WWE SmackDown recap, review: Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns collide
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
The first WWE Friday Night SmackDown of the new year was a statement-making episode featuring epic showdowns, awesome action and big announcements.
Speaking of announcements, welcome to my new column! Every Saturday I’ll be covering my thoughts on SmackDown from the night before by listing the highs and lows of that week’s episode (according to me).
With that being said, this was a jam-packed show, so let’s get into it.
SMACKDOWN HIGHS
Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns' Confrontation
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The Tribal Chief was welcomed back to Friday Night SmackDown by his former special council, Paul Heyman, and the new WWE Champion, Brock Lesnar. The WWE Title-holder challenged the Universal Champion to a match on the spot and demanded that Roman Reigns acknowledge him.
The past week in WWE was a wild turn of events, to say the least, and Brock Lesnar becoming WWE Champion in surprising fashion after Roman Reigns was unable to defend the Universal Title against him at Day 1 sent everyone’s WrestleMania predictions into a tailspin.
This made the announced in-ring segment between Reigns and Lesnar a can’t-miss moment leading into the show, and the confrontation didn’t disappoint.
Brock in his current incarnation is incredibly fun to watch. The guy seems to love hamming it up as a babyface (as you could see when he did his own Heyman-inspired intro), and it makes each of his segments that much more entertaining.
With WrestleMania only a few months away, the Champion vs. Champion match teased by Brock on Friday feels like an inevitable conclusion to their saga. A lot of time has been invested into this story, and having WWE’s two top titles on the line in their match would raise the stakes even higher than they’ve been in their past encounters.
WWE can also book the winner of the men’s Royal Rumble against the winner of Brock versus Roman on night two of WrestleMania, giving the company marquee World title matches on each night of the event.
The surprise appearance from Seth Rollins at the end of SmackDown also creates additional intrigue around the World title scene — as it's unclear if they just have a common enemy in Brock Lesnar, or if Seth is in fact Roman's next title challenger teased by Adam Pearce.
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In a stunning turn of events, it was Seth Rollins who greeted Roman Reigns as SmackDown went off the air on Friday night.
Women’s Royal Rumble Announcements
The Bella Twins are coming back!
Anyone who has followed me on social media for long enough knows I’m a big fan of Nikki and Brie Bella, so I couldn’t be more excited to see them in a WWE ring again later this month — Nikki, in particular, since she was forced to retire from active competition due to injury.
WWE confirmed Impact Wrestling Women’s champ Mickie James will participate in the match as well, which was a nice gesture from the company considering the less-than-fortunate way her release was handled earlier this year.
Additional stars from the past set to compete in the Rumble include Lita, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly and Summer Rae. As for current stars, the names announced on Friday were Rhea Ripley, Nikki A.S.H., Shotzi, Natalya, Dana Brooke, Carmella, Queen Zelina, Tamina, Aliyah, Naomi, Shayna Baszler and Charlotte Flair.
That’s a solid list so far.
The Usos vs. New Day Street Fight
These two teams don’t miss when they’re in the ring together.
The Usos and New Day always make a concerted effort to ensure their matches stand apart from previous outings (even if the last one happened a week ago), and this week’s Street Fight was no different.
I’m also a big fan of The Usos adopting the 3D (now named the 1D) as their new finisher. It’s a great update to their arsenal, and doing it through a table on Kofi Kingston brought back fond memories of The Dudley Boyz.
Now, let’s move these teams into new feuds. They’ve tangled enough lately, and it’s time for a different team to enter the tag title picture. Plus, audiences are loving what King Woods has been doing since winning the King of the Ring tournament, so they should let him lean into singles competition for a bit.
Johnny Knoxville
I’m sure many other die-hard fans will disagree with me here, but I’m the target audience for this sort of thing. Jackass was one of my favorite shows growing up.
I also love pro wrestling and have never been against celebrities stepping into the ring, so this is right up my alley. Being part of the pop culture lexicon is important and moves like this keep WWE’s name in the conversation. Win/win.
My only complaint is that I would’ve liked to have seen Johnny Knoxville get roughed up a little. His whole thing is getting beat up. He doesn’t need to one-up Superstars. He’s like an Energizer Bunny of pain intolerance.
Just watch his famous segment with Butterbean to get a better understanding of what I mean.
SMACKDOWN LOWS
Naomi Screwed Over … AGAIN
I’m ready for the next chapter of this story.
Naomi and Sonya Deville are two incredibly talented performers, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this eventually leads to Deville stepping into the ring again full-time, but it feels like they’ve been stuck in first gear for a bit too long now.
One would assume they advance the program by having Sonya eliminate Naomi from the Rumble match — thereby setting up a match between the two at WrestleMania — but if that is going to be the case, repeating the same angle to get there will eventually get tiresome.
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Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1's "WWE Backstage" and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief.