WWE SmackDown 8/23/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where Roman Reigns was supposed to be here but, uh, then suddenly was not. It's weird how much you miss that guy when he's gone — which is actually one thing we're going to talk about in the opinion column this week! While you can always get the bare bones facts of the episode from our "SmackDown" results page, this is the place where the WINC staff comes to express our strongest positive and negative feelings about what we just watched, and we're talking about pretty much everything this week. The only segment we don't touch on is the one where Andrade invades Carmelo Hayes' barbershop, which, frankly, we don't really care how we get to the next Hayes vs. Andrade match, we're just happy to be getting there!

Anyway, did the United States Championship match draw our derision this week, or our cheers? How about the slightly awkward crowning of the Guerrillas of Destiny? And most importantly, can Kevin Owens learn to be faithful to his friends, presumably by following the example of Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax? Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 8/23/24 episode of "WWE SmackDown."

For more than a year now, I've been a noted detractor of LA Knight — and granted, I actually still think he's a pretty terrible promo who has somehow convinced WWE fans he can talk through some sort of dark sorcery. That having been said, I really enjoyed his US title match with Santos Escobar this week, and I've found myself consistently enjoying his in-ring work more and more since his low-key awesome match with AJ Styles at WrestleMania. It also helps that despite my stubborn insistence that his shallow gimmick and catchphrases wouldn't have staying power, it turns out they actually do, because this is 2024 and wrestling fans save their criticism for the promotions they don't watch. That might sound cynical, but I have to admit it's easier to swallow LA Knight as a relatively high-level midcard act when the crowd is still having so much fun.

This is all sounding way too much like damning with faint praise. Knight and Escobar had a match that I really enjoyed, is what I'm trying to say. They had really good chemistry, the pre-match attack on Knight gave the thing some narrative structure without interfering in the actual finish at all, and Knight legitimately surprised me with that little springboard elbow drop he pulled off toward the end. Kudos to both guys for a quality performance, and as for Knight, I'm still going to complain whenever he grabs a microphone, but I have to admit that in pretty much every other area, he's proving me wrong week by week.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Back when I was cheering hard for Cody Rhodes to "finish the story" around WrestleMania 40, I never thought I'd be sitting here wishing to see Roman Reigns on my television. But, wow, do I miss Reigns as the Tribal Chief on "SmackDown," because Solo Sikoa just isn't cutting it for me. I went into this week's show fully expecting to simply hate the fact Reigns had been pulled, because I really think he needs to get back on the microphone. I'm dying for Reigns to absolutely eviscerate Sikoa on the mic, and the fact he was laid out by the Bloodline last week makes me need that even more for this story. Right now, Reigns looks pretty weak (and also without any friends), but maybe the powers that be within WWE realize how weak Sikoa is on the mic, and that's why they're keeping Reigns away from speaking right now? To continue to build Sikoa up to maybe one day be a believable Tribal Chief? Outside of Reigns more than likely working on a lighter schedule, the fact he would tear apart his cousin in a promo is my only guess as to why he's not around and running his mouth. My second guess would be the fact that they're dragging this out until Survivor Series: War Games, which is still pretty far out, and the fact we've been dealing with the Bloodline saga for four-ish years now makes it feel like an even longer wait.

Sikoa's promo fell pretty flat. As I was sitting here transcribing it as fast as I could while he was talking live, he stumbled over his words a few times, and a few bits didn't make sense. I don't fault Sikoa as a person here, of course, but I think with as good as Reigns was as the Tribal Chief and how he spoke in promos makes it more glaringly obvious the skills and charisma that Sikoa lacks, especially because he spent his entire time in the Bloodline with Reigns as the "Head of the Table" as a silent enforcer, given no promo time to even begin to hone his skills before getting thrust into a larger role like this. When Sikoa, possibly out of nerves, again, I don't fault the guy, said, "I am going to bring back the Undisputed title back to my family and I am going to bring back that title to me," I just had to chuckle a bit. Reigns is so eloquent, and don't even get me started about how Paul Heyman speaks and his own acting abilities, that this just makes Sikoa seem not believable as Tribal Chief. Reigns needs to not just come back to put a hurting on the Bloodline physically, he needs a microphone in hand, Heyman with him or not, to knock them down a peg or to, simply with his words.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Every edition of weekly professional wrestling shows are going to have at least one thing that's not very enjoyable to watch or feels like a waste of time. Having Solo Sikoa make Jacob Fatu transfer his WWE Tag Team Championship belt to Tonga Loa in order to become his enforcer felt like the exact definition of such.

I understand what WWE is trying to accomplish by having Fatu relinquish the title and hand it over to Loa in order to promote him as Sikoa's enforcer, but it just seems completely unnecessary especially before a title defense against The Street Profits. While Fatu was technically the champion with Tama Tonga, the Freebird Rule could've very easily been enacted rather than dedicating several minutes of "SmackDown" to this pointless segment.

