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WWE SmackDown Results, Winners, Live Grades, Reaction, Highlights After SNME Tampa
Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of WWE SmackDown on May 30.
Following his return at Saturday Night's Main Event, Cody Rhodes made his first appearance on SmackDown since losing the WWE title to John Cena at WrestleMania 41 to address his future.
We also got two more Money in the Bank qualifying matches. The men's side featured Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes vs. Jacob Fatu while the women's side had Jade Cargill vs. Nia Jax vs. Naomi.
Let's take a look at everything that happened on Friday's episode of SmackDown.
Nia Jax vs. Naomi vs. Jade Cargill
1 of 7
After a quick recap of what took place at SNME last weekend, we got the usual shots of Superstars arriving at the stadium. When we went into the arena, Bianca Belair came out for a bit of a homecoming celebration in her hometown.
Belair said she is still injured but wanted to remind everyone that she is still the EST. Naomi came out to a lot of boos and said she is glad to see Bianca back on SmackDown.
Naomi said all she wants is Belair's forgiveness. She got a little emotional saying she just wants to fix what happened. Then she revealed that she broke into Belair's parents' house and looked through her photos.
Naomi threatened Bianca, which led to Cargill's music hitting and her marching to the ring. She and Naomi immediately started brawling. This led into the women's MITB qualifier that also included Jax.
We returned from a break to see the match already in progress. Nobody was able to keep the upper hand for too long until Jax overpowered both opponents.
They fought through another break into the next segment, so the first half hour of the show was dedicated to Belair's promo and this bout.
The EST's promo segment was a good way to kick off the show in her home of Knoxville, and it made sense to flow into the MITB qualifying match. The bout itself was relatively uneventful but had a couple of fun spots.
In the end, Naomi scored the win by pinning Jax to earn her spot in the MITB match.
Result: Naomi defeated Jax and Cargill
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
—Cody's dog always gets a pop.
—Belair had two fingers in a splint, so she is still nursing a bit of an injury.
—Naomi is a veteran. Trying to pin someone who is basically under the bottom rope is something she should not be trying at this stage in her career.
R-Truth vs. JC Mateo
2 of 7
R-Truth had a brief encounter backstage with Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu and JC Mateo that led to truth challenging JC to a match.
Sikoa accompanied Mateo to the ring but Fatu was nowhere to be seen. Mateo scooped up Truth and put him in the corner for some shoulder thrusts to get the match started.
Truth got in a few moves before Mateo finished him off with Tour of the Islands for the win. This was short and little more than a glorified squash. Jimmy Uso showed up with a chair but he ended up getting taken out by Mateo, which upset Solo because he wants Jimmy back in the fold.
Result: Mateo defeated Truth
Grade: C-
Notable Moments and Observations
—Chelsea Green was shown wearing a rainbow mask to cover her broken nose.
—The way Wade Barrett pronounced Je'Von Evans' name was funny.
—Solo was having trouble not laughing when Truth asked if Mateo was his husky son.
Los Garzas vs. Je'Von Evans and Rey Fenix
3 of 7
Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins came to the ring and gave a quick promo about leading the charge for the SD tag team division, but they were soon joined by Axiom and Nathan Frazer.
Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley showed up, and so did Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa with Candice LeRae. The Wyatt Sicks arrived and took out everyone in the ring.
After a break, one of the only tag teams that didn't get taken out by the Wyatts was in action when Angel and Berto took on Evans and Rey Fenix. All four of these men will be at Worlds Collide, so the announcers were hyping the event.
Fenix and Angel started with an exchange of strikes but quickly picked up the pace to incorporate some fast-paced action. Berto and Evans kept the same pace.
This was a fun high-flying encounter. Angel, Berto and Fenix were all great, but Evans may have made the biggest impact with his first match on the main roster. Anyone who doesn't watch NXT probably came away from this impressed with The Young OG.
Ethan Page ended up interfering while the ref was distracted two different times to cost Fenix and Evans the match.
Result: Los Garzas defeated Evans and Fenix
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
—Ethan Page was on commentary for this bout.
—Penta and Fenix are teaming up with everyone except each other.
—Berto hit a beautiful springboard crossbody. It was so simple but the way he floated through the air was perfect.
