Friday Night SmackDown

The tag team champions returned to television after retaining their titles at TLC; for a reward the New Day were set to face off against Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura in a non-title match. It served as delay for Braun Strowman, who wants an IC title shot. It was no surprise to see him come to the winning New Day’s age when Sami Zayn directed his guys to take out Big E and Kofi Kingston. B-

Best buds. Sasha Banks and Bayley, made their way to the ring to accept Dana Brooke’s challenge laid out to the champ. Sasha’s presence did not cause a stir, but her mouthing off did stir Lacey Evans. Banks would accept the challenge but no one would get a win because both women were counted out as the Boss put on a show for Evans’s family at ringside. A

Raw

Well, at least there was some kind of action for Bobby Lashley this week. Just seven days before their televised wedding, he and Lana made their way to the ring to face Cedric Alexander, who was no push over. As a matter of fact, Lana stopped the match to scold Alexander for being so agressive. The day was won by the dominance of Lashley, but it was refreshing to see that the match wasn’t some expressway to get back to talking about Rusev. C+

Humberto Carrillo matched up well enough with Ricochet that Tony Nese was selected to highlight some uptempo wrestling. This was definitely an exception match given that it’s highly unlikely that any series will spring from this nor will there be anyone else to…Recoil! And the winner is Ricochet. C

For everything that Cedric Alexander brought to the Lashley – Rusev fiasco, No Way Jose destroyed it. It’s not unusual to see him job to an opponent on television, but then he got up and welcomed Rusev to dance in jubilation. Things got uneasy at that point. F

Friday Night SmackDown

More dancing? Of course why not? It’s custom for the New Day to do their normal gyrating before and after matches. This week it was taking it to the returning Sami Zayn and his crew. Braun Strowman joined Big E and Kofi Kingston to achieve this feat; for joining them, Braun got to cut a rug for all in view to New Day tunes. B-

Sasha Banks put on a show for Lacey Evans and her family last week. The natural course of things would be to put the two in the ring together again but with Bayley and Dana Brooke joining them. Sasha did all she could to avoid Lacey; Dana wasn’t so lucky though. Banks would make her submit to the Banks Statement as a punctuation to the contest. B+