With just one day before another edition of the revived Saturday Night's Main Event, and eight days before the 2025 Royal Rumble, "WWE SmackDown" did its best to build up the two major events.

The result was a show that was solid, albeit relatively unspectacular, and a bit disjointed.

Rhodes to WrestleMania

"SmackDown" kicked off with a one-on-one interview between Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Joe Tessitore. Rhodes did a solid job of selling Saturday night's contract signing between himself and Kevin Owens, reminding everyone why he's one of the best promos in the business in the process.

Rhodes did a great job of putting his opponent over and getting us ready for his ladder match against Owens at the Royal Rumble. This felt like it may have been better suited for the true go-home episode of "SmackDown," if only because we had an Owens segment (more on that in just a second) and brawl later in the night, and are going to have a showdown at Saturday Night's Main Event and presumably another segment next week.

Ethical moment of the night

Shortly after Rhodes opened the show, Owens made a very valid point that he didn't get an interview from Tessitore, questioning the kayfabe integrity of the broadcaster. This has been the whole point the Prize Fighter has been trying to make — Kevin is right.

During Rhodes' promo, he said Owens has a genius wrestling IQ. Turns out Cody is right too. We always need to pay attention to Owens' attire, and Friday was no different. Owens was rocking a Sami Zayn Forever shirt during his run-in with Tessitore and then Matthew McConaughey, who was seated front row behind the announcer table. Owens planted some seeds on Monday's episode of "Raw" during a promo with Zayn. It's easy to applaud Owens work on the microphone and in the ring, but it's the little things like this that make him a truly special talent.

Following up on that, Owens made a wardrobe change for his main event match against Jimmy Uso, ditching the Zayn tee for a Naomi — Uso's wife — shirt. Attire aside, Owens and Uso put on the best match of the night in the main event, with Owens ultimately winning and drawing out Rhodes for a brawl as "SmackDown" went off the air.

There's almost no chance Rhodes loses next Saturday, but I also believe that based on the crowd reactions during the entirety this feud, we'll see it extend beyond Rhodes' inevitable victory.

Return of the Queen — and more

As much as I'm over superstars declaring for the Royal Rumble, I understand why WWE spoiled one of the big returns for next week with a vignette for Charlotte Flair.

Undeniably one of the best women's performers of all time, Flair was going to get a big Rumble pop regardless of whether it was announced or not. We also got a throwback mention to her father's famous promo after his 1992 Royal Rumble win when she said she'd be back with a "tear in her eye." She's immediately a favorite to emerge victorious and challenge either Rhea Ripley or Tiffany Stratton.

Speaking of Stratton, the first-time WWE Women's Champion was interrupted by Women's World Champion Ripley, Nia Jax, Candice LeRae, Bianca Belair, Naomi, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. It was a bit of a messy segment with all of the non-singles champions saying they'd enter — and win — the Royal Rumble, and the whole scene resulted in a six-woman tag match without Stratton involved.

The match that followed was solid enough, with Morgan picking up the surprise pin over Belair, it was just a little strange that Stratton wasn't involved further considering she's the top champion on the "SmackDown" brand.

Monster vs. Werewolf

Tama Tonga and LA Knight put on a very good match Friday night that the Megastar won, seemingly ending his chapter with The New Bloodline. With all due respect to Knight and Tonga, all we're going to be talking about/looking forward to is Braun Strowman's showdown with Jacob Fatu on Saturday.

After Knight's win, Tonga and Fatu began their beatdown, which drew out Strowman for the save. We got a moment between Strowman and Fatu in the ring and the crowd ate it up. As predictable as the post-match chaos was, it was electric and built Saturday's match into something we'll all want to see, so much so that it's our...

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

The showdown between these two behemoths was awesome and WWE did a tale of the tape-style promo for the match earlier in the night. As much as the traditional fight segment works, I would love to get some advanced analytics into the mix. Have you seen Fatu's hip attack? Imagine attaching a miles-per-hour number to illustrate just how fast he runs into the turnbuckle? How about the force with which Strowman drives grown men to the mat with his running powerslam? WWE has done a lot of experimenting with presentation styles — there's something fun to be had here.

Alright, Alright, Alright

(In honor of McConaughey's presence, here are our wins of the night)

1. By moving over to "SmackDown," Damian Priest is finally getting to distance himself from the Judgment Day, which is an excellent thing. The former World Heavyweight Champion got a match against Carmelo Hayes on Friday, which was among the best of the night. Priest continues to operate a bit like Undertaker-lite and, despite a brief interaction with Rhodes, he could find himself more in line for a United States Championship match in the near future. Hayes gets Jimmy Uso next week and is no worse for wear after Friday's loss and an inexplicable run-in before the main event.

2. I mentioned Fatu and Tonga earlier in the recap, but their stars are WAY on the rise, in the ring and on the microphone. Their pre-match promo was short but unlike anything else we saw on the show.

3. Apollo Crews is criminally underrated. There was a sequence in his match with Johnny Gargano on Friday when he hit Gargano with a Gorilla Press Slam and standing moonsault back-to-back. There aren't many athletes who can do that in such a seamless fashion. I'm not sure his win (with the help of Motor City Machine Guns) over Johnny Wrestling will move the needle much.

4. Aside from helping Crews, MCMG managed to beat Pretty Deadly in a solid match on Friday and secured their spot in a title match against DIY at the Royal Rumble. Oh, it's also going to be two-out-of-three falls. Royal Rumble is shaping up to be a truly special card.

Smack Talk 📣

1. The Miz is on "SmackDown" now, along with the Wyatt Sicks. There haven't been many complete whiffs in WWE in recent memory, but beyond their initial debut, the Wyatt Sicks have been one of them. Everyone involved in this Final Testament-Wyatt Sicks-Miz angle needs a bit of a reset and to distance themselves from this story.

2. Michin and B-Fab picked up a tag win over Niven and Green. There wasn't much to this match besides the outcome — Michin pinning Green — which resulted in the former getting a final shot at Green's championship next week. On a three-hour show, there could have been a little more time set aside to make Michin's win feel a little more significant.

👑 Outside of a few complaints and few truly consequential moments, this wasn't a bad episode of "SmackDown" and it served mainly as a table-setter for the next week or so of WWE programming. 7.5/10 crowns. 👑