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WWE SmackDown results, highlights for Oct. 18: Roman Reigns acknowledges Solo, Motor City Machine Guns debut

drake riggs
Uncrowned
·9 min read
Jan 29, 2022; St. Louis, MO, USA; Roman Reigns during the Royal Rumble The Dome at America's Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Roman Reigns was all over Friday's "WWE SmackDown." (Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports)

Happy "WWE SmackDown" Friday, Uncrowned readers! Wow, 10-year-old me would be baffled to hear about this full-circle moment our life has come to — watching and reviewing a WWE show professionally? What a world.

So what went down?

We saw plenty of progression with The Bloodline, Cody Rhodes was in the house, and the Motor City Machine Guns (MCMG) debuted in the WWE. A lot was squeezed into this show as there was a lot to address. The show did its job in that respect but was far from overly memorable.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

This was going to be tough to beat. You surely guessed it. The Motor City Machine Guns' debut is our Uncrowned gem of "Friday Night SmackDown."

I'm always excited to see fresh, new, exciting fights, transitions, or matchups no matter what sport or realm of entertainment we're working with. MCMG's arrival in WWE is an instantly exciting breath of fresh air for the tag team division and will inevitably lead to incredible new singles pairings for Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley. They had a good showing in their triple-threat tag match, but it's only the tip of the iceberg. I hope, anyway.

Columbia, South Carolina was having none of Solo Sikoa and the boys, which is always fun. Loud boos and "Solo sucks" chants rained upon the crew as he asked to be acknowledged and called himself the Tribal Chief.

Sikoa promised more beatings for his relative Roman Reigns if he didn't get acknowledged by the night's end. Jey Uso interrupted to large applause from the fans, as per usual. He tried to play peacemaker with his appearance.

I'm not too big of an Uso guy and the "Yeet" is lame, so Sikoa making fun of the catchphrase was welcome.

Uso left the ring after he essentially threatened The Bloodline not to threaten him anymore. Would we call that a threat-off?

It was somewhat of a nothing opener, but it was fine. Seed-planting Uso's reunion with his brother and Reigns.

I'll never complain about a triple-threat tag team match as the first of the night.

It was fast and furious as one would expect. Although there weren't any Vin Diesel sightings in the crowd, Montez Ford stole the spotlight and cruised with his high-flying offense. Pin attempts were all over the place, including Ford going for a surprise roll-up on Elton Prince as my feed cut to a non-picture-in-picture commercial. Thanks for that one, Fubo TV!

It was nonstop throughout, and as multi-tag matches often become, this was chaos. The match ended with a pair of pins by DIY and Street Profits on each of Pretty Deadly. According to referee Jessica Carr, Tommaso Ciampa had the rightful pin to get the win for his team.

Winners: DIY

🙌 Best Spot: Ciampa's Air Raid on Wilson into a 450 splash from Ford.

Reigns and Uso bragged about listening to a new unreleased Travis Scott track as they exited their ride. Jey Uso walked by and received some praise from Reigns, replying with the expected, "No yeet." Also, a dumb thing to say.

The program flipped over to Jax on the phone with her would-be tag partner for later on, Tiffany Stratton, who was allegedly ill. Jax, alongside "SmackDown" General Manager Nick Aldis, were greeted by Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell, who wanted to save the day. Aldis had no qualms about changing Jax's match against Bayley and Naomi.

It wasn't the greatest work from Jax here. She was just mad for no good reason, and we'll touch on that during the match. Lastly, the more I see Aldis the more I want to see him as a wrestler, not an authority figure.

Quick and to the point, this one.

The fans were into it for as long as it lasted, and that wasn't long. It was a display for Legend as she landed big moves almost exclusively — 1, 2, 3 off the missed splash from Niven.

Winner: Lash Legend

🙌 Best Spot: Legend's strength overall (I know that isn't necessarily a spot, but good lord, that was impressive)

Another backstage look at Reigns and Uso started with a jump scare to Reigns from Uso. Uso was trying to relax the former Universal champion, mentioning how he wanted to be like Paul Heyman. These guys have always been good at providing these little comedic moments.

