WWE SmackDown: 2/4/2022

It’s the SmackDown after the Royal Rumble! And boy was this show definitely inferior to this week’s episode of Raw on Monday. Now don’t get me wrong, there were indeed some fun segments sprinkled in this show but overall fell flat compared to Raw. Well let’s not waste any time and dive straight into SmackDown from this week with….

Segment 1: I acknowledge… THAT YOU’RE NEXT

Earlier this week, reports came in that WWE Hall of Famer and WCW legend Goldberg would be making his return to compete for the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns and as it turned out, that’s what exactly happened. After the Bloodline, accompanied by Paul Heyman once more, made their way the ring; Heyman definitely had a lot to say about his former advocate, which of course was Brock Lesnar. Heyman proclaimed that Lesnar’s idea of wanting to unify both world titles as a foolish move on the part of the Beast and how Lesnar choosing Reigns as his opponent for WrestleMania was, once again, a poor decision from Lesnar. Honestly as dominant as Reigns has been, he’s not going to be dropping the belt at Mania but of course us, the audience, want to believe that Brock may have the chance and end this historic reign. And after asking for the crowd to acknowledge their Tribal Chief, out comes one Bill Goldberg and basically threw the challenge (the match that we were originally supposed to get at WrestleMania a couple of years back but due to the pandemic, Roman had to be replaced by former WWE star Braun Strowman): Goldberg versus Roman Reigns at the Elimination Chamber payperview for the Universal title. And as much as Goldberg should NOT be receiving world title shots repeatedly, without a doubt this match will be absolutely great. Plus we’d finally be able to see both Reigns and Goldberg battle each other with promos to build up the match more. All in all, this was a good way to open off SmackDown.

Match 1: Ricochet and Cesaro vs Ridge Holland and Sheamus. (Rating: 2/5)

Originally this was just a one on one match between Ricochet and Holland, but due to Sheamus and Cesaro getting on each other’s nerves physically it was made into a tag team match between the two duos; and honestly compared to last week’s bout, this wasn’t as good. Both teams, again, are perfect together and really work well off each other but it was a match we’ve already seen twice now in which ended with the heels winning. Holland ended up winning the match for his team after hitting a Northern Grit on the Swiss Superman, Cesaro for the pinfall victory.

Match 2: Aliyah vs Natalya. (Rating: 2/5)

Again this was another repeated match in which the results were basically identical. This was now the third victory Aliyah holds over Natalya but it was in the expense of via count out, as Nattie wasn’t able to beat the 10 count and continue the match. Aliyah is impressive, however; and she clearly is capable of working really good matches but this feud with Natalya should really just end. This was interesting however as Nattie wants a rematch on next week’s show but the only way to win would be via pinfall or submission; so they definitely should give Aliyah a clean pinfall win instead of just using to win via a roll up as in their first encounter.

Match 3: The New Day vs Los Lotharios. (Rating: 3/5)

This was surprisingly a very fun throwaway match and it reminded me of how well Big E and Kofi work as a tag team. Garza and Carrillo really haven’t done much to leave an impression as a tag team that should be taken seriously but their chemistry is honestly on par as the New Day’s, both men really work well off one another and should definitely do more if given the opportunity! The match was won by of course the New Day after a Big Ending to Garza for the victory.

Final segment: Rousey makes her decision… with Flair.

After a week of build up and anticipation to see who Ronda Rousey would choose at WrestleMania, we finally get our answer! And it’s none other than Charlotte Flair to everyone’s surprise to say the absolute least. These two women have only had one match against each other (excluding the triple threat main event match with Becky at WrestleMania in 2019) and it definitely ended with Rousey winning, but via disqualification after Flair attacked her viciously with a kendo stick and steel chair. That was the first time ever in her WWE career that we saw Rousey take so much abuse, and it was against a heel nonetheless. So on a technicality Rousey does have a victory against Flair but from a story perspective it would make sense to why Ronda would choose Charlotte as she was the first person to ever make Rousey look weak. Not even Becky was able to prove that, even though she was the one that first physically left a mark on Rousey. Overall I am looking forward to Rousey vs Flair 2 and really am hopeful for Rousey to come away the winner so she could focus on Becky at a later time.

Final rating: 3/5