There was no reason for this to even be a thing, especially when there are easier ways to keep Fatu from overextending himself as he continues to heal from his injury. It was a bad look for The Bloodline, and made the group feel weaker which is something that's not good considering that they're supposed to be doing the exact opposite and cementing themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Before "SmackDown," Nick Aldis announced on social media that Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill are challenging Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn for the women's tag titles at Bash in Berlin. I guess beating Damage CTRL and Pure Fusion Collective in that triple threat on Monday means the "Raw" teams are just out of contention? I think a lot of us were expecting a three-way or even a four-way women's tag title match at Bash, and who knows — maybe something will happen between now and the 31^st and more teams will get added (that could definitely happen on Monday). But as it stands now, it's two-on-two, and that means Bianca and Jade are definitely winning right? And if Bianca and Jade are winning the titles back, what the hell have we been doing for the last three months?

I like Dawn and Fyre. They're perfectly cromulent, reasonable women's tag team champions who would benefit from being used more often, but who generally hold up their end of the bargain in whatever match or promo segment they're in. But the booking hasn't been there for them, and if they lose the titles back to Cargill and Belair after what's been a largely mediocre title run, they'll come out looking like flash-in-the-pan nobodies who only got a title reign because WWE ran a show in their home country. I don't know how much the titles would be elevated if their reign were to continue, but I think they could do a good job of anchoring the division around a pair of long-term champions (for once).

On the other hand, Cargill and Belair desperately need to get out of the tag team division. Making them the champions seemed like a good idea at the time because they were superstars who could elevated the titles, but then their reign ended oddly and abruptly and they basically haven't been given anything of note to do since. At this point, WWE is risking permanent damage to the star power of two women who should be competing for singles titles, and I don't know that changing course and giving them a do-over on the tag title run is going to help things. Jade and Bianca need to be taken off the back burner and moved up front as quickly as humanly possible, and I'm worried that WWE doesn't see things the same way.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

I will be the first to admit that I haven't always been the biggest Nia Jax fan when it comes to her character. However, once she won the Queen of the Ring tournament and captured the WWE Women's Championship from Bayley at SummerSlam, I've completely done a 180, because she's doing some of the best character work of her career in such a short time, in my humble opinion. Last week's victory celebration where she came down to the ring on a throne was iconic; she looked absolutely incredible and every bit a queen and champion as she should, 10 out of 10, no notes. Her dynamic with actual close friend Tiffany Stratton is great, with Stratton's Money in the Bank contract looming over Jax. Tonight's segment was much different than last week, however, but Jax was still incredibly effective and frankly, this week, she was pretty darn terrifying.

Michin crashed Stratton's tacky pink celebration for Jax last week, coming in kendo sticks blazing, earning herself an opportunity at the WWE Women's title next week on "SmackDown" in a street fight, a match I cannot wait to see. Tonight's backstage segment saw Jax "not in the mood" for funny business, with Stratton and Pretty Deadly trying in vain to fix the crown Michin destroyed last week (though this one looked like some paper mache replica, which was kind of funny.) With Stratton and Pretty Deadly, Jax was speaking quietly, almost menacing, something I don't think we've ever seen from her before. I thought it was fantastic and just how Jax should be acting at this point. It was even more effective, not only because she played her part so well, but because she was juxtaposed between the ridiculousness of Stratton and Pretty Deadly. It just worked SO well. Jax should come off as a formidable champion, and turn on this menacing, scary side when it's needed.

After they scampered off, Jax overhead Chelsea Green and Piper Niven talking smack, and she ducked into a corner to listen for a bit, before confronting them both. Maybe Green knew Jax was there, maybe not, but she certainly continued to plant the seed of Stratton turning on Jax to cash in that MITB contract and stab her friend in the back, and that could be right after next Friday's match. This is exactly the headspace I want to see Jax in before a vicious street fight. She's scary, cold, p***** off, and ready to go. The past few weeks, Jax has started to make a fan out of me, and I'm certain that will continue through next week's bout with Michin, which should be a fun match, and certainly through this dynamic with Stratton. And, of course, it's always nice to see the Pretty Deadly boys on TV for some much-needed comic relief.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Kevin Owens is the best. Any time he's on the screen, the show is better. Friday night, we got both a promo and a match from "The Prizefighter." During the A-Town Down Under segment with Cody Rhodes, they aired a video of all the times that Owens had turned on his friends and partners; KO responded that in his defense, everyone deserved it except Kofi Kingston, whom he apologized to again. After assuring Rhodes he'd never turn on him. KO proceeded to call Nick Aldis out to make the inevitable tag match official. Aldis granted them the main event spot, and also gave Owens permission to punch the heels in the face — if he did it quickly.

During the main event, the champion and his friend picked up the victory. Following the match, Rhodes was trash talking his opponents and had his back to Owens. KO had the world title, and for a moment, it seemed like he was going to live up to his reputation and turn on Rhodes. Instead, he shoved it at Rhodes' chest and marched over to the ropes to chastise Theory and Waller. Rhodes looked confused and couldn't tell if he should fully trust his friend, but Owens held Rhodes' hand in the air and then hugged him before holding his hand up again.

The fake-out spot was masterful, and it plants more seeds to foreshadow a potential turn at Bash In Berlin. Perhaps Owens considered using that title on Rhodes for half a second before changing his mind. Maybe what we saw was growth from Owens, who realized that his friendship with Rhodes is more important than any title could ever be.

Written by Samantha Schipman