They talked about how they'll fix things and Reigns said he'll acknowledge Solo. So, more set-up for the end of the show.

Rhodes came out and hyped the Crown Jewel championship. He took us down memory lane by reflecting on dream matches we never got like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. Goldberg, among others.

Gunther received some comments from Rhodes afterward. No trash talk, but words of confidence. It kind of sucks how nice the Crown Jewel belt is because those big nice titles should be constantly on screen. It looks a little bit like something an Elimination Chamber winner should get, honestly.

Rhodes ended his promo with an invitation for Gunther to next week's "SmackDown."

"What do you wanna talk about, champ?" he asked.

A fine promo from Uncrowned's No. 1 pound-for-pound wrestler "The American Nightmare," as always.

Unhinged Owens is a time, eh? I'm not sure how I feel about him like this yet. He feels lost.

They showed footage of Owens' beatings on Rhodes and Orton outside the busses. Owens was then seen in his car to cut a promo through his phone. That was a nice realistic touch. Owens went on about the WWE's disrespect and Orton breaking his trust.

We moved to Orton asking Aldis for an Owens match at Crown Jewel. Demanding it, really. Aldis said it's not doable because "up above" won't allow it. Orton walked off, presumably headed for his old pal Triple H's office.

It's amazing seeing MCMG in WWE. I watched Alex Shelley vs. Tom Lawlor live at a Portland indy show in 2022, and boy, I'll tell you — it was a good time. Shouts to the "Filthy" one.

"Your favorite tag team's favorite tag team," Corey Graves said on commentary.

This match was much more "controlled" and slowed down than the first triple threat tag. MCMG were given plenty of focus from the jump as they got their offense rolling. Chris Sabin disappeared randomly during the picture-in-picture while Los Garzas beat up Shelley.

Sabin eventually returned and they took over by taking out Theory and smashing Garza for the win. A predictable but solid debut. MCMG vs. DIY next. How about that?

Winners: Motor City Machine Guns

🙌 Best Spot: Whatever the hell you want to call that super-suplex-powerslam combination of all teams

This was unintentionally hilarious just because of how quickly it escalated. They were doing a dual interview with Byron Saxton — or were supposed to be. But like Peter Griffin and the chicken, they couldn't contain themselves and started trading blows.

That was that.

Jax and Bayley started things off before they each tagged out. Jax looked upset with LeRae the whole match, which was a silly booking. Historically, Jax has been treated and built to be one of the few who does not need a tag team partner.

Indy Hartwell interfered in this match and ultimately got LeRae and Jax the victory. Hartwell distracted Bayley and set LeRae up for her moonsault off the ropes and the win. Alright. Well, there's a new wrinkle in the story and I'm curious to see where it goes.

Jax still wasn't happy.

Winners: Nia Jax and Candice LeRae

🙌 Best Spot: LeRae's springboard moonsault

The Smackdown GM revealed he was adding a special referee to the pair's match next week — and it was none other than the United States champion LA Knight. YEAH!

Knight was up for the task and said he'd be the best damn referee in WWE history. I love this guy. A fun addition to next week's festivities.

"Maybe for the last time," Reigns prefaced his catchphrase in the ring.

Sikoa walked to the ring meaning business with his gear on, so you knew there was going to be a clash of sorts. I don't think I've given him enough appreciation — or just easily forgotten it — but Reigns really is f*cking great on the mic. He was awesome here.

Sikoa wanted to be acknowledged, the poor guy. That was the cure to their family woes. Reigns said it and that still wasn't enough. Sikoa wanted that "Tribal Chief" label too. Sikoa threatened him to do it "or else," and Jimmy Uso was dragged out by The Bloodline. Sikoa attacked and got taken out by Reigns along with the rest of the members. God mode activated, you could say.

That was until a good old-fashioned uppercut to the kibbles-and-bits from Sikoa while Reigns picked up the ula fala. God mode deactivated.

Sikoa spiked Reigns twice as he and The Bloodline stood over him to close Smackdown. No Jey Uso save.

I give this "SmackDown" a Crown Score of: 👑 4.5/10 👑. I'd have preferred some more meaningful-feeling or lengthier singles matches, but there was fine story progression.