—Fenix almost messed up a hurricanrana but they made it work.
Zelina Vega vs. Alba Fyre
4 of 7
Following a backstage segment with Green and Nick Aldis, Alba Fyre ended up in a non-title match against Zelina Vega. Green and Piper Niven were at ringside.
Fyre was aggressive out of the gate and took control for a few moments, but a headscissor takeover turned it around in Vega's favor.
Vega had Fyre in position for a 619 but was tripped by Niven while Green distracted the ref. We returned from a break to see the United States champion beginning to make a comeback.
While this match didn't have any notably bad moments, it also didn't have anything that felt spontaneous or surprising. Just about every move and story beat could be predicted as the match progressed because they followed such a familiar pattern.
After Green almost made her nose injury worse, Vega hit the Code Red on Fyre to get the pin and the win.
Result: Vega defeated Fyre
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
—Green was doing a great job playing up her injury.
—Fyre has adjusted well to this new character. It felt so random when she was paired with Green but it's been working.
Jacob Fatu vs. Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes
5 of 7
Damian Priest came out after a commercial break to talk about beating Drew McIntyre and moving on. He addressed Fatu and said he is proud of what he has accomplished, but he doesn't respect who he hangs out with.
As he was leaving, Fatu came out for his MITB qualifying match against Andrade and Hayes. The Miz still accompanied Hayes to the ring even though they appeared to have some friction during a backstage segment.
Fatu and Andrade took out Melo before trading some offense. Even though all three men got in some moves, Fatu definitely felt like the most dominant.
We have seen Melo and El Idolo tear the house down several times, and Fatu's ability is no secret, so these three managed to put on the best match of the night by a pretty wide margin.
Fatu was playing to the crowd quite a bit, so he felt like more of a babyface here than he has in any previous match. Fatu took himself out for several minutes by crashing through the barricade, so Melo and Andrade were free to reignite their feud.
Sikoa and Mateo came down once Fatu was back in the fight. Jimmy Uso showed up and took out Mateo. During the mayhem, Andrade was able to pin Melo for the win. Fatu clearly blamed Sikoa for his loss.
Result: Andrade defeated Fatu and Hayes
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
—Giulia had a nice video package before this match.
—Barrett claimed The Miz got Melo this match on commentary.
—Fatu dragging The Miz into the ring when he tried to trip him was hilarious.
—Fatu had the crowd in the palm of his hand before he put himself through the barricade.
Face to Face
6 of 7
The final segment on this week's show featured Rhodes and Cena meeting face to face, but before Cena came out, Cody had a little time with the crowd.
Rhodes brought out Jey Uso, which sent us into the final commercial break of the night. When we returned, Cena came out and ripped into both men for wanting to be like him.
Cena brought out Logan Paul and put him over on the mic. After a bunch of trash talk, Cena and Paul looked like they were going to have a disagreement before it broke down into a huge brawl with all four men.
The babyfaces beat up the heels to send the crowd home happy. This was definitely longer than it needed to be, but it was fine for what it was.
Grade: C
Notable Moments and Observations
—LA Knight making fun of the announcers overusing the phrase "Punching their ticket" was great.
—Teasing tension between Cena and Paul means one of them will probably leave the other high and dry during the tag match.
The Final Word
7 of 7
Friday’s SmackDown was a somewhat lackluster show as a whole, but it had one standout match and a few notable storyline developments.
The best match was easily the triple threat with Hayes, Fatu and Andrade. They had plenty of time to work and made it the most exciting thing we saw all night.
Andrade and Naomi won spots in the men’s and women’s MITB matches, but the biggest development might have been the growing fiction between Fatu and Sikoa reaching a boiling point. It looks like Fatu’s patience has run out, so one more incident will likely be the last straw.
Evans and Fenix vs. Los Garzas was a close second for Match of the Night. The show ended with Cena, Paul, Rhodes and Uso hyping their Money in the Bank tag match in a promo segment that felt too long even by WWE standards.
You wouldn't miss much if you skipped this week's show, but it had a couple of bright spots worth checking out.
Grade: B-
.jpg?w=600 "Live Grades for SmackDown 🔡")
