The “go-home” SmackDown for Saturday Night’s Main Event took place in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on Friday night. While John Cena was not present on the eve of his final match in WWE, several key stars who are also on tomorrow night’s farewell card did a great job in building up hype beyond Cena vs. Gunther.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

Let’s not waste any time and give out the Uncrowned Gem of the Night right away.

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The opening segment of SmackDown absolutely ruled, and it was the rare moment Cody Rhodes got overshadowed on the microphone. After a brief discussion about Drew McIntyre, Rhodes was interrupted by NXT Champion Oba Femi — his opponent at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Femi owned one of the biggest moment’s of his career. His swagger, promo and presence somehow usurped WWE’s biggest current star in this segment. 23 years after Cena and his “ruthless aggression” took the fight to Kurt Angle, Femi is doing the same with Rhodes.

I expect that McIntyre will make his presence felt during tomorrow’s match, protecting both champions in the process, but I desperately hope I am wrong, especially after Friday’s showdown.

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Flying high with an A-Lister

As much as this weekend will be about Cena, Je’Von Evans is in a perfect position to do exactly what the 17-time champion wanted when his final match turned from a straight tribute into a showcase for NXT — steal the show.

Evans faced the Miz on Friday night in a match that was fairly standard for television. There won’t be a long-running program or anything that makes the match stand out beyond the fact that you had an underrated superstar of the Cena era taking on the future of WWE.

Even though there was nothing that will make you specifically remember this clash, I’d argue that’s exactly what makes Evans special. Evans’ talent level is so immense that the extraordinary has become ordinary with him. His offense is breathtaking. Time seems to slow down when Evans goes airborne and he seems to find a beat and grace that exists with few high flyers in the industry. Even when he sells he does it better than any 21-year-old has any right doing in WWE.

Tomorrow’s match alongside Leon Slater against AJ Styles and Dragon Lee is shaping up to be a must-see affair.

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Eradicate this angle

Rhea Ripley was in the main event slot, but this felt woefully out of place. Not because Ripley isn’t deserving of going on last, quite the contrary, in fact.

Ripley reprised her Terror Twins role alongside Damian Priest to take on Zelina Vega and Aleister Black in Friday’s final match. The problem here is Ripley is infinitely bigger than anyone else in this match and we got teases for a potential showdown with WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill as well as a continuation of her pursuit of the Women’s Tag Team Championships with Iyo Sky.

Priest, Black and Vega are are firmly entrenched in the middle of the card, meaning the weight of this mini feud and match fell squarely on Ripley’s shoulders and there was no chance she was losing or wasn’t scoring the pinfall win here.

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As Riggs said last week, Ripley felt shoehorned in to make us care a little more and the results ultimately didn’t deliver.

👍 FRIDAY NIGHT FIRE 👍

1. Ilja Dragunov and Tommaso Ciampa had an incredible match. Water is also wet. Carmelo Hayes made the save after Johnny Gargano got involved after the match. This is a great development for Hayes moving forward. The United States Open Challenge remains one of the consistently great things in all of wrestling.

2. Lash Legend beat Alexa Bliss in a singles match. Legend’s star remains on the rise and the team of her and Nia Jax looks destined for a Women’s Tag Team Championship match against the Kabuki Warriors in the near future. It’s worth giving some kudos to Jax who is once again playing a pivotal role in the main roster introduction of an NXT up-and-comer.

🤷‍♂️ IT HAPPENED 🤷‍♂️

The Wyatt Sicks and MFTs exchanged promos and will face one another next week for the WWE Tag Team Championships. Solo Sikoa has leveled up a bit during this feud, but as with most things with the Wyatt Sicks, this was more of a tease than anything substantial.

👎 DOWN & OUT 👎

Jade Cargill’s first singles championship run in WWE is not off to an inspiring start. I understand building her up as an unstoppable force, but she’s going to need a challenger of some legitimate substance soon. It’s such a weird spot because WWE is doing a phenomenal job with the Women’s Tag Team and Raw Women’s divisions but can’t seem to figure out how to balance all of this out on SmackDown.

👑 The first hour of the show was much better than the second, Evans-Miz aisde. I give this show a Crown score of: 6.5/10. 👑