SmackDown recap & reactions (May 26, 2023): The Bloodline divided

The Bloodline’s issues continued into this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown, with an early backstage segment showing Roman Reigns inviting The Usos to his 1000 day championship celebration ceremony next week. He wants the whole family there, you see.

Jimmy Uso responded like this made things normal, and he wanted to go eat so off he went. Or attempted to go. Reigns, of course, was none too pleased with what he took as another open display of disrespect.

So he got in his face and tested him. Again. That’s becoming a habit lately, more so with Jimmy than Jey, which is worth pointing out as it happens more and more.

Reigns flat out told Jimmy he was good at acting tough but he beat him up when they were young and he’d beat him up again now. Jimmy looked close to throwing hands, but Jey pulled him off and they went their separate ways.

For now.

Reigns, for his part, was great here. Not overacting like he’s prone to, but a genuinely scary dude inviting violence from someone he feels superior to. Jimmy has a long way to go before he evokes the same kind of feeling Jey has in his story, but he’s well on his way already.

Later in the evening, when it came time for Reigns and Solo Sikoa to join Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn on “The KO Show,” The Usos hit the ring first. Owens was glad for that, because he wanted to talk to them.

He said it loud and proud: Sami was right about everything. He was right all along. He called Jimmy & Jey the greatest tag team of all time but they’ve become errand boys for Reigns. Jimmy’s response was to say “when it comes to the Day 1’s, I am the Tribal Chief.”

Paul Heyman was SHOCKED.

Wade Barrett wondered aloud, “What the hell was Jimmy Uso thinking?”

Reigns hit the ring and knocked the microphone out of both Jimmy and Jey’s hands, staring them straight in the face while doing so. Zayn told him The Bloodline is over and it’s all his fault, so Roman knocked the mic out of his hand too.

This was tense.

A Stunner from Owens led to a melee and by the time all was said and done, The Bloodline were left standing tall. Jimmy picked up two of the tag team titles left in the ring. Reigns put his hand out, demanding he give them up. The crowd wanted a turn here.

It didn’t come.

Instead, Jey pulled Jimmy back, took the titles himself, and handed them to Reigns with his head tilted down. A show of submission. Of respect. The 1’s went in the air … except for Jimmy.

The cracks grow ever larger.

All the rest

• Austin Theory retained the United States championship by rolling up Sheamus thanks to a distraction from Pretty Deadly. It wasn’t played like Theory was in cahoots with the recent NXT call ups but rather like Kit & Elton were simply going after The Brawling Brutes. The match was fine, but it was clear they weren’t doing a title change here and felt predictable to the point of boring. It didn’t help that it was taped, of course.
• Raquel Rodriguez & Shotzi defeated Bayley & IYO SKY in a short match that had a bizarre finish that made the bad gals look downright goofy. They called it a miscommunication but SKY came off the top, hit Rodriguez in the back while aiming for Shotzi farther out, but Rodriguez was on Bayley in such a way that she simply held her down for the pin while SKY looked confused and just did a circle with her arms thrown up. That’s how they lost. I suppose it continues the theme of Bayley and SKY not meshing the best, but they could have done better to get there.
• Hit Row had a new look this week, wearing all white ski masks. It didn’t matter. They were there to be fodder for Cameron Grimes, who scored yet another quick victory in just his second main roster bout. After, he was attacked from behind by Baron Corbin, so that’s going to be a full blown feud. It’s too early to try to read too much into any of this.
• Bianca Belair cut a promo on Asuka, saying she plans to straight up fight her at Night of Champions after all the mist attacks and disrespect. Asuka is unhinged, and she’s going to meet her there. Naturally, this led to a surprise attack. Belair actually managed to get the better of it, only missing on a Kiss of Death because officials were in the ring and caught Asuka on the way down. She bailed out laughing about it. Thankfully the match will be good because the build really hasn’t been much to write home about.
• LA Knight turned on Rick BOOGS after their tag team match last week, so they had a singles match against each other this week. BOOGS had very little to offer, and was put down with the BFT and pinned clean. The Street Profits were on commentary for this, and Knight grabbed a microphone saying if they talked much more trash he’d “make change out of both your five dollar asses.” It sure felt like they wanted to keep the issue going here but Knight is clearly a singles star in the making and they should be continuing on with that path.
• Karrion Kross pulled AJ Styles’ tarot card last week, so he took his shot this week. His timing couldn’t be worse. Styles pinned him clean with the Phenomenal Forearm. This after Michin acted as an equalizer and took Scarlett out of the equation. It’s hard seeing much of a future for Kross if this is how they continue booking him. But, hey, someone had to heat up Styles just before he wrestles for the world heavyweight championship.

This was a taped show, which meant nothing got all that much time to breathe. Still, it wasn’t a bad show and had some big storyline beats for the top group in the promotion.

Grade: B-

Your turn.