WWE SmackDown 5/24/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved
Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," coming to you for the very first time from Saudi Arabia! Your mileage may vary on that last part — most of us think it's at least a little bit gross — but you can't deny that the fans in Jeddah got a decent showing for their first-ever episode of the blue brand, headlined by the semifinals of both the King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring tournaments.
Most of the time in this introductory space, we talk about how we can't cover everything, but when "SmackDown" is booked like this one was, we pretty much can! You're still encouraged to check out our "SmackDown" results page, especially if you like your takes purely factual and objective, but here at WINC we had an opinion on just about everything that happened Friday night, from the King and Queen finalists to Chelsea Green to Logan Paul wearing his brother's pants. With mere hours left until we have to do the same thing for the King & Queen of the Ring premium live event, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 5/24/24 episode of "WWE SmackDown."
Hated: The C in Carmelo should not stand for charity
The WWE Tag Team Championships have sort of been sitting on the backburner since WrestleMania, and in all honesty, it makes sense. These past weeks of "WWE SmackDown" have been primarily focused on building up the King and Queen of the Ring tournament (and when they tried to fit a tag team title storyline into one of those episodes, I ripped it a new one). So when Grayson Waller and Austin Theory decided to try and make themselves and their titles relevant again on an international edition of The Grayson Waller Effect, I was skeptical.
If you're an avid reader of these pieces: first off, hi! Second off, you'll know how much I love Carmelo Hayes. So as soon as Hayes showed up to insert himself as the guest star on Waller's talk show, my interest was immediately piqued. When they started talking, however, my interest slowly waned, and soured into disgust like how milk curdles when left on the counter for too long. Hayes was aligning himself with Waller and Theory, and spoke at-length at how they needed to band together to defend themselves against the predatory and washed veterans who was looking to steal their opportunity. Theory was doubtful of Hayes' intentions at first, but Waller assured his partner that Hayes had their best interests in mind, and the connection between the two parties was cemented right there.
In the larger picture, this makes sense — Hayes and LA Knight, the originally slated guest for The Grayson Waller Effect, have had tense interactions in the backstage corridors of a few episodes of "SmackDown" — and, for the record, a Knight/Hayes feud sounds like something I'm 100% interested in. What I'm not interested in is employing the talents (read that in whatever tone you wish) of Waller and Theory to do so.
Full transparency, Hayes is leagues above Waller and Theory. Whether it's categorized by one's experiences and feelings after their matches and promos or on-paper accolades, Waller and Theory are not on the same level as Hayes. So, the choice to pair "Him" with the WWE Tag Team Champions feels like it came out of charity, and that Hayes was tasked to give Waller and Theory's mute-able segment a small ratings boost out of the goodness of his heart. While that's all fine and good, the "C" in Carmelo does not stand for charity worker.
Combine all of this with the fact that Hayes took an indirect loss because of the downfall of his teammates (which are, again, not on his level), and it just feels like a really weird and convoluted way to foreshadow a feud between Knight and Hayes. If this was a six-man tag that came after Knight and Hayes have already had a more salient feud behind them, and this was just an added bonus, then it would've been at least a bit more excusable. It all just feels like it was mushed together — Waller and Theory aren't too popular, so throw in number-one-draft-pick Hayes in there with them, and hope that people don't use the match as a bathroom break.
Hayes is not Amy Grant. There is little reason for him to go out of his way to give Waller and Theory their three wishes.
Written by Angeline Phu
Loved: Nia Jax advancing to the Queen of the Ring finals
I would normally be thrilled with the women getting so much TV time on tonight's SmackDown, except it was filmed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where WWE is already participating in sportswashing and trying to use women talent to make the country more progressive about women in the country when it's not.
