It was an extremely loud night as French fans welcomed WWE SmackDown superstars to Lyon’s LDLC Arena.
The May 3, 2024, episode of the blue brand featured multiple matches as well as segments.
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and WWE Women’s Champion Bayley worked the show as well. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest hits and misses from the final SmackDown before Backlash France.
Hit – A star-studded opener on WWE SmackDown
This week’s episode of SmackDown kicked off with an eight-woman tag team match. Bayley, Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, and Naomi joined forces to take on Damage CTRL and Tiffany Stratton. All of these women put on a great opener to set the tone for the rest of the show.
We saw hits of animosity between Belair and Bayley. The EST picked up the win for her team following a KOD on Dakota Kai. Belair and Cargill are set to take on the Kabuki Warriors for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship at Backlash.
Bayley, on the other hand, will defend her Women’s Title against Naomi and Tiffany Stratton at the upcoming PLE.
Hit – Chaos on the first-ever RKO Show
Kevin Owens and Randy Orton hosted the first-ever RKO Show on WWE SmackDown. KO began his promo in French. The pair talked about their differences with The Bloodline. Paul Heyman showed up to a huge ovation. The Wiseman acknowledged the crowd’s reaction to Roman Reigns’ absence.
Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga interrupted the segment by attacking Owens and Orton. This caused a huge brawl between the four men. Security tried to contain them but ended up getting manhandled. Owens and Orton will take on Sikoa and Tonga in a tag team match at Backlash France.
Miss – WWE Tag Team Championship match
This week’s WWE SmackDown featured a tag team title defense. A-Town Down Under put their titles on the line against The Street Profits. The challengers showed a lot of momentum but failed to topple the champions.
This felt like a one-sided match for the most part. Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford dominated the contest until Austin Theory and Grayson Waller grabbed a fluke win. The champions needed to show, at least, some sort of offense in this match.
Hit – LA Knight declares for King of the Ring
LA Knight received a massive ovation in Lyon, France. The Megastar entered the ring to take on Legado Del Fantasma’s Angel. Knight won after seven minutes of action. He grabbed a mic and cut a promo.
Knight said he’d be entering the King of the Ring tournament. An irate Santos Escobar also declared for the tournament. Former NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes had declared earlier in the night.
Miss – Main event promo segment on WWE SmackDown
The main event was a promo segment between Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles. Both men met for the final time ahead of the Undisputed WWE Championship match at Backlash. Rhodes added some French to his promo, and Styles had some minor botches.
I feel the lack of physicality, excluding the slap to Rhodes, made it underwhelming. Rhodes can cut a great promo, and Styles does his best talking inside the ring. They could’ve let both men just attack each other to add some element of animosity.
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