WWE SmackDown Review: Cody Rhodes Challenges AJ Styles to an 'I Quit" Match

This is w w E Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the w WE
podcast, the one that everybody wants me sixteen just as it is my ard.
You're gonna acknowledge me all night. Thing your matters, and welcome to
this week's SmackDown Review with me Michael Twentyman. And you know, I've been
tagged in again by Michael Ritter. As you know last week he when he
finished the episode, he was packing his studio up to move house. And
yeah he's moved house, but he hasn't got any internet thing, so he's
he's asked us to cover this week's episode. And if you don't know who
I am, you know I've helped Mike out over on the Football Function podcast,
had to cover the international games with the International Reef Report episodes and also
currently trying to drop a weekly reef As Rivalries episodes where I'm covering rivalries in
the NFL between players for players and teams for teams. You know, go
and check them out over at the Football Function because now it's the off season,
there's a lot of interesting sort of history lesson episodes coming up. You
know, Mike's doing a team of Destiny series where he's going back at previous
Super Bowls. I think the the last one he did was see nineteen ninety
New York Giants, you know. So yeah, if you're interested, and
I could definitely go and check Michael out over on the Football Function. I've
also helped Michael out a few months back when he attended SmackDown in Dallas.
Uh. I covered that episode because it was away for it and you know
you might see me lurking about in the discord under the name grim Reefer.
So I'm recording this episode from Warrington in the UK, which is situated twenty
minute train ride east, twenty minute train ride west in between Manchester and Liverpool,
pretty much bang on in the middle, just on the M six and
I'm recording this first thing Saturday morning. I do try to stay up and
watch it till three o'clock in the morning. I usually end up falling a
sleep just before the finishes, which I did again last night, so I
had to sort of rewatch the end again this morning when I when I woke
up, and you know, I think we've got an all right episode of
SmackDown here. It's you know, it's telling the story is pretty good.
Still a bit you know, like there's one extra bit of star power needed
to make this the shows a lot better. And you know, I agree
with Dono from Scotland's investigations in the mail bag with all the QR codes that
you know, Uncle Howdie and the White Six is going to come back at
Class of the Castle and so i'd I expect them to go to SmackDown.
And that's just where I think this. You know, the SmackDown is going
to start getting a bit more, a bit more interesting. I mean,
yeah, I don't have the time to look, you know, check all
these QR codes and look into the meaning of it. So you know,
that breakdown that Dono from Scotland did in that last mail bag was highly appreciated,
and yeah, to me, it makes sense for them to go to
SmackDown and you know even possibly maybe even start something with l A and Night.
If I remember right that the that the was it Mountain Jewe Match or
dark match or whatever it was at Ruble It wasn't here. It was the
last match pretty white hard. But I think if I remember right, the
end, didn't Uncle Howdy dive off something onto La Night and then they both
disappeared in a weird fashion. I can't remember. Yeah, so let's get
into this week's SmackDown review, which came from Louisville, Kentucky, and thanks
to digit Cuzmo for the location breakdown in Discord as usual and well, this
this episode started off with the usual recap videos of AJ Styles pretending to retire
and you know, beating down Cody Roads, which I thought was brilliant.
It's actually I think that's because I'm not a big fan of Cody Roads myself.
I'm not gonna lie, but I do like the way that now he's
the champion, we get to see a lot of fun beat him up and
you know, try and embarrassing him and things like that. So that's the
part that I'm looking forward to in this Cordy title run and a J Styles
doing that, it's just brilliant. Starting their off perfect as far as I'm
concerned. And you know, then we had the the new Bloodline come out
for the anointment of Toma Lowe into the into the Bloodline and Paul, heyman,
oh my god, this guy serves an Oscar is shivering wreck is absolutely
petrified and it's it's just brilliant work from Paul Herman. But you know,
you've got you've got solos of core coming down as you know, I'm glad
he wore a black jacket because when he's wearing that red jacket and he's wearing
the really contrast black and red where you know, the suits that he's wearing
makes him look a bit like a you know, circus ring master. And
I'm glad he came out in all black with red shoes. You know,
that was a nice little touch. But yeah, he got tongue, he
got tongue a lower and then tama tongue, you know, walking down with
Paul him and looking absolutely petrified. New graphics with the everything just looked right.
