John Cena and Cody Rhodes are back in each other’s orbit after a brief break between WrestleMania 41 and last weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.

“WWE SmackDown” closed with the continuation of the championship feud, as the company gears up for Money In the Bank when they’ll face off in a tag team match alongside partners, Logan Paul and World Heavyweight Champion Jey Uso.

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First and foremost, it’s nice to have Rhodes back, and it definitely feels weird seeing him without the Undisputed WWE championship.

Recycling

We have to accept the meta nature of this whole Cena heel run at this point. As much as it might be overly crediting those behind the scenes, I’m convinced they actually want this all to be awful because going the route of Cena and Paul vs. Rhodes and Uso is crazy. Not only is it a waste of Cena’s last stretch of matches, but it is also a waste of Rhodes, who is far and away the best total package of all four of these wrestlers.

Rhodes addressed his time away as soon as he hit the ring, and addressed his run as champion with some minor mentions of The Rock. It’s better than nothing to bring that colossal part of the story to light, but we still could have gotten more. Ultimately, Rhodes promised never to hesitate with Cena again like he did in their match. Therefore, setting up the showdown between both sides of the coin as everyone entered the ring.

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Cena just praised Paul and called his foes wannabes. That’s about all there is to this now, and Paul jumped on the mic (for far too long) to essentially ram home why he and Cena are better than the opposition. His best line was stating that Uso needed Rhodes to beat him at Saturday Night’s Main Event, but everything eventually broke down into a sloppy brawl.

The predictability of Rhodes and Cena’s story continuing, and likely culminating with Rhodes regaining the title from Cena, could have been seen from a mile away. This just doesn’t feel like the right rekindling point whatsoever. There was never a chance it would happen, but Cena losing to someone else on his way out before Rhodes regained the title would even be welcomed. It’s all messy, but again, to an extent, it almost feels like it’s supposed to be. So, take it for what it is.

Ruining quality

Instead of clearing up or resolving the tag team division issue that closed out last week’s “WWE SmackDown,” things got even more convoluted on this show.

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The title-holding Street Profits tried to justify that they were on their way to winning against Fraxiom before the Wyatt Sicks gave them the DQ win. Every other team came out to ring to spout substanceless nonsense. That was all before The Wyatt Sicks hit the blackout and took them all out.

So, what is happening here? Apparently, too much for WWE to organize with all these talented teams, because this looks like some crazy five-way tag team match might come out of it. At least, that — or a tournament — would be the logical move at this stage.

The big problem with the inclusion of The Wyatt Sicks in the title scene is similar to when Bray Wyatt was The Fiend. Supernatural characters don’t need, and probably shouldn’t want, to be champions. Their motives historically are to … well, kill people, essentially. Do you remember when Wyatt drowned Braun Strowman? It’s weird, man.

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I love the creativity of it all, but it’s so, so difficult to do right in this day and age. Their motives should be exclusively story and history-based, but there’s none of that for the group. Strowman is gone, and former rivals or links like Randy Orton, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins are all way higher up on the billing to where WWE wouldn’t dare bother circling back. Maybe with Orton, but even for him, we’re kind of past that. If anything, The New Day would have been perfect over on “WWE Raw,” but alas, here we are.

🐌Quicksand of the Night

It’s a sad, sad, sad, sad day. Triple H managed to give us an atrocious triple-threat match. My soul is still quivering.

Naomi vs. Jade Cargill vs. Nia Jax was the worst three-way affair in quite some time. It legitimately felt like everything was happening in slow motion. Thankfully, the right woman won to advance to the Money In the Bank ladder match, and that was Naomi.

The result came as somewhat of a surprise, considering how Naomi has been booked since she turned heel. She’s done tremendous work, but has not seen many positive results from it.

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The women’s ladder match only gets more unpredictable with Naomi’s addition. She’d be a great choice to have win, and ultimately, if she won and waited to cash in on Bianca Belair after the “EST” regains a title, that would be pretty solid full circle storytelling, especially after the threats each made to the other before the match, including a nasty wheelchair line from Naomi.

Somehow, WWE needs to cap off that story with a big blow-off or extended rivalry. Cargill’s consistent attacks have gotten boring, and they could use some time away from each other.

Unlike that triple threat match, however, the men delivered in spades for our…

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

WWE dropped quite the swerve on us, putting Andrade over Carmelo Hayes and Jacob Fatu to qualify for the Money In the Bank ladder match.

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This was genuinely stunning. Between all three, Andrade has had the least amount of story or airtime given to him in recent weeks. What we have seen has been his inclusion with Legado Del Fantasma, and nothing of significance in the singles department. But unsurprisingly, the match as a whole was just fantastic. Interferences were expected, and came earlier from The Miz in Hayes’ corner before Fatu took him out. The U.S. champ ultimately came up short after Solo Sikoa and JC Mateo prompted him to hit another moonsault on Andrade, causing a distraction. Fatu stayed protected, as Hayes ate the pin. The latter appears headed for a split with The Miz, but the booking of all of this was executed borderline perfectly.

👍FRIDAY NIGHT FIRE👍

1. Los Garza beat Rey Fenix and Je’von Evans with the assist from Ethan Page ringside. The NXT North American champion was a very fun listen on commentary, and only out there because of the impending match he’ll have with the two men at Worlds Collide. It was a little rough to have Evans take the pin in his “WWE SmackDown” debut, but he looked like a million bucks, and Los Garza riding into the event off a win is good. It all worked well.

2. We finally have some new direction for Damian Priest after moving on from Drew McIntyre. The former World Heavyweight Champion set his sights on the United States titlist with an in-ring promo. I love it. Something new, something fresh, and Priest even congratulated him, showing respect. However, he admitted he has no respect for the likes of Sikoa and Mateo, which adds a little wrinkle. It should be interesting to see how this all plays out, especially as the breakaway from Sikoa still needs to happen for Fatu.

🤷IT HAPPENED🤷

1. R-Truth lost a quick match to Mateo after roasting him and Sikoa backstage. The brief interaction was funny, then Mateo rightfully won before continuing the attack. Jimmy Uso made the save, and that was that.

👎DOWN & OUT👎

1. The never-ending United States Championship feud between Zelina Vega and Chelsea Green’s squad continues to never end, as Vega won a match against Alba Fyre. Just because.

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Did WWE forget about the rest of the women on the roster? It legitimately feels like it. That was until Giulia teased a pursuit of the US title backstage — despite being in the Money In the Bank ladder match. So much for her winning that, I guess.

👑 I give this show a Crown score of: 6.5/10.👑