[6.0] "Diese Ausgabe von SmackDown fühlte sich ambitioniert an, aber manche Dinge gehen vielleicht hier noch nicht ganz so auf, wie man sich das erhofft hatte. Bereits im Opener sehen wir einen vermeintlich großen Sieg für Ricochet über Baron Corbin, aber die Fans scheinen durch die lange Fehde von Corbin mit McAfee eher Corbin auszubuhen, ohne wirklich Ricochet zu unterstützen. Der Sieg ist ein erster kleiner Schritt für Ricochet, aber es wird noch Arbeit brauchen, um ihn in den Augen der Fans zu stärken. Kaiser gegen Shinsuke war wieder gut. Raquel im Gauntlet Match weit kommen zu lassen, war eine gute Idee, aber die einzelnen Matches bleiben zu blass. Die Paarungen gegen Xia Li, Natalya und Shotzi sind nichtssagend und kriegen auch nicht genug Zeit, damit sich Raquels Durchsetzen wie eine große Errungenschaft anfühlt. Am Ende ist es dann sowieso Shayna, die das Titelmatch kriegt. Auch bei ihr muss noch Arbeit getan werden, bis sie sich von der Midcard-Sumpf-Behandlung erholt, die ihr in den letzten Monaten zuteil wurde. Die Story zwischen Kofi und den Viking Raiders ist eher uninteressant. Interessant - tatsächlich sogar eine mittelgroße Überraschung - ist das Comeback von Karrion Kross, diesmal sogar zusammen mit Scarlett, nachdem er wenige Tage zuvor noch bei Ric Flair's Final Match als Killer Kross aufgetreten war. Nach seinem vollkommen verbockten Run bei Raw, wo er plötzlich mit BDSM-Masken herumlief und sein Debüt in zwei Minuten gegen Jeff Hardy verlor, gönnt ihm Hunter hier wohl eine zweite Chance und lässt ihn direkt ins Main Event zurückkehren, indem er direkt einen großen Star in McIntyre ausschaltet. So kann man das machen, wenn man neue Stars kreieren will. Alles in allem eine Episode von SmackDown, die vorsichtig optimistisch für die nahe Zukunft stimmt, die aber selbst nicht die allergrößten Highlights enthält."
[6.0] "Smackdown startet Gut in die Show nach dem Summerslam. Es wird alles Relevante nochmal wiederholt und aufgegriffen, was direkt zu einem Match zwischen Happy Corbin & Ricochet führt. Ein wirklich gutes Match zwischen den beiden. Ricochet gewinnt nach Pat McAfee, als nächstes gegen Corbin und Corbin wirkt so, als würde er unter der Führung von Triple H keine wirklich große Rolle spielen. Die Storyline rund um den Intercontinental Championship gefällt mir sehr gut und wird gut weiter geführt. Trotzdem muss ich dazu sagen, dass mir Gunther und Ludwig Kaiser etwas zu "Deutsch" rüber kommen. Ich sehe sowas immer kritisch und brauche sowas nicht. Mir werden "Deutsche" woanders auf der Welt immer etwas "Zu lächerlich" präsentiert. Das Match zwischen Ludwig Kaiser & Shinsuke Nakamura war dann Solide. Gauntlet Match was Shayna Baszler dann für sich Entscheiden konnte brauchte ich nicht unbedingt. Aber stellt dann halt nun mal die neue Haupt Herausforderin auf den WWE Smackdown Women's Championship da. Shayna Baszler vs. Liv Morgan könnte ein Gutes Match werden. Genauso wie die Fehde zwischen New Day & den Viking Raiders mir sehr gefällt. Die Viking Raiders gefallen mir mit ihren neuen Vikinger Gimmick viel besser und es ist definitiv ein Upgrade für die beiden. Auch ein Team was man definitiv den Uso's gegenüber stellen Könnte. Das End Segment mit Drew McIntyre & Roman Reigns war dann sehr Gut und vorallem das Comeback von Karrion Kross & Scarlett war einfach unglaublich stark gemacht. Insgesamt war es aber eine Solide Smackdown Ausgabe der Ich eine starke 6 geben würde. Ich hätte aber von einer Smackdown Ausgabe nach dem Summerslam trotzdem etwas mehr erwartet."