Okay, now that's out of the way, I want to focus on the Queen of the Ring semifinals. Bianca Belair has been wrestling with a leg injury since facing Candice LeRae early in the tournament. Somehow she managed to get herself all the way to the semifinals before ultimately losing to Jax. Now she will look to get a bit of revenge when she and Jade Cargill put their tag titles on the line against LeRae and Indi Hartwell on the pre-show of the King and Queen of the Ring PLE.
Jax focused on her opponent's weakness to defeat her and to get to the finals. She will face Lyra Valkyria, who has had an impressive run in the tournament. Jax looks to end the Cinderella story. Valkyria has never faced anyone like "The Irresistible Force" before and it will be tough to beat her.
Jax needs this tournament win. Losing to a former women's champion and two-time tag team champion will not hurt Valkyria. Fans have seen a different version of Jax since she's returned to the company. She has improved in the ring and as a character. Queen Nia Jax would be a lot of fun. It would give her more dimension as a heel, and she also gets a title shot at SummerSlam if she wins. This is a good way to get her in the title picture and will give it some variety. Jax needs to keep the momentum she's building, and becoming the second Queen of the Ring can do that.
Written by Samantha Schipman
Hated: Overworking the knees
The "picking a body part and wearing it down throughout a match" method will never be a favorite of mine just because it's been so overdone and it's become a little boring to watch play out at this point. Once on a show is fine, but twice starts to feel excessive, especially if it's in two semifinals matches for the same tournament in the men's and women's divisions and the exact same body part.
Having Tama Tonga and Nia Jax injure their respective King & Queen Of The Ring Tournament Semifinals matches against Randy Orton and Bianca Belair isn't ideal, but when the knee is the targeted body part, it makes it come off as extremely uninspired. To be fair, Jax emerged victorious while Tonga did not, which means that different results were yielded to make things at least the tiniest bit more interesting. Regardless, it makes WWE seem like they're completely out of ideas despite there being so many other parts of the body that could be targeted instead.
The injury angle seemed pointless, especially when Jax and Orton's wins came clean, and while it may lead to more interesting angles for Belair and Orton at WWE King & Queen Of The Ring Saturday night, the chances of that seem slim.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Loved: Logan's brother's pants leave us sports entertained
With less than 24 hours to go until their not-winner-take-all match at King and Queen of the Ring, Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes met United States Champion Logan Paul in the ring to exchange words. There were some good points from Rhodes — especially towards the end, where Rhodes acknowledged Paul's talent but criticized his flimsy, part-timer attitude — and Paul's abnormal accent and big-boy show was just as ear-grating as usual. In the grand scheme of things, this segment was alright if you're buying into the Paul/Rhodes feud (you are one of the bravest people I know if that's so), or downright awful if you're like the rest of the WWE Universe, and absolutely loathe Rhodes' second challenger.
Have you ever heard of something being so bad, it's good?
From "Kung Pow! Enter the Fist" to the entire "Twilight" franchise, there is something that is truly so entertaining about things that are so bad, it cannot be salvaged. Whether it's an expression of counterculture or a subconscious appreciation for the unintentionally camp, something truly awful has a sort of allure to it. When referee Ryan Tran began to pat down Rhodes and Paul, I nearly lost my mind. There is no way this was happening. This is real life? In what world does one of the company's most viral sensations get into the ring with a second-generation superstar (in every sense of the word), and the most action we see is a referee reaching into someone's side zipper pocket to find a SECOND pair of brass knuckles — as if ONE wasn't enough? Where are we? Who are you?
In the moment, this segment got a whole lot of groans from me. It felt like an illogical step after last week's long-winded and convoluted contract signing, and it was not a segment befitting at all for a world champion. As the show moved past the segment, however, I kept coming back to the segment, and how ridiculous it was. The more you marinate on just how hilarious the whole segment was, and how absolutely bonkers it is to have "your brother's pants" as part of your storyline (thank you Paul for that quote, I truly appreciate how you help us accurately portray you as a bumbling fool), the more you start to see the absolutely unintentional genius of the segment. What makes it all even better is that both men took this segment 100% seriously. This makes me think that there was somebody, somewhere in the whole production of this admittedly high-profile feud, green-lit this idea with the absolute conviction that this would be a groundbreaking segment. They absolutely thought they did something with this story beat, and the fact that they didn't makes this segment 10x funnier. I just know in five years, we will be covering this segment as one of the craziest, campiest things to happen from Rhodes' title reign, and we are going to meme this segment into the ground.
