This week’s SmackDown started as Braun Strowman came out to the arena for the first match of the night. He was scheduled to face Gunther for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. This match was in process for quite a long time and finally it happened.
Match 1 – WWE Intercontinental championship – Gunther defeated Braun Strowman to retain
WWE Smackdown 13.01.2023 Results & Ratings
The match went on for 11 minutes and it was an excellent match. Clearly it was not booked under Vince McMahon’s guidance. He would never book such a good match for free television. Surely it was booked by Triple H and it was a great way to start the night.
Throughout the match, Gunther targetted Strowman’s left arm and he defeated the former WWE Universal champion using that injured arm only. Shockingly it was a clean victory. It does not look like currently WWE has any big plans for Strowman. Gunther pinned him with the Power Bomb.
Backstage Sami Zayn was attempting to go inside the locker room of the Bloodline. Paul Heyman came out of it and informed him that no one was here tonight and it was only him. Roman Reigns wanted Sami to go all by himself against Kevin Owens tonight and he did not want to doubt him. Sami said that Roman made the right call.
WWE Legend Rey Mysterio came out to the arena. He talked about the incident that took place during the Christmas when his son Dominik Mysterio attempted to ruin his day once again. Karrion Kross came out to the arena and accused him of not being a good father whatsoever. Rey got angry and attacked Kross but Kross fought back and beat him down.
Match 2 – Tegan Nox defeated Xia Li
Congratulations to Tegan Nox for earning the first pin fall victory on the main roster all by herself. The match was book for only 3 minutes and it was mostly dominated by Xia Li. But at the end, Nox managed to get a pin fall victory with The Shinning Wizard. We hope WWE at least pushes Nox as a mid card. She is too good to be a jobber.
Bray Wyatt came out to the arena after his usual long entrance. By tonight’s promo he gave us vibes of his first ever WWE gimmick. In this promo he claimed to be Uncle Howdy himself. Maybe they are planning to stop the Uncle Howdy storyline. Suddenly, it all seems like a Vince McMahon show.
Match 3 – Raquel Rodriguez defeated Liv Morgan
This match was booked for only four and a half minutes and it was an easy and dominant victory for Raquel Rodriguez. We can understand that Liv lost her push but she is a jobber now? That is a bit too much. It means two back to back Women’s Money in the Bank winners won their respective matches without any long term plan.
Backstage Sonya Deville met Adam Pearce and she asked for a rematch against Charlotte Flair for The Smackdown Women’s Championship. Pearce said that go out and win the Royal Rumble match. Deville said that she would get an easier way to get the title shot. Meanwhile she went on to attack Charlotte Flair backstage and the duo started fighting each other. The officials had to come out to stop them.
Match 4 – Kevin Owens defeated Sami Zayn by DQ
Here is another chapter from one of the greatest rivalries in pro wrestling history. But this was more of a part of a different storyline. The match was booked for nine minutes and it is quite unfortunate that it did not meet a clean finish. But this might be good for the mentioned storyline.
As Sami was lining up for a Helluva Kick, The Bloodline (No Roman Reigns, of course) attacked Kevin Owens and started beating him down. It looked like that Sami did not want it. The Bloodline delivered a massive beat down to Kevin Owens and Sami look really puzzled. He was not sure if it was the right thing. The Bloodline gave a victory pose over Kevin Owens as this week’s SmackDown went off the air.
Overall it was a better week than some of the recent episodes of Smackdown. There were some good matches and good continuation of some of the existing storylines as well. The Intercontinental championship match was pretty good, indeed it was the best match of the night. But once again no appearance from Roman Reigns is a big drawback. Liv Morgan turning into a jobber is not a very good thing either. And if they are deciding to omit the story line of Uncle Howdy after all the things happened during the recent weeks, that would be a terrible idea. We give this week’s Smackdown 2 out of 5.
Sportzwiki Ratings – 2/5