This week’s SmackDown started as the situation of the Usos from last week was shown. Jey Uso ultimately reunited with his brother but also shared friendly gesture with Sami Zayn backstage. They also showed the situation from the Royal Rumble pay per view event when Jey walked out of his family.
Match 1 – Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey defeated Shotzi and Natalya
WWE Smackdown 17.02.2023 Results & Ratings
The first match of the night was booked for nine minutes and it was a pretty good match. The MMA duo dominated the most part of the match, the babyface side also got the fare share of chances but at the end, Ronda made Shotzi submit with the Cross Armbar. It looks like they are going for the Women’s Tag Team titles.
The Hit Row was seen standing inside the ring. They were cutting a promo on random things. It was difficult to figure out what they were actually saying. Bray Wyatt and Uncle Howdy appeared on the apron of the ring. They took out the Hit Row and Bray said that he had full control over his mind right now and also threatened the winner abhi upcoming Brock Lesnar – Bobby Lashley match at the WWE Elimination Chamber.
Match 2 – Sheamus and Drew McIntyre defeated The Viking Raiders
This match was booked for 10 minutes and it was a good match. But honestly it was a terrible decision to book this match. First of all, they have no intention of pushing Sheamus and Drew as a Tag Team. Then why are they beating one of the top Tag Teams of the division after so many hypes for them? This was simply terrible piece of booking. Drew pinned Eric with a Claymore.
Match 3 – Asuka defeated Liv Morgan
Again, a terrible piece of booking. Was it really necessary to have Liv Morgan beaten by submission just before the night of the Elimination Chamber? They should have had it go to no contest with outside interference. This is exactly where Vince McMahon was a better booker than Triple H. Liv lost the match via Submission, which is even worse.
Match 4 – WWE Intercontinental Championship – Gunther defeated Madcap Moss to retain
This match was booked for nearly 10 minutes and it was also a good match. Of course it was totally predictable. But it is very good to see how they are booking Gunther as a fighting champion. Gunther at the end, pinned Moss with his signature Powerbomb, and it was a clean win.
Is the much awaited segment featuring the fan favourite Sami Zayn. The best thing about the segment was the return of his old theme song. Finally they are done with the terrible new one. The support that Sami received was just massive. Which seriously do not remember any other star after Daniel Bryan receiving such an amazing ovation from the WWE fans.
After Sami entered the ring, he just rejoiced the moment. The fans kept on cheering for him, and Sami kept on enjoying. The only thing he said was, tomorrow it will not only be Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn, but it will be Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn and the rest of the city of Montreal. It was clearly a Daniel Bryan vibe. Sami kept on rejoicing the fan support as this week’s SmackDown went off air.
Overall it was a bad week of Smackdown where they wasted half of the show with pre taped footages. Liv Morgan losing via submission does not make any sense at all. The Viking Raiders jobbing to a tag team that WWE does not want to push as a team for long is also terrible. They spent such a long time promoting the return of the Viking Raiders, just to job after their return?
Natalya is also going to Elimination Chamber with back to back losing efforts. This is going to be one of the most incompetitive Elimination Chamber matches ever. Apart from the heat from the Sami segment, there was almost nothing to see tonight. We give this week’s Smackdown 1 out of 5.
Sportzwiki Ratings – 1/5