While it sort of sucks to go from finishing the story to getting pat down in the middle of Saudi Arabia in the span of two months, it's not realistic to expect Rhodes to be hitting philosophical bangers every feud, every week. Sometimes, the thing that you need to save a throwaway feud is an absolutely unserious, totally impractical, and unintentionally hilarious segment. I may be just a girl, but I'm a girl that was, for better or for worse, thoroughly sports entertained.
Written by Angeline Phu
Loved: Chelsea Green gets time to cook
Chelsea Green is not only one of the best comedy actors on the WWE roster right now, she's also incredibly talented in the ring. It often makes me sad how little we see of that from her, especially in singles competition. While I enjoy Green and Piper Niven as a tag team and I think they work really well off each other's comedic energy and differences of in-ring styles, sometimes, I just like to see Green get a shot on her own. Tonight, even though her match against Bayley wasn't for the WWE Women's Championship, I was glad to see Green get another big opportunity. When she faced off against Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women's Championship a few weeks ago, I kept saying how great I thought that match was. While I also liked seeing Green down on "WWE NXT," it's even better to see her getting these opportunities on the main roster.
Green hit quite a few good moves on the champion throughout the match, moves that weren't comedic or silly. I also liked the fact that Niven didn't interfere in the match at all, letting Green take on Bayley on her own, as well as eat the pin and Niven not do anything to stop it. It wasn't until after the match that Niven decided to mix it up with the champion, which makes sense because not only is Green her partner and friend who she would want to defend, Niven of course would want a shot at Bayley's gold herself, as well. That's also something I loved on the show, the fact that Bayley could have a credible opponent in Niven as well, with a wily Green on the outside interfering on "P's" behalf after not being able to get the job done herself to earn a real championship opportunity.
This segment got some time to it, going through a commercial break. I feel like Green's matches, especially when she's wrestling on her own, don't often get the time they deserve, unless it's been on "NXT." That's probably due in part to the fact she was wrestling one of WWE's women's champions, but still, it worked for me. Bayley doesn't have a championship match at King & Queen of the Ring, so if she was going to fly all the way out to Jeddah, I'm glad she got a match on "SmackDown," at least, especially one that seemingly set up a new feud with Niven.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Hated: How the Ucey have fallen
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't dying for a match between GUNTHER and Tama Tonga, but I do think it's a bit of a shame that The Bloodline, the faction that can and should take a lot of credit for WWE's current boom period, is just kind of nothing now. This time last week, a lot of people were predicting Tonga vs. Jey Uso in the KOTR finals; instead, The Bloodline has zero presence at the King & Queen of the Ring PLE.
That's not the first time such a thing has happened lately, especially with all these international shows — The Bloodline had no presence at Elimination Chamber in February, either. But Roman Reigns was still the champion then, and their absence was seen more as an indictment of Elimination Chamber than an indictment of The Bloodline. Now, the faction just doesn't feel terribly relevant. Reigns is gone, both Usos are gone, and Solo Sikoa has only had one televised match since WrestleMania. Meanwhile, Tonga is already best known for the weird gremlin noises he was making last week, Tanga Loa still hasn't even made his WWE in-ring debut, and now Tonga loses clean to Randy Orton in a match where Sikoa even tried to interfere, but failed.
I don't know, man. These guys finally felt dominant again at Backlash, and they haven't really felt that way since. I'm sure I'm just being impatient and this is all a big set-up for something better, but can we please get Jacob Fatu on TV, already?
Written by Miles Schneiderman