SmackDown Recap & Reactions (March 10, 2023): United Front

je uso returned friday night smackdown this week as a united front with The Bloodline, next to his brother, Jimmy. He had come to explain why he liked Sammy Zayn.

Because he had to.

“I don’t want to do it. But I had no choice. Because (Jimmy) is my blood.

Says it all, doesn’t it?

As much as anything else, it means that Kevin Owens was absolutely right. No matter how much Sami wanted to be a member of the group, he was never their blood and he never would be. Jay repeated the same words in the same show.

He blamed Sami for everything, saying that if he hadn’t been so selfish none of this would have had to go down like this. But he remained human as he also lashed out at the fans because “you don’t know what I’m going through.” There was something deeply personal here that connected the character and the story as a whole. it was very nice.

Eventually, he turned his attention to Cody Rhodes, who, not knowing it, was in the building and made an appearance once he heard his name. They tried to provoke him into a fight, and that’s when Zayn hit the scene to start a huge brawl, which spilled into the crowd.

He made it back to the ring so that the babyfaces could clean their heels and stand tall while the show went off the air. The commentary wondered whether Rhodes had made a grave mistake by involving himself in this side of The Bloodline’s business.

Owens, for his part, was nowhere to be seen.

They’re doing a good job of weaving the two storylines together, and it’s looking more and more like WrestleMania 39 is where we could see the downfall of The Bloodline. But I’m still struggling to see how they incorporate Owens back and favor Sami considering where he still stands. He has six shows left to do it.

Wouldn’t it be cool if Cody Rhodes, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens all held the gold and closed out WrestleMania?

everyone else

• The show began with Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus vs. Karrion Cross vs. L.A. Knight vs. Xavier Woods in a Fatal 5-Way to determine who would advance to challenge Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 39. I want to start by pointing out that Knight was once again really well received and I hope the right people are recognizing the potential there. He didn’t win here but has Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal WINNER written all over him. The actual winners were, well, both Drew McIntyre and Sheamus, who scored a pinfall victory at the exact same time. The referee argued what to do while both men argued about it and he eventually said that Adam Pearce would have a decision to make about it. That came down to McIntyre vs. Sheamus the following week to decide who earns the title shot, which is actually a good way to get there, meaning they’ve been strong enough to earn it fairly. Must have been hot.
• Rey Mysterio was announced as the first official inductee into this year’s Hall of Fame class. Naturally, his son Dominic showed up to protest him, saying he was ashamed to be his son before he could thank him for the honor. This led to Legado del Fantasma, in which Santos Escobar supported a man with whom he stood as a legend that he looked up to. A six-man tag ensued, a match Judgment Day won as Dom kicked his father, who tried to respond and inadvertently caused a distraction that Damian Priest took advantage of. After this, Dom once again called his father a deadbeat and even said that he should have been Eddie Guerrero’s child. We retaliated and got a little closer to Ray, but he repeated once again “I’m not going to fight you!” The story is still great, and Ray is wonderful as the estranged father who doesn’t want this to happen to his son.
• The Viking Raiders defeated Ricochet and Braun Strowman in a match that took longer than you’d expect, but it was way better than you thought you’d get out of a televised tag match like this. They’ve been flirting with the Raiders as top contenders since their fresh coat of paint, and this could help send them down the path of becoming challengers after WrestleMania. In the meantime, is it time to start thinking about a Strowman and Ricochet split?
• Charlotte Flair asked Adam Pearce for a match on this show, seeing that we are so close to WrestleMania, so she put her up against Shotzi. Shortly after the match, Rhea Replay came to hang out outside the ring and saw it all go down. He saw Flair tap Shotzi with the Figure Eight. Afterward, she jumped into the ring and called Charlotte insecure and promised to take a shot at the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Flair’s response? While Ripley has improved, so has Charlotte and she will do more than anyone, man or woman, because she takes this business seriously. It was nice to see these two come together but am I the only one who doesn’t feel that kind of tension for a big title match? Hopefully that will change in the coming weeks.

It was an interesting show if only because they didn’t spread themselves too thin on everything, doing fewer segments but giving more time to those segments.

It was a good show.

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