This week’s SmackDown started as the iconic closing moment of the Royal Rumble pay per view event of a last saturday was shown where Sami Zayn was finally kicked out of the Bloodline and Jey Uso decided not to join his family to beat down the former Honorary Uce.
The Bloodline was seen entering the arena. Kayla Braxton attempted to talk to Roman Reigns about the state of Jey Uso in the Bloodline. Roman Reigns did not answer any question and left. Paul Heyman answered him that everyone will get to know about the state of Jey by the end of the night. Surprisingly there was no Jey Uso along with them.
WWE SmackDown 03.02.2023 Results & Ratings
Match 1 – WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship number one contenders tournament final – Braun Strowman and Ricochet defeated Imperium
This was a very good way to kick things off for the night. The match was booked for a little longer than 10 minutes and throughout it had been really entertaining. The match was really balanced and nobody in particular dominated it. At the end of the match, Ricochet pinned Ludwig Kaiser with a Swanton.
The further feud build up between Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio was shown in a pre taped footage and it looks like that WWE is clearly planning a father vs son match for WrestleMania 39. This would be the first ever father vs son battle at a stage like WrestleMania.
Match 2 – WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship – Charlotte Flair defeated Sonya Deville
Honestly, it was a pointless match and nobody asked for it. Sonya Deville was buried long before this match. WWE even gave spoiler to this match days before Rhea Ripley choose to face ” Charlotte Flair” at WrestleMania 39. Quite clearly, it was the spoiler for this match. We would love to see Sonya at a top level. But like this they are only burying her.
Backstage Roman Reigns asked Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa if they have talked to their brother Jey Uso yet after the incident from Royal Rumble. They we will that nobody have talked to Jey yet. Roman ordered them to find out Jey so that he could make things right.
Match 3 – The Viking Raiders defeated The Brawling Brutes
This match was booked for six and a half minutes and it was a good match. The match was pretty physical and throughout it had been quite entertaining. No team in particular dominated the match. At the end, Ivar pinned Butch after their team move called Ragnarok. After the match, when Viking Raiders were making their way out, Drew McIntyre and Sheamus attacked them and beat them down.
Match 4 – Fatal 4 Way Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match – Natalya defeated Zelina Vega, Shotzi and Shayna Baszler
This match was booked for little less than 5 minutes and it was pretty entertaining. It was definitely not the best match of the night but entertaining, of course. Natalya won the match after she made Zelina Vega submit with the Sharpshooter but honestly, Shotzi would have been a better option since she is a rising star. But we understand they went for a safer option.
WWE Universal Heavyweight champion Roman Reigns came out to the arena. He talked about Sami Zayn and there were “Sami” chants throughout the arena. Roman called Sami greedy and said that he just used Bloodline to gain success. He said that he saw greed in his eyes on WarGames and he was never loyal to the Bloodline.
Suddenly a hooded man attacked Roman Reigns and started beating him down. It turned out to be none other than Sami Zayn. Roman quickly fought back. As Roman was about to hit Sami with a steel chair, Sami hit a Spear on Roman. The whole arena went totally crazy after Sami. As he was about to attack Roman with a steel chair, Roman escaped.
Sami Zayn grabbed a mic and say it that until now he wanted nothing from him but now he wanted the WWE Universal Championship. Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa attacked Sami from behind and they beat him down. Roman entered the ring and said that he would see him at Montreal and he would humiliate him in front of his family. The Bloodline celebrated over Sami Zayn as this week’s SmackDown went off air.
Apart from the final segment there was almost nothing to see. Of course there were some good matches but they were not enough to engage fans for two hours. They wasted most of the times with pre taped footages. More than half of the show featured only pre taped footages. And let us not talk about this SmackDown Women’s championship match, which was one of the worst things in the recent history of Smackdown.
And why did they book fatal 4 way matches to determine the 5th and 6th competitor for the Elimination Chamber? We think they should have arrange two Battle Royals, each one for SmackDown and RAW. There were a lot of female stars that are completely unbooked like Xia Li and Tegan Nox. Battle Royals would have been more appropriate and fair to determine the 5th and 6th competitor for Elimination Chamber. We give this week’s Smackdown 2 out of 5. We wanted to give more ratings but apart from the final segment, rest of the show was pretty weak.
Sportzwiki Ratings 2/5