And what I did like about this segment was that darkened the stadium around
and I also liked the you know that a lot of signs last night that
was aimed towards what was going on, and there was a lot of like
fake tribal chief signs, you're not the head of the table, or you're
not my head of the table, and boodline sucks signs that it all just
added to the tension that was building up in this promo. And I think
they execured it excellently, and this promo starts with him and he reluctantly having
to announce that Solo is now the head of the table until Roman Rings returns.
And then did the crowd break out into loads of we want Roman chance.
They did quite a lot in this segment, but this, Yeah,
and then I'm just gonna check my note to you because I've write this down
in a specific order because i know I'm gonna mess it up. And he
announces that Tamatonga is being re anointed into the bloodline, and from now on
he will not just be known as Tamatonga. He will now be known as
Tamatonga the right hand Man, which massive booze big smiles on soloscor Paul Haman's
looking a shame that he's actually had to, you know, give tama Tonga
the title of right hand man. And then he points over to the gentleman
on his left and and you know, introduces Tongualore as the infamous tongue Lore.
You know. Then and then they both anointed into the bloodlin. And
this is where it gets gives brilliant h you know, Paul, both of
them go and stand pretty much shoulder his shoulder pen and Paul Haman in and
while he's quivering, he's trying to close out the promo. Your source Core
takes to the mic and says that, you know, Paul Haman should be
thanking them for saving him against Kevin Owens, and you know he's PAULI Heaven
say thank you, infamous tongue lower and thank you Tamatonga. You know,
then he missed out right hand man and Tamatonga gives him the stead and he's,
oh, thank you Tamatonga right hand man. And then Tamatanga's response is
the only reason basically that we saved It was by order of the tribal tief,
which makes this story. You know what's going to come with this.
He's going to be brilliant. Paul Hyman is going to be petrified for the
next six months until Romans return, and it's going to be okay after.
It's going to be one of them storylines where when Soulo's box turned, Tamatonga
is going to be constantly picking up at Paul Hyman and it's just going to
be brilliant. Kevin Owens us A hits and Kevin Oyans comes out what I
liked was he was still strapping his arms up as he was coming out.
You know, he ripped the tape off fruit inside before it ran down to
ring, and you know, he starts beating them all down, and then
they all start beating Kevin Ohans down, and the Street Profits surprisingly come marching
out. Well, not surprisingly they've had issues with the blood Line, but
I was expecting Brandy, but I suppose that that's all gone by the bye
now. But yeah, you know, they all start beating down on each
other, and Kevin Owens and the Street Profits get the better off the blood
Line and they end up retreating up the couple up the ramp while Kevin Owens
and Street Profits stare them down, which will not find out. So it
leads up to a six man tag as the main event for this episode.
But we then get Jake car Gill and Bianca bellat versus is Indie Heartwell and
Candice lar Rate And I think this was originally supposed to be a singles match,
but there's As the entrances were going on, there was a little backstage
segment playing in the corner, you know, shown in the harp candasll Ray
complaining to Nickoldas and he's You's what I'm liking about Nickollleas as well. He
just turns around and says, well, do you know what if you complain?
And then it's a tag match, as simple as that. And I'm
liking this. This general man joined Nickoldas's he's not taking any crap of anyone.
And this was a good match. You know. Jake Cargill's shown how
strong she is. Where she picked candasller Ray up held her above her head
and threw her. It was like she just picked up like a you know,
like a pool noodle, like one of them floats that you wrap around
yourself so you don't drown. But yeah, that what I did. I'm
sort of picking up you know. Banka Bella is sort of shown Jake Cargill
as she's in the ring what she should be doing and stuff like that,
you know, when they even when they're prancing about with the titles, Jake
Cargo kept on picking up the wrong title beyond Belle. He had to keep
swapping it with her, and then she was saying, look now it's time
that you go around and showed the title off instead of just standing there.
