This week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown started with a surprise — the legendary Rey Mysterio making his way out for an announcement. It’s that time of year, so it was no real surprise exactly what that announcement was.

He’s entering the Royal Rumble.

This adds to a growing list of huge stars already declared for the match, a list he ran through while talking about how tough the competition is this year. He’s made history before, though, and he believes he can make it again.

When he won in 2006, he did it for a good friend, someone we all know and still love. And then Kevin Owens’ music hit to a chorus of boos.

Hey, this is San Diego, and that’s Rey Mysterio. You just can’t be interrupting him at a time like that.

Owens made clear right away that he respects few in this industry like he respects Rey, in fact, he would put no one above him. So he’s just here to say he hopes Mysterio does win the Royal Rumble and what he really wants is for Rey to choose him for the match at WrestleMania. It’s a dream match for him!

There’s just one problem, one Rey was quick to point out.

“You’re not the champion. Cody is the champion.”

But if the circumstances change, he’d be more than happy to give KO exactly what he’s asking for. Owens, of course, snapped at the idea he isn’t champion, considering he’s still carrying around the winged eagle belt that he claims he earned. It all went off the rails when Rey compared him to Dominik.

Mysterio got the better of a short physical confrontation and that was a fun way to open the show. It’s always a pleasure when Rey gets something meaningful to do and it’s worth pointing out that WWE is actually taking time to add some depth to the men’s Rumble this year. I don’t mean just announcing people ahead of time but creating a story related to their possibly winning to make their entrance meaningful beyond just “trying to main event WrestleMania.”

Not long after, Mysterio campaigned with General Manager Nick Aldis for a singles match on this very evening and it was granted. Rhodes showed up to apologize for not being there and still trying to get cleared.

He got said clearance, by the way.

Oh, and Aldis wrote up an addendum to the contract for the Ladder match at Royal Rumble and he needs both Rhodes and Owens to sign it. Cody said he would do so only after KO.

Later, Aldis approached Owens, who gave the same answer as the WWE champion. He won’t sign until Cody and actually he’s preparing for a match so don’t bother him because he also won’t sign until he reads it in full.

At no point in all this did they tell us what the addendum was.

When it came time, Owens and Mysterio had a fantastic match, a back-and-forth battle that ultimately saw the former win with the Pop Up Powerbomb. He played like he was going to leave it respectful with a handshake after but then went for a package piledriver. Rhodes hit the scene to put a stop to it, rushing his Royal Rumble opponent like a man possessed. A super hot brawl was quickly broken up by a gang of officials.

Both men were escorted off but every bit of this worked super well in San Diego.

It’s nice to see WWE using hometown heroes this well.

Aldis never did reveal the addendum, instead telling Rhodes that they’ll both have to show up to Saturday Night’s Main Event to relinquish their titles to be suspended above the ring at Royal Rumble and sign the contract with the aforementioned addendum. Except he won’t be the one residing over it — San Antonio’s own Shawn Michaels will.

I get the idea, considering the show is in his hometown and his connection to the ladder match and all that. But maybe I’m too in the bubble here because for me he’s known just as much as the guy who runs NXT as the king of the ladder match. It almost feels weird for WWE to use him as a returning Legend of sorts like this.

Just me?

Either way, all of this was great.

They did an interview with Bayley, where she talked about winning the Royal Rumble and moving on to WrestleMania to win the women’s championship from Iyo Sky. She thought she was going to do something big from there, really change the scene. But her reign was cut short at SummerSlam when Tiffany Stratton helped Nia Jax defeat her to win the title.

That’s why their match tonight would be for more than just the belt, it would be personal.

They were given the main event spot and about 25 minutes to do their thing. The work in the match was fine but I never really got all that into it, and it felt like they lost the crowd the longer they went along. That included Bayley hitting her Bayley-to-Belly for a second time and getting little reaction for the ensuing pinfall attempt.

The disconnect was likely rooted in the fans seemingly wanting Stratton to win far more than Bayley. The Prettiest Moonsault Ever got a big pop and the pinfall to retain the title saw the crowd cheer like the hero had just fended off a top heel challenger.

This will stand as a solid win for Stratton, and that’s all it was ever going to be.

Jimmy Uso got an entrance not unlike his brother Jey so often gets on Raw, and he cut a short but actually strong promo saying he’s happy for his brother and now he needs to do the same and chase gold for himself over on this side of the company. That starts with taking out Carmelo Hayes.

For his part, Hayes called out Big Jim for being in the shadows of a brother who himself is in the shadows of Roman Reigns. He was a good heel promo to set up the babyface to get over.

But of course it was never going to happen because Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga showed up to cause a no contest, taking out Jimmy in the process. Hell, they even took out ‘Melo when he tried to act buddy buddy with them. That was the lead-in to the big return of Solo Sikoa, still decked out in a red jacket and seemingly still commanding the loyalty of his troops.

SIkoa got the Dirty Dom treatment, with fans refusing to let him speak. So instead of even attempting to do so, he dropped the microphone, took off his jacket, slung it over his shoulder, and walked out through the crowd. Fatu and Tonga were left alone in the ring as the fans sang “hey, hey, hey, goodbye” to Sikoa.

Fatu grabbed the microphone and said he’s tired of the disrespect, tired of the hate, and tired of the envy. But even on his bad day, “y’all still can’t touch me. I give a damn if you cheer us, I give a damn if you boo us. But one thing I will not let you do is try to act like I ain’t never got mine.”

He said if we thought he was off the hinges, we should know he’s just getting started.

LA Knight showed up to crash the promo, and he was dealt with and pushed off to the corner. Braun Strowman then made his return and had a face off with Fatu before Tonga pulled Fatu out of the ring and the heels walked off. By then, Knight was back up and the babyfaces took the ring together.

The house was hot as hell for all of this, even though we didn’t get a damn thing for an answer out of Sikoa. If anything, they just made Fatu look like a much bigger star once again.

All the rest

• Naomi told Bianca Belair there is still no update on the investigation into who attacked Jade Cargill. Meanwhile, the two cleared the air over last week. No issues between them. Then they went out and defeated Nia Jax & Candice LeRae in a non-title match, a fairly straightforward affair that saw Jax accidentally put her teammate down with a big leg drop before the finish. They quickly announced a women’s tag title defense coming up for NXT television against the Meta Girls. I’m still not clear on where the Cargill thing is going and they don’t seem to be in a hurry there.
• Piper Niven acting as Secret Service for Chelsea Green is fantastic. She was doing so here, scouting a room of B-Fab and Michin before saying “no threats detected anywhere” just before Green walked in. Incredible. B-Fab talked her way into a singles match with Niven so she could get her out of the picture. You won’t be surprised to learn that Green was out and used a distraction to give Niven a quick victory. They launched a post-match attack and that just led to Michin rushing out to make the save.
• The Motor City Machine Guns had a damn good match with Los Garza, one that received “this is awesome” chants before the finish. Pretty Deadly showed up to attempt to assist Garza but their distraction failed and Shelley & Sabin emerged victorious anyway. Commentary put over how this likely sets them up for a shot at DIY, which is why Pretty Deadly were out there trying to help them out. Not much but good wrestling here.
• Johnny Gargano attacked Apollo Crews backstage, telling him to “keep our name out of your mouth.” So they’re definitely going to try to do something more with Crews than have him be a bit player backstage, but the bit player backstage role he’s been doing has been fun.

WWE has done a great job of keeping this show really tight, even after it moved to three hours. They still deliver quite a bit without overwhelming you.

It’s always worth tuning into this show.

Grade: B-

Your turn.