SmackDown Recap & Reactions (August 9, 2024): Over Tribal Chief

We’ve been waiting a long time to see how Roman Reigns would take on Solo Sikoa and his new team when he finally made his return to television. At SummerSlam, he defeated him with a Superman Punch and Spear that allowed Cody Rhodes to retain the WWE Championship.

But what about? Smackdown Friday Night This week when he returned to TV right?

They made us wait the whole show—which is smart of them, and annoying as a fan who is ready to see how things go—and Sikoa was eager to face off with his comrades by his side. Jacob Fatu was not among them, as he was already injured.

In fact, Sikoa went to the ring, grabbed the microphone, and said if Reigns wanted the ball back, he could “come and get it from me.”

Referring to the man himself.

OTC

Sikoa sent his men to meet Reigns outside the ring and they were quickly dealt with, not even posing a challenge to Reigns, whose aura alone was enough to push them aside. When he entered the ring, Sikoa looked very small standing in front of him.

He also lost the ensuing fight. In the midst of it all, the necklace fell off his neck and when his associates dragged him out of the ring, they left it there. Reigns, distracted by this, tried to retaliate, leaving him vulnerable to an attack from behind.

They captured him and brought him back to Solo, who ordered them to eliminate Renz. Naturally, they were destroyed again. He defeated them both with multiple spears, eventually taking a chair to Tonga Loa over and over again while Sekua mocked him with an Ula Fala strike from afar.

“I’m the boss now,” he said as Reigns spanked his children.

The fans chanted “OTC” repeatedly during this. Reigns is the most beloved person in the world right now and not even close. This was definitely a slow burn and they can afford to do it now because my god, it feels so good to see this guy destroy the store without even having to say a word.

But I certainly look forward to when he speaks.

This is fun.

This week’s episode opened with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, and a lot of questions to ask and answer. What do we want to talk about? That seems obvious enough.

Then Cody told us that he was thinking about who he wanted to defend his title against at Bash in Berlin. Before he could defend his title, the Solo Sikoa music hit and he came out wearing ula fala. He demanded a title rematch because he was cheated.

Rhodes berated him by pointing out all the ways he had failed, all the ways he was not who Roman Reigns truly is and always has been. Before the Bloodline—minus Jacob Fatu, it’s worth pointing out—could attack, Kevin Owens appeared on the scene with two chairs.

This was enough to keep the heel away.

They left to “find Roman Reigns.”

certainly.

But that wasn’t the end of the clip.

Instead, Rhodes asked him to stay because he had something to talk about. It might be awkward and uncomfortable and he might decline, but he wanted to make him an offer.

WWE Championship match at the upcoming special live event, which will take place later this month in Germany.

As Cody expected, Owens refused. And he had good reason—he didn’t deserve it right now. Title matches are meant to be earned, and his recent win-loss record is abysmal. The fans responded with chants of “You deserve it”—however inconsistent—and Cody took offense to it. He also mentioned all the times Owens was in the trenches with him, helping him, and how that meant he would use whatever power he had to make it happen.

Later, Rhodes was seen arguing with Owens backstage in front of SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, who revealed that he was waiting to discuss a title match with Roman Reigns. This angered Owens, who claimed that he may not deserve it but Reigns certainly doesn’t deserve anything.

His emotional speech worked.

Aldis announced it at that moment – it’s Rhodes vs. Owens at Party in Berlin.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. It keeps Rhodes busy while Reigns deals with his bloodline, but it feels like an extra title match. How will they overcome that?

I guess we’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

LA Knight’s segment this week:

Man, this guy has it. It’s fun to listen to him talk about literally anything. His response to the “You deserved it” chant was to say that Logan Paul “deserved to get fired, and that’s exactly what he got, yeah!”

It’s nothing innovative, but it makes it a lot of fun.

What will he do to his next opponent? Beat him up and submit.

You heard that right.

amazing.

Santos Escobar arrived to end the fun and tell Knight that he was a failure and would end up being just a footnote in the Escobar story. Naturally, Los Angeles shut him up before Andrade came out for a number one contender’s match.

These two guys blew all the expectations away, and it was a very entertaining match that felt satisfying even with the interference that led to the end. Carmelo Hayes kept his issues with Andrade at bay by ensuring Escobar won the match, which was pretty good considering the character alignment.

All the rest

• The Bloodline needed new contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship, so they started the process on this show by holding two tag team matches with the winners advancing to next week to determine who goes next. First, the Street Profits defeated A-Town Down Under in an electric match that had the crowd shaking by the end. Meanwhile, I’m shocked that they still haven’t separated Grayson Waller from Austin Theory. Now, they’re doing the opposite and Theory is the one putting Waller in bad situations, as evidenced by his booking for a match with Kevin Owens next week.
• Later, DIY defeated Pretty Deadly to advance to the next week’s match against The Street Profits. I still don’t understand what Triple H saw there, but that’s what happened.
• The growing feud between Chelsea Green and Tiffany Stratton continued, with the former claiming that the latter was conspiring and planning to take advantage of her supposed friend Nia Jax. Tiff called her delusional and arrogant and flipped her hair in her face before leaving. This made for a big match.
• Jade Cargill defeated Alba Fire in a singles match in an incredibly short time frame, which Corey Graves described as an “absolutely dominant display.” They clearly wanted to make the point that Jade and Bianca Belair are still above the current tag team champions, despite losing those titles to them. Blair Davenport came on stage to help the champions once again, but Naomi evened out the odds and gave the babyfaces the big advantage once again. It was fun for the live crowd but they’ve been killing the heels straight up week after week and I can’t say I understand that.
• Oh wait, Giovanni Vinci is still alive and kicking! We know this because they posted a video of him promoting his arrival on smack downHe’s back to the character he played in NXT before returning to Imperium. We’ll have to see if he can pull it off.

Another good one.

Grade: B+

Your turn.