So still a little bit of work for Jade to do, but you know,
you can see the improvement work by week. And I mean some of
the moves that she is pulling off, if she can get them more fluid
and you know, just floating from move to move, it's gonna look very,
very impressive. But yeah, this was an okay, okay match.
As soon as the bell rang, either Dawn and Alba Fire came out from
one side of the ring beat you know, behind the commentators, and so
he's Stark and Shane Bears look petered at the at the ramp and it just
basically Stead stared them down the full fight. And know there's some good tag
team maneuvers from Bianca and Jade. I don't know what that one was called
at the end that they did, but that that was very impressive where they
were just playing Candae way around like a rag doll. Yeah, but this
match went as expected, told the story needed to. You know, he
got the beat down at the end and the unhold union and so he started
to share the base. I really wish that start giving tap teams tag team
names, because if you've got two tag teams that haven't going to name,
you've got four stars that you've got to you know, get the names out
instead of just you know, this later comes out that I think it's going
to be a triple threat between See, this is the problem I was just
done about before, between the Champions, the other ones and the Unholy Union.
There we go. If they're only going to name one Clash of the
Castle, and this makes sense that you know, the Unholy Union are there.
They're full Scottish tag team. So yeah, it seems that they're going
to be loading the Clash of the Castle line up with with Scottish wrestlers.
You've got now the Unholy Union and then you'll have you know, Pipe Kniving
and Bailey and also Drew versus Damien Priest. And the next match is a
singles match between Johnny Gargano and Grayson Waller and yeah, this was a good
match and you know, both came down with the respective tag partners of Tamassa
Champion and Austin Fiery and well I've noticed I noticed at this point, like
you know, Ta Massa Champer looked quite sharply. He was well trimmed in
his beard, he had jeans. Only just looked odd because you used to
seeing him all scruffy and acting like a maniac. He was just weird seeing
him jeans, and you know, they had had a vest on and everyone
seemed very shiny. I don't know what it was. It's like everyone had
been like freshly shaved and you know, all trimmed out nice and shiny and
sparkle. And yeah, it's sort of like it is sort of given a
little bit of the UFC sort of cross over there, and you know,
with the way of the visuals and the cameras of the US and I noticed
in this the camera angle where they're at the bottom rope a bit like what
they're do in the UFC when there's a submission going on on the floor.
It's yeah, it's I can see the benefits of this t G OR merger
and it it is all start to look really good. But yeah, everyone
was looking shin, even Cody Roads in his backstage segments, which I'm you
know, I haven't missed them out. I'm going to do all them at
once when it when I get to the to the end of it. But
you know, Jack cardon bell Air, I don't know whether they like baby
Order or something, but they've definitely done something to make them stand out a
little bit more look, a bit more shiny. Well, you know,
this was all right. Matches was a good match and both guys are absolutely
fantastic, good athletics and you know, a good match all around. Grayson
Waller gets a wind, and you know, they sort of relooked to the
fact of Grayson Waller and Fairy both being, you know, these sort of
selfish partners who won't help each other out. And you know that with Austin
Ferry down on the floor after after getting a knock just before the wind and
Grace and Waller's just celebrating and ignoring him, Fairy is not looking like like
he's going to be taking this much longer than you know that that would probably
be when when these dropped the belts. I'm quite happy seeing these dropped the
belts. I'm a really big tag team fan. I really like tag team
wrestling, and the know the way that it's all going, it's all on
the tag teams, tag teams coming back. Then we get like a backstage
segment, Nicolds having an absolute nightmare of a day and you know has Apollo
Cruise he got attacked by Angel and all them lot and well it's actually good
to hear Apollo Cruise with his actual voice, not putting on a Nigrudian prince's
voice, you know. And I like Apollo Cruise when he's been himself.