[6.0] "The return of Karrion Kross is of course a big event that can turn the balance of power on the show. This, of course, was the main moment of the episode and as a result, the overall impression increased several times. In addition, I personally had nothing worthwhile on the show. Triple H still has to work hard to stir up this hornet's nest, but I think it will cope with the goal."
[6.0] "This show was satisfactory. I thought the the match of the night was Shinsuke Nakamura vs Ludwig Kaiser. The technical work the two did was good. I felt bad for Liv Morgan because the crowd was chanting "you tapped out" during her promo even though she's the Babyface champion. I love that the women got 21 minutes. The gauntlet match itself was satisfactory. Shayna Baszler as number 1 contender is awesome. I liked that Kofi Kingston used the kendo stick before his match with Erick. The ending segment was pretty meh. I'm not a fan of Karrion Kross but he's back. Hopefully whoever Triple H brings back next is a little more exciting. A decent yet skippable episode."
"Overall Ok show. Liked how the Corbin-McAfee feud seems to continue. It was also great to see Sonya again and it's nice that people like Jim Mulkey and Tommy Gibson got a chance to build some name recognition."
[8.0] "I really enjoyed this SD. The start with McAfee and the balls was great. Everything meant something. Shayna getting a push and the surprising return of Scarlett and Kross! Good stuff."
[4.0] "The opening match was fun and all of the backstage segments with the Usos and Sami were as well, Jey's facial expressions before he snapped was perfect. That gauntlet match was essentially 21 minutes of heatless wrestling, but at least it set up a contender. The stuff with Kofi was really fun, especially with how over with the crowd he was. Why is Kross getting involved in the Reigns/Drew build? Also man Sd roster is lacking talent"
[5.0] "This crowd belonged with the RAW show this past Monday. That would of elevated the show to even bigger heights. This SD just had too many commercials and SummerSlam recaps. To be honest, the 2 hours went by so fast because I wanted more wrestling and interesting segments to happen before the Roman/Drew segment. The womens gauntlet match was bleh and the fans turning on Liv was something else. Other than Kross coming back, that was about it. Ricochet/Corbin was okay, everything else was meh. I'd skip this one."
[6.0] "PROS Sami Zayn, Ricochet, amount of actual in-ring action, Shayna Baszler, The final segment (Karrion Kross is a badass again) CONS: Cringe ball jokes, confusing Liv Morgan segment, Women's Gauntlet Match, Kofi beats Erik. OVERALL: A solid start with nothing out of this world but also nothing bad but the middle of this show was just messy and not good at all with everything involving the women seeming rushed and then Kofi beating Erik just being a stupid finish. The final segment was very very good and really is the only thing you need to see. The 3 men involved all looked like stars and Karrion Kross is back and presented how he should be."
[7.0] "The show in general was entertaining, however I did not like the Main Event and its duration, besides that I consider quite irrelevant this story between Viking Raiders, I think it was not so much that fight, the best was the Ricochet and Happy Corbin, which was the initial fight, it was a bittersweet show."
[3.0] "Empty and uninteresting episode of SmackDown. Too many and too long video packages (more than during the McMahon era...), a correct Ricochet vs Corbin, yes, but an average Nakamura vs Kaiser, a really bad Gauntlet Match (and the crowd absolutly didn't care about this match... the SmackDown women's division is so weak...) and a uninteresting stuff around the Viking Raiders. Moreover, the decisions taken in this episode were weird. Corbin is a wrestler who have spots in 1v1 matches at Summerslam and Wrestlemania and he loses against Ricochet ? I don't like him, but it doesn't seem very logical and realistic. But, ok, we'll see. The return of Kross (the crowd didn't care about that) was... strange. Drew just won an opportunity against Reigns in a violent and competitive fight, so... what Kross was doing here to warn Reigns without any construction whereas Drew is built for this, in 1v1. Adding Kross in this equation is a huge mistake, because it makes no sense and the crowd doesn't care about him."
