The 3 Best And 3 Worst Moments From WWE SmackDown 6/23/23

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s review of the June 23, 2023 edition of "WWE SmackDown!" It was a night full of surprises — quite literally, as Vince McMahon reportedly made major changes to the show at the last minute — but even with a show made up of matches and segments we didn't expect to see, it had some thrilling highs to go along with the not-so-thrilling lows. Titles were unified, missing stars returned, and brothers reaffirmed their bonds (while laying down the gauntlet for certain other members of their famous family).

If you followed along with our live coverage, you already know all the bare bones facts, but if you want to know what we actually thought of the show, you've come to the right place. While acknowledging that wrestling is entirely subjective and differences of opinion exist between reasonable fans of what author Aubrey Sitterson calls "the one true sport," here are the three best and three worst moments from this week's "SmackDown."

The best story in pro wrestling (just ask Kenny Omega) reached a long-expected crescendo last week, when Jey Uso finally turned on Roman Reigns. With the "Bloodline Civil War" already announced for Money in the Bank, all we knew about tonight's follow-up was that we would hear from the Usos, and hear from them we most certainly did.

Pretty much everything about this segment served as a validation of the choices the Bloodline story has made so far, at least as they concern the Usos. Any lingering questions about whether Jimmy and Jey were simply riding Reigns' coattails were firmly put to rest — the brothers got a huge pop when they came out to open the show, and Jey continued his spectacular promo and character work with his cousin nowhere in sight. The Usos made a point of deliberately reclaiming their identities, reminding Reigns and Solo Sikoa that they just got themselves booked in a tag team match against what some believe to be the best tag team in WWE history. There was a beautiful symmetry in Jey beginning the promo by nearly saying "the Bloodline is now in your city" and correcting himself with "the Usos are now in your city," then ending it by saying they had Money in the Bank locked down and welcoming Reigns and Sikoa to the Uso Penitentiary.

Jimmy and Jey closed "SmackDown" as well, delivering a parade of superkicks to their little brother and ending the show standing tall, but it was that promo that reminded everyone just who the hell they are.

The only thing that didn't completely work in the promo segment (aside from Jimmy asking Jey how he was feeling, and Jey not responding that he was feeling ucey, despite the crowd's prompting) was that it furthered the recent narrative that (a) everything was fine in the Bloodline before WrestleMania, and (b) maybe this is all Paul Heyman's fault.

This is something that started three weeks ago with Jimmy trying to explain his actions at Night of Champions, continued two weeks ago with Sami Zayn telling Jey he hears Heyman's voice when Reigns talks, then continued some more last week with Jey trying to get Heyman kicked out of the Bloodline instead of himself. It's not entirely clear where this part of the angle is going, and maybe it's not going anywhere, but if anything could derail the Bloodline story from a character perspective, it's Heyman becoming the primary villain and Reigns getting any sort of redemption arc, at least before he's lost his title and gotten the comeuppance he so richly deserves. That really would ruin the whole thing. And no, Jimmy, everything was not fine in the Bloodline until recently, unless you've forgotten how Roman abused, gaslit, and manipulated you into joining his faction in the first place. We certainly haven't, and hopefully Jey hasn't, either.

It was pretty obvious that Vince McMahon had made some big changes to this week's "SmackDown" when just one of the four previously announced matches actually happened. That said, it's hard to complain about the booking when it leads to big wins for rising talent that need to be established, particularly as heels. LA Knight probably would have won the planned triple threat against Butch and Santos Escobar, but it means a little more to see him get a clean victory over Rey Mysterio. Pretty Deadly's win over the Street Profits wasn't as free from shenanigans, but the trickery involving the bralette hung a nice little narrative on the match, which was probably the best of the night. And while Grayson Waller has yet to wrestle on the main roster, he continues to secure his position as a regular part of the show and did great work with Prince and Wilson before the Profits' arrival.