But he gets bit down and he gets taken out of his match, and
then La Night turns up and Carmelo Hayes turns up being his cock itself,
which, to be fair, I preferred Carmelo Hayes his other character, you
know, when he was in NXT. But you know he can't be him
all the way through, so I'm open that this version of Carmelo heres,
you know, like grows on his But yeah, so you know Nick Orders
is having an absolute nightmare of a day, just you know what, let's
have it. So then we're gonna get l A and Night versus Carmelo Hears.
Later on, well, then get a little you know like advert promo
Drew advertising clashing the castle in Glasgow, Scotland or Glasgow as I would pronounce
it. Then we get the finale of the Cody Roads promos, which you
know, I like the way they did this. Started it off early on
with just Cody Rhods prancing up and down, went for a j styles to
come by himself. And then the next one that comes along, you know,
Nick called Us appears and it's like, Cody, what you're doing,
and you know Cody is kicking off. And then the next one, Nick
called Us is sair. We've a load of security behind him, saying that
you know, there's just as a precaution, I never get to this final
one where you know, AJ Styles turns up and everything's all starting to kick
off. But you know, when the AJ Stars does turn turn up,
you know, he's standing up out of the summary of his of his four
before and Gallows and Anderson get out. Code is rushing towards her, but
he's surrounded by security and Gallows and Anderson's in between him. So he runs
back to the ring and orders a J Styles to come out, which it
does, and basically he says, you know you've got your match against Clash
of the Castle, but it's going to be a I Quit match, not
any ordinary match. And you know it's he said, I'm gonna make you
say what you should have said last week, and that's I quit. And
Nickoldas again here he is, He's like, yeah, do you know what
I like it? It's giving it big thumbs up. Is I really like
nickolled this? I think he's he's doing brilliant on this. Yeah. And
then we get the Ellen Knight and Carmelo Hayes March, which all knows a
good match. LA and Knight ends up winning as he should through a weird
reverse pinning combination that gets a free counter, which leaves Carmelo Hayes like before
I fold that he's that he lost it. But then Ella and Knight goes
and grabs a headset and because earlier I forgot to mention before that he was
looking for Logan Paul and apparently Logan Paul is in LA had a Tetris competition
or something. So l A and k I grabs all of the of the
mic and basically says, if Logan Paul's not coming to SmackDown, he's going
to bring the SmackDown to him. Now you know, no no w has
been lately. I wouldn't be surprised if Ella and I appears at this Tetris
competition and jumps Logan Paul, maybe even costs him from from being Tetris World
champion, who knows. But what was good it was the athleticism of Carmelo
Hayes a few times where it you know, like reversed being thrown and landed
on his feet to just being cocky and he did good. He did good.
I don't really like this, this cocky new character of him, but
I appreciate Carmelo Hayes for what he is and he is excellent in the ring.
There again an interesting segment backstage of Nia Jackson Tiffany Stratton, and Tiffany
Stratton's like, you know, congratulating Kni Jackson saying that she's got her back.
You know, we've noire been the queen of the ring and her being
the princess of a ring that no one would be able to stop them,
which is strange. Someone sucking up to Nia Jackson as Naia turns to walk
away, you know, she's ends up face to face with Miching and Mitching
swills her with a I don't know if it was water, but it actually
looked like it was a coke with ice, and you know, she gets
thrown over the table, but because there's ice everywhere, na Jackson skips,
falling on a face. It's it's quite daft really, But then we get
a promo, you know, from Bailey and Pipe and Even, and I'm
liking this new Pipe and Even. It's when you look at the dynamics of
what she's doing with Chelsea Green, it's sort of like when Pipe and Even
first came when the you know the name the doom Drop and Jews with Eva
Marie. You know, it's like quite a similar dynamic. Broonie. They've
got it right this time. You know, they've got the balance right.
You know, Chelsea Green isn't as self centered and well, no, no,
that's probably the wrong word. She isn't as much as Evan Marie and
they're not really displaying Piper Niven as much as well when they added as jew
Drop. So yeah, there was a decent promo from Pipe and Neven.
