybe later on in the match where she hit Naomi with a hair on accident that was really a.
How has that not been designated a weapon yet considering she is a lot of hair.
I mean, it's all extensions.
I believe she's got that much hair.
I mean, it's possible.
But yeah, no.
But yeah, it's got to be heavy.
I mean, it's just going to be it's just going to be the density of it really isn't it.
It's it's especially as it's all wrapped up as well.
I was going to say that thing she could she could probably mean it hurt like fuck but she could probably tell her car with it.
Wrap it around the front bumper.
Break someone's kneecaps as she used it as a baseball bat.
This long and tough.
Yeah, this is it, but how is it not being classed as a weapon?
I mean, I can only assume it's because it is attached to her.
I mean.
Yeah, I've often thought this is the she often she often resorts to using it as a weapon which do you know what I'd probably do exactly the same in her position.
She can use it as a weapon.
It should be classed as a weapon.
So therefore, you know, she should be able to get away with it.
But then I suppose that works a little bit with a gimmick.
It's a little bit of a same as having a low blow, I suppose.
You know, hair with will hurt will take your eye off the game for a second, especially if you get with with that thing.
Yeah, differences is that low blows are normally done where the ref can't see them.
That layer doesn't give a shit.
I think fucking whip someone with that hair. But yeah, digressing from that.
I had a small showing from Candice Loret running interference outside, but yeah, she pulled pulled the hair of Bianca Belair.
Didn't she just kind of put her off really?
Well, it was Candice Loret that held the hair, Bianca Belair yanks it back and ends up smacking the only in the stomach for it, but ended up Bailey getting the win.
Yeah.
So Bailey is number one contender for the women's World Championship, which is next week.
Yeah.
So we don't have to wait too long for that.
No, it's there's we're getting the action thick and fast.
Then we go into promo with
the Indian Jimmy you said.
Holy Rhodes Jimmy you so just sort of reaffirming before the main.
It's it is what it is.
Cody to leave and Carmelo Hayes to come in talking is normal useless crap.
Yeah.
And Jimmy you so basically put him in this place and then it with a
you.
That is so over right now.
It's unreal.
Oh, 100% like the fact that at the end of how shows you see him and he's just listed in the middle and he's got like a couple of people and they're all doing it in the entire stadium.
It's moving.
It's brilliant.
Let's face it.
It's always the simple bits.
I mean, Daniel Bryan with the yes movement.
Yeah.
And most of them are accidental.
I mean, a yeet is not an accidental thing.
That is 100% intentional.
Oh, yeah, that was intended and it worked.
It worked.
But sometimes accidental is the best way to look at the people's elbow.
That was just the rock trying to get someone to break character and he's been using it for 20 odd years since you know, so it works.
Yeah.
But next up on the card was a promo.
Basically discussing something we've already said, which was Bailey's title shot coming up on next week's SmackDown.
The fact that Tiffy's never beaten Bailey, which suggests we could either have an upset or a title change again.
I don't think they'll take it off her too soon.
It seems a bit of a waste of a cash in to let rabbit for two weeks and then take it off her.
Let's look at the coffee king.
Pretty sure.
I'm pretty sure.
Yeah.
I forget his name.
What the person?
Who was in the Rumble for precisely about three seconds.
Wasn't it Santino Morelle?
Santino Morelle.
I kept wanting to say Alberto Del Rio, but it's not.
No, yeah, he came running down, didn't he? He went through the rope and someone closed lined him.
It came and closed lined him like three seconds later.
He basically took him straight out and he's out on the outside of the ring going, I wasn't ready.
Oh, what comedic value Santino Morelle actually has.
With there only being three weeks left to the Royal Rumble, I wonder how Kofi will escape elimination this year.
That's the one thing that happens every year.
Kofi has become a yearly tradition.
Kofi has never won, to my knowledge, Kofi has never won the Royal Rumble, but he always features in it because he always comes up with a rather interesting way of being able to save himself from elimination.
My favourite one was him body hopping the chair.
Pogo hopping the chair.
We've seen him hardcore in across the barriers.
The guardrail.
Handstand walking.
We've seen him hop on one leg, handstand walking.
Biggie catching the one year as well.
Yep. Doesn't have that option then anymore, but then we got to the main event of the evening.
The tag team match made earlier in the night between Cody Rhodes and Jimmy.
With Tamatanga and Jacob Fatou.
It was interesting to see Fatou cut a slight promo as they came out of the locker room before they went on to talk a little bit more about the Royal Rumble with their next production credits.
In fact, we've only got 22 days left until the Royal Rumble.
This is true. It helped build Fatou's character a little bit, which means that they may be looking at separating him from the bloodline a little bit.
Maybe just popping them as a tag team themselves.
Tamatanga and Jacob Fatou, they seem reasonably strong as a duo.
They've wrestled as a duo before together, haven't they?
As a duo, they work really well together.
Tamatanga's quirky.
That is one way of putting it, I suppose.
What are we saying about the main event? What were your takeaways from it?
I didn't make many notes for the main event because I got too engrossed in watching it.
I actually really enjoyed it. It was nice for me personally to find an opportunity to watch Tamatanga and Jacob Fatou wrestle properly.
For me, that was the first time I've really seen clips for the last couple of months.
Rather than having access to the network and YouTube and stuff like that.
I've not really been able to watch a lot of it, mainly through social media.
It's the first four matches that I've got to watch and I did really enjoy it.
I will say though that I was a little bit miffed by having Kevin Owens out again.
Kevin Owens, this episode of SmackDown, felt a little bit like Ava did on NXT this week.
Every time you saw Cody, you saw Kevin.
I think it might start to ruin the story eventually if they keep pushing it as hard as they are with him being attached at the hip with him.
But we've only got a couple of weeks left to wait until they fight it out for that championship.
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you. I think it took away some valuable sort of prove yourself time to Tonga and Fatou.
Jimmy Uso and Cody Rhoads, they're established. We know what to expect when they're...
Jimmy Uso is one half of the most decorated tag team of all time. Pretty sure they are now.
So it's one of those like he's definitely established.
Cody Rhoads wouldn't be wearing the strap of years if he wasn't.
He's had some brilliant feuds with Roman over the last few years building his character and building Romans at the same time.
So yeah, this is definitely for Tamatonga and Jacob Fatou and Fatou they went over was nice in a way, but probably not the best way to do it.
I would have liked to have seen them wrestle to a finish with Rhoads and Jimmy Uso rather than it felt repetitive having Kevin Owens come out again.
The distraction again. Jimmy Uso just left to fend for himself. I did feel for Jimmy. I'm not going to lie.
Fatou's animal, but I loved it. They don't call him the Samoan werewolf for no reason. Let's face it.
No, absolutely loved it. It was a great match.
But overall SmackDown first one. First one I've watched in a very long time and yeah, I feel like you were very much the same.
Any overall thoughts?
If I was to put it into comparison between the other two weekly shows this week, SmackDown's probably the second out of the three.
I think Rhoads was the best one this week. SmackDown was definitely in the middle there and NXT was by hands down the worst programming this week.
Well, that's it from me.
And from me too. Thank you all for watching.
Remember, if you've enjoyed this episode and want to be notified when another one goes live.
You can click subscribe and click the notification bell to get notified every time we upload.
Remember, like the video and leave any feedback you have in the comments.
And we'll see you next time on Finishers and Factions.
Goodbye.