Meanwhile, Solo Sikoa continued to be built up as an unstoppable monster, which he accomplished not by winning a match, but by driving his thumb into Ridge Holland's windpipe, instantly reducing him to choking death rattles, and then beating Sheamus — a man with a healthy reputation for toughness — so badly that the match was called off by the medical staff. It's been a rocky road for a lot of the talent Paul Levesque has called up, repackaged, or re-hired in the last year, but "SmackDown's" evil youth movement is only getting stronger.

All of the above having been admitted, it's still PTSD-inducing to see nearly all the matches WWE announced for "SmackDown" get steamrolled at the last minute, especially when one of those cut matches had both stakes and a set-up. Last week, Shotzi challenged Bayley to put her spot in the women's Money in the Bank ladder match on the line, a challenge Bayley's fellow Damage CTRL member IYO SKY accepted on her partner's behalf. Bayley had just accidentally cost SKY a match against Zelina Vega, and the segment was part of an ongoing storyline that involves some cracks beginning to show in the foundation of Damage CTRL, a storyline that one would reasonably expect to see play a role in the ladder match itself at Money in the Bank. Not only did the match not happen, it wasn't even mentioned, and neither Bayley nor SKY appeared on the episode— not the first time the floundering stable has seen their TV presence altered or eliminated by McMahon's whims.

Instead of that contest (presumably) we got Charlotte Flair vs. Lacey Evans, a Vince match if there ever was one. It wasn't great and seemed to exist primarily to remind viewers of the Flair/Asuka title match happening next week, which has no story beyond "Charlotte is back and wants a title shot," which is every Charlotte story. As viewers, we lost that trade.

It's always nice to see someone return from injury, and it's particularly nice to see Liv Morgan, who enjoyed a breakout year in 2022 and had recently been bolstering the women's tag team ranks alongside her partner, Raquel Rodriguez. While you could argue that she still deserves better than the division WWE cares about least (more on that in a moment), there are a couple reasons to be excited about her return and subsequent confrontation with women's tag champs Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler beyond simply "Liv Morgan is great and we like when she's on television."

For one thing, it's just a refreshing change of pace to see some continuity in the women's tag division. Morgan is Rodriguez' second title-winning tag partner after her first one, Aliyah, suffered an injury back in September and hasn't been seen since, and Rodriguez could have easily been moved to singles competition or given a third partner in a company that loves randomly pairing up female talent when they remember they need tag teams. But Rodriguez and Morgan work well together (a tag team comprising one big person and one little person is always a crowd-pleaser) and perhaps more importantly, they work reasonably well with Rousey, with both of them having wrestled her for the now-defunct "SmackDown" Women's Championship last year. Like it or not, this is probably the best use of Morgan for the time being — but even if it wasn't, it's still great to see her healthy and be able to watch her again.

Ironically (but predictably) the one match Vince didn't scrap was the one that should never have happened.

Look, the match itself was decent, and giving the WWE women's tag titles to Rousey and Baszler remains a decent decision, both from a "give Baszler something to do" perspective and a "keep Ronda Rousey out of singles competition" perspective. But there was just no reason for this. Why call up Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn, the "NXT" Women's Tag Team Champions, refuse to have them leave their titles behind as numerous "NXT" champions have done before them, and immediately put them in a unification match?

The only reason is because you just don't want "NXT" to have women's tag titles anymore, and you certainly don't want two sets of women's tag titles on the main roster, and to be frank, that sucks. Those championships might have only existed for two years and don't have an incredibly prestigious lineage, but the whole point of having more titles for women is to guarantee more TV and PPV time for women, and getting rid of them for no reason just says that women's representation isn't a priority for this company — something that has been obvious on the main roster for some time, but less obvious in "NXT." The entire thing smacks of McMahon, and amidst reports that his recent changes have involved cutting segments for women like Candice LeRae and Piper Niven, WWE has just removed an organic way to highlight more female talent. It's a shame, and the company deserves to be called out for it.