We haven't really seen her give that type of promo before. And I think
she did all right. She did well. She's confident. You know,
she was saying about how she was a champion before she came w E and
you know around around the world in Japan and everything, and yeah, no
good. I like to see this push for Pipe and I think she's she's
she's doing very good job as well. At the moment. Then we get
another like a video message from Logan Paul is. You know, they get
prepared and for his Tetris competition, and yeah, he gives a load of
Tetris analogies to el A Knight and as I still think, because they pushing
how much that Logan Paul's at a Tetris event and elle A and Knights saying
he's going to bring the SmackDown to them are but I really am expecting Early
Night to turn up and a Tetris event. You know, where's a load
of gigs plain Tetris, and Early Night just comes in and starts bringing down
Logan PAULA think it'll be quite good entertainment, to be fair. Then we
get the main event of the evening, which you know was set up earlier
on the six man tag between the Bloodline and Kyo and the Street Profits,
and you know, as I expected this again a decent match, you know,
that good pace from both sides really, you know, the athleticism as
well from the Street Profits and even Keio you know, the like a dude
that size and everything is just great out of Ko. We know this ends
in disqualification really when Solo brings out a chair, but you know when SmackDown
goes off the air. It finishes with the blood line and and tall after
you know, they all beat down the street profits and then put Key off
through the announcers table. So it was a good episode of SmackDown. It
did where it needed to be, like the one before, the last one,
before the clash at the Castle, so you know it's it's setting all
that up nicely in Glasgow and yeah, it's just it was just really business
as usual. There was some good spots, so I don't really think there
was that many really bad spots, which makes a change. You know,
if you're not going to have loads of amazing spots, at least don't have
any bad spots. And I don't think the achieved. I think they I
think they've got it going steady and they're actually telling the story correctly, and
you know, due to all the injuries and you know, just let people
have a little bit of a rest really before they start ramping it up for
some song, which I think is all going to happen at the end of
class at the Castle. I think, you know, Uncle Audy will come
back and he'll go on too SmackDown. I would imagine Road doesn't need to
be any more stacked than what he already is. It's SmackDown's the one that
needs that little bit of help. And if the rumors are true, yeah,
if the rumors are true, If anyone does know me a little bit,
I am a big fan of Dexter Loomis. I think he's brilliant,
just his dead pants stare is. If he comes back, I will be
so happy. I've been checking the releases. I was really upset that Cameron
Grimes got released, but yeah, I haven't seen Dexter Lumacs. And apparently,
according to all these QR codes, you know, Dexter Llumacy is part
of the White Six, which I'll be really happy if he is. And
so that is it for this week's episode of SmackDown. Mike should be back
up and running as per usual for you next weekend or next Friday, which
would be the episode before Class of the Castle. I really wish I could
have got tickets for it. I'm not paying them prices. I think that
I've just announced individual tickets, but I haven't even bothered looking because I am
going on holiday the weekend, the choosday before that, and you know,
worrying to Glasgow is a bit of a trek, maybe about four I was
on train or something so I could easily get up. But we've gone on
holiday a couple of days after That's yeah, I kind of had them prices.
I even looked at usc USC's coming to Manchester at the end of next
month, and the tickets were announced yesterday and I know, I sort of
forgot that they were released at ten o'clock and I missed part of the sale.
But the cheapest ticket I could find was six hundred and forty four pounds
and that was in like the nose bleeds. It's thought of Jesus. Take
You're definitely making some money with these overseas, not just in wrestling, but
in the UFC as well. So please go over to the Football Function and
you know, check out my Rivalry and International reef shows, and also check
out my Contender's work that they do in the off season and during the season.
You know, they break down the weeks games brilliantly preview and breakdown the
off season work with the is a Team of Destiny where they're covering the years
of the Super Bowl. They're just brilliant, especially if you if you like
the history of the NFL. Yeah, and there's a lot of good stuff
over there. If you like the college football, there's CM over there,
and he does an excellent job with college football. I want it to get
into college football. Never really at the time. Seem keeps me up to
date. It perfectly is excellent work goes on over there. So with that
being said, I will hopefully speak to you guys again and thanks for listening
from me. Michael twenty one Stiffly Everyone, Stiffly, thanks for listening to
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