[3.0] "Die Show began ertsmal mit fast 10 Minuten SummerSlam Recaps, nunja. Vieles Matches bei SmackDown, wenig Storys. Was am meisten hängen bleibt ist wohl die Rückkehr von Karrion Kross. Triple H scheint ihn ihm scheinbar etwas zu sehen. Immerhin mit Scarlett an seiner Seite, denn ohne sie ist er aufgeschmissen. Sonst war es ein maue Ausgabe."
[8.0] "The best thing about this show has been the return of Karrion Kross, the match between Ricochet and Corbin has been surprisingly good. And except Kofi and Erik's match and the Viking Raiders' short match, the rest of the show has been decent."
[9.0] "First half of this show in ring wise was great and the crowd was hot for the liv segment and this show capped off with Kross return bringing new life to the reigns feud this was a great episode and the hhh era is in full swing this is clear from this episode."
[7.0] "So let's talk about Smackdown, we've got a decent opener of the show, with a match of the night honestly, which wasn't very spectacular, but I actually expected less from Corbin vs Ricochet than it actually looked like, it was a fun to watch match, Ricochet and his flippy moves, which I always appreciate to watch as I like his style, Corbin did a new action, lovely to see that he still can learn something, Pat McAfee was one of the highlights of this show no doubt, Ludwig Kaiser vs Shinsuke Nakamura? ok match but Nakamura win was important in this one, so we will get Walter vs Shin for Intercontinental Title, this might be a good match for sure! Womans... well, kinda sad it was just a couple of squashes but I mean, they got 21 minutes overall and something happenend with them? It's already a plus, even bigger plus is for Shayna Baszler winning it, with Triple H, there's a chance to save Shayna, the one of most dominant and brutal woman, who deserves the spot, Viking Raiders stuff... I mean... why... We book them as the monsters, I already started to love the new Viking Raiders, the ultimate heels and destructors. I really saw potential in this, but once again, I don't understand it, because Erik already lost in less than 4 minutes his match, I mean what...? I don't understand anymore booking of TVR, I mean okay, Kofi had to win it to make it like they kinda have a chance with them, but in 4 minutes? Oh come on. I would give this Smackdown 7 already but for that main event, it got 6, BUT WHAT HAPPENEND AT THE END MAKES IT COME BACK TO 7, SO THE SEGMENT WITH ROMAN AND DREW SURPRISINGLY ENDS UP WITH FUCKING KARRION KROSS RETURN, man I love Karrion Kross, I loved his performance in NXT, he has unique entrance, he is the psycho and killer I just love him, I was frustrated about his main roster run, but seems like there's second chance thanks to HHH, I am looking forward to what's coming next with Karrion Kross, so yeah, Karrion saved the rating making it up to 7, that's my opinion about this Smackdown, you can agree, you can disagree, but that are my thoughts."
[6.0] "Okay show helped out by a really hot crowd through most of it. Gauntlet was kind of flat but had some worthwhile stuff and a near breakout performance for Raquel Rodriguez. Liv getting booed and not shying away from it is interesting. The ending with Karrios Kross was... something. It's fresh at least, but I have zero interest in a serious push of him."
[5.0] "SmackDown is still trying to find it's footing, and this show proved that. We had two good opening matches (one of which had stakes! ), then it all went to hell. If you couldn't tell, Liv Morgan is my favourite wrestler. And to see the crowd turn on her so quickly after that bullshit SummerSlam match with Ronda broke my heart. But then they started chanting her name later sooo... crowd is just weird I guess? We will have to see if that is a normal occurence. Moving on, the gauntlet match, while it had a few moments, was mostly a series of glorified squashes. Baszler winning was the right call, but they will need to do a LOT of rebuilding to make me believe Shayna is a credible challenger. She barely survived against a very tired Raquel here, and looked like she was in danger of losing at multiple points. Afterwards we got a Vikings squash and a quick Kofi/Erik match, neither of which were overly great. The main event will be the main talking point coming out of this show, as Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux made their WWE returns. While I'm not a fan of Kross at all, I am interested in where his return takes the main event scene. The show started with promise but then plummeted off a cliff. SmackDown desperately needs a draft to add some star power to the roster. 3 points for the first two matches, and 2 for the shocking main event angle."
[9.0] "Very good show with many build up. Triple h's era is really impressive. Tho I Don't like kross a lot, he's return surely give goosebumps because it was completely shocking. (****1/2)"
