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WWE: Friday Night Smackdown #1327 | 24 January 2025 | Moody Center, Austin, Texas, USA | Source: Netflix

The show opens with a promo by Cody Rhodes, being interviewed by Joe Tessitore, and addressing Kevin Owens. Unoffensive but also skippable.

Our first match of the evening and we have UK Wrestlers Abroad as The Motor City Machine Guns defeat Pretty Deadly. PD portray very flamboyant, almost feminine characters but they’re actually not displeasing to watch. MCMG go over following a ‘Skull & Bones’ (I think I got that right) on Kit Wilson after 9:42.

Our second segment of the evening and we have yet another UK Wrestler Abroad as the ‘Big O’, Norfolk’s own Nick Aldis is approached by The Miz, who looks like he’s just stepped off the set of the latest Men In Black movie. Aldis informs Miz that he’s now a member of Smackdown. Something which you’d think he’d have been told in advance but seemingly not.

Kevin Owens is out and berating Joe Tessitore, demanding to know where his interview is, and then Texas native, Matthew McConaghey, just because he was there I guess. Thankfully Jimmy Uso is here to chase Owens away.

Back in the Big O’s office, Carmello Hayes is bleating about being relevant and is given a match against a.n. other later tonight. Short, skippable.

The UK Wrestlers Abroad contingent is still in full force as B-Fab & Michin defeat Chelsea Green & Piper Niven by Pinfall in a criminally short 3:27. Michin looks like she has mini marshmallows in her hair.

Post match, Hayes is bleating some more before discovering his opponent for the evening is a newly signed Damian Priest. I’m not a huge Damian Priest fan but I do like that the overall WWE roster is stronger than it has been for some time. Better yet, everything seems cohesive. It’s almost as if someone is paying attention to the booking.

Next, it’s Tiffy time but before that a Charlotte Flair promo where she advises she’s back, and has entered the Royal Rumble.

Now, this is Tiffy time. It’s also My Brutality as Tiffy’s counterpart, Women’s World Champion, Rhea Ripley in on the blue brand for the evening, interrupting Tiffany Stratton’s promo. Rhea is subsequently interrupted by Nia Jax and her little friend Candice LeRae. Do we smell a tag match coming? Maybe not as Nia Jax is interrupted by the Women’s Tag Champs, Bianca Belair and Noami, who both are apparently going to win (the rumble). No sooner have the entered the ring though than Liv Morgan is also out, with Raquel Rodriguez. Liv is just annoying, and not in a heelish way, just an annoying one. Rhea agrees with me and headbutts Liv shortly after she enters the ring and we have a cluster.

I was right! It’s not quite the composition I expected but we have ourselves a 6-woman tag, playa.

Match number 3, and the first to have zero UK Wrestlers in has Bianca Belair and Namoi with Rhea Ripley against Candice LeRae, Liv Morgan and Nia Jax. In a moment which genuinely raised a chuckle, Jax talked a little smack to Rhea and then quickly tagged out to LeRae! In her defence, LeRae is like a little angry chipmunk who throws herself into her task, to little success. In a genuinely puzzling moment though, Belair blind tags herself (twice within 2 seconds) and then also immediately tags Noami as if that somehow means that both are legally in the match? The referee is not even bothering to produce a 5-count at this point Thankfully all seem to be aware of who the actual legal participants are. I’ll give the women their due, they know what they’re doing and the match is both cohesive and generally smooth.

Stupid moment of the night so far as Noami takes enough steps to simply reach out slightly to make contact but instead almost defies the laws of Physics to dive *forwards* but instead somehow move backwards to increase the distance by perhaps an inch, to make the desperate tag to Ripley. The match starts break down, becoming less cohesive and a bit disjointed but thankfully it doesn’t last too much longer until Morgan gets the pin on Belair.

Following a short backstage segment with B-Fab/ Michin and Chelsea Green/ Piper Niven, we have Match number 4 of the evening. WWE World Tag Team Champion, Johnny Gargano takes on Apollo Crews. I’ve seen Crews a few times, in the UK Wrestling scene as Uhaa Nation, so it’s nice to see him become (hopefully) more featured on TV (and in ring). Just when I thought he was going to be just another statistic, MCMG make their way to the ring, sufficiently distracting DIY for Crews to get a roll up on Gargano for the win.

We get a (thankfully not overused) tracking camera shot of Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga cutting a walking backstage promo and all the way to the ring. A ‘quick’ faces in the crowd moment, they really do stay on each person for just long enough for them to become uncomfortable, and LA Knight makes his way to the ring, sans jacket.

Match number 5 pits LA Knight against Tama Tonga. A Quick pre-match promo by LA Knight and we’re underway. I was not feeling LA Knight initially but he’s reduced the annoyances and is more watchable as a result. There’s a degree of irony as Wade Barrett addresses that Tonga and Fatu are ‘lawless thugs’ as Jacob Fatu is on his absolute best behaviour and keeping a respectful distance from the action. LA Knight gets the pin in a match which honestly felt like it went too long before Jacob Fatu attacks Knight, only for Braun Strowman to make the ‘save’. A minor skirmish ensues before Tonga is able to restrain Jacob Fatu.

Backstage, Miz is trying to make new friends, starting with A-Town Down Under. Offering them places on The Marine 7. They seem up for it, at least until Nick Aldis passes and advises they are headed to Raw.

Match 6 as Damian Priest makes his way to the ring to await ‘Him’. A Shinsuke Nakamura promo airs and then Carmelo Hayes makes his way to the ring. Hayes gets a surprisingly strong showing against the former World Heavyweight Champion, at least until he gets annoyed, one South of Heaven later and Priest is victorious.

Backstage, DIY are demanding Gargano’s loss be stricken from the record books to Nick Aldis, who is all over the show tonight, before being interrupted by MCMG who advise they have a Title defence against them in the very near future.

Further quick fire backstage segments as Cody Rhodes welcomes Damian Priest to Smackdown, Andrade rejects Miz’ advances and Jimmy Uso throws out a bunch of “No Yeets”, upsetting Carmelo Hayes who tails him out the entranceway, knocking him down and then just leaving again? Uso shrugs it off and continues his entrance. Kevin Woens is out next, with the ‘Winged Eagle’ belt and wearing a Naomi (Wife of Jimmy Uso) sleeveless T. Owens takes a moment to taunt Matthew McConaghey with the belt and we’re underway. Except Owens immediately heads outside to argue with Joe Tessitore some more. A good match, which went at least as long as the LA Knight/ Tama Tonga match but which I’d have happily watched for longer. Owens plans of roughing up ‘Big Jim’ some more are scuppered by Cody Rhodes who makes the save as the broadcast goes off the air.

So ends the 1327th edition of Friday Night Smackdown.

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Opinions are my own. I am in no way affiliated with/ or incentivised by, any of the promotions or wrestlers referenced. I have no bias towards any single promotion and any suggestion to the contrary is made insincerely, in bad faith, and in ignorance of this stated fact. Any and all links were valid at the time of writing.

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