Friday’s night’s SmackDown was the perfect party starter for Crown Jewel. The show kicked off with Roman Reigns and LA Knight coming face to face before their main event match tomorrow night in Saudi Arabia.

Roman Reigns insulted LA Knight by calling him a “cosplayer”

Reigns started off by reminding Knight that he is not just the Head Of The Table but also the face of the WWE. The Tribal Chief exhibited nothing but hate for Knight and he showed exactly that by mocking Knight straight to his face. He did so by calling Knight a cosplaying redneck version of Dwayne Johnson.

Reigns even went on to tell Knight, “Tomorrow night I’m gonna smash you”. But Knight was not going to take that lying down and made it clear to Reigns that he was going to be the new Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at Crown Jewel.

Kevin Owens thrashed Austin Theory

Austin Theory had a lot to prove after being punched by Owens backstage two weeks ago. At the same time, Owens wanted to lay waste to Theory, and he did exactly that on SmackDown. Grayson Waller was present ringside to give some support to Theory, but it was no use as Owens pulverized Theory. Thus, he won his first-ever match after being drafted to SmackDown.

John Cena ripped through Solo Sikoa with fiery rhymes

John Cena just can’t wait to get his hands on Solo Sikoa at Crown Jewel and finally win a solo match after 2000+ days. On SmackDown tonight, Sikoa entered the ring with Paul Heyman and for the first time took the mic to directly vent out his frustration about John Cena. The Cenation Leader immediately popped up and, without wasting time, ripped right through Sikoa in his classic rap freestyle manner.

Cena started off by saying, “I can do this with half a voice and it’s only going to take 90 seconds to cook you”. He even called Sikoa “a Taz ripoff” while spitting his fiery rhymes. This left Sikoa totally shocked but fans were left rolling with laughter as Cena dropped his mic and exited the ring in style. Thus sending a warning message to Sikoa for Crown Jewel.

Pretty Deadly beat The Brawling Brutes in the Donnybrook Rules Match

This match was pretty intense as both sides had to prove a point. What made it more difficult for either of them were the items that were at their disposal to inflict pain on the opponent. From glass bottles to wooden stools to the classic Irish weapon Shillelagh, everything was used by either team to destroy the other. In the end, Pretty Deadly got the better of them by putting Butch through the table with a combined effort, thus winning the match tonight.

Bianca Belair gets revenge from Bayley

Belair finally got a chance to exact revenge for the brutal backstage assault that put her out of action for almost 2 months. And tonight as well, Damage CTRL was looking to repeat the same, but their plans were foiled as backstage security came in on time. But that also led Nick Aldis to bar Damage CTRL from ringside during tonight’s match. This was exactly what Belair wanted and she didn’t miss this opportunity to teach Bayley a lesson.

Bayley put on a tough fight, but she was no match for the anger that Belair had that night. Bayley tried to pull Belair’s beautiful locs to gain an advantage, but Belair ended up whiplashing her straight in the abdomen with those same locs. She then delivered a thunderous KOD to seal a victory for that night and send a message to Iyo Sky ahead of their title match at Crown Jewel.

Also, the team of Charlotte Flair & Shotzi beat Chelsea Green & Piper Niven in tag team action.