The road to WWE Backlash 2023 winds down now!
WWE Friday Night SmackDown returns on FOX at 8/7c from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico with the go-home episode leading into the WWE Backlash 2023 premium live event this weekend.
On tap for tonight’s show is an appearance by “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, as well as an appearance by WWE Backlash 2023 host and competitor Bad Bunny, and Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair.
Also scheduled for the show this evening is The Viking Raiders vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson of The O.C., as well as Shinsuke Nakamura going one-on-one against Karrion Kross.
Featured below are complete WWE Friday Night SmackDown results from Friday, May 5, 2023. The following report was written by PWMania.com reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) as the show aired live from 8-10pm EST. on FOX.
WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN RESULTS (5/5/2023)
The “WWE Then. Now. Forever. Together.” opening signature narrated by future WWE Hall of Fame legend John Cena airs to get this week’s show officially off-and-running.
LWO & The Judgment Day Kick Off Tonight’s Show
We then abruptly shoot inside the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico where the LWO are introduced. Out comes Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, Cruz del Toro, Joaquin Wilde and Zelina Vega.
The group heads to the ring as we see highlights from today’s WWE Backlash where Zelina Vega and Rhea Ripley talk back-and-forth, with Rey and Dominik Mysterio by their respective sides.
Now we shoot back live and see the LWO settled inside the ring as the insanely loud crowd makes a ton of noise in the background. Michael Cole and Wade Barrett plug the SmackDown Women’s title match scheduled for Backlash.
Rey then gets things started in the ring on the mic, cutting a promo in all-Spanish for the first several moments. Not a lick of English in there except the name “Bad Bunny” and later, the name “Damian Priest.” One would assume he is talking about the San Juan Street Fight.
He then talks in Spanish more until we hear the English words for SmackDown Women’s Champion and then the name Zelina Vega. He passes the mic off to her and she gets emotional as the fans chant her name.
The theme for The Judgment Day then hits the crowd pops and then shifts to loudly booing as Dominik Mysterio leads the gang out. They confront the LWO in the ring after Dom stops and rips a fans LWO shirt up in the crowd.
Once he settles in the ring, Dom is unable to get a word out after trying several, several times, similar to his last appearance, only this time he’s being cut off while attempting to speak in Spanish. Rey cuts him off and challenges him to a WrestleMania rematch.
Rhea Ripley steps in front of Dom and says she has a better idea. She tells Rey, “Why don’t you fight me?” Zelina steps in front of Rey and stares down Rhea as the fans pop. Dom leans over Rhea’s arm and says, “Why don’t you fight the both of us … uno, dos.”
Rey agrees. The fans chant “Si! Si! Si!” This is wild if you don’t speak Spanish. Very cool, though. Ripley responds, “You’re on” in English and throws down the mic. That was different. Dom ends up sneaking in a cheap shot before The Judgment Day exit the ring. The crowd boos.
The O.C. vs. The Viking Raiders
After the fun opener wraps up, the theme for The O.C. hits and out comes A.J. Styles, Michin, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. They head to the ring where Gallows and Anderson square off against The Viking Raiders — Erik and Ivar.
As they settle inside the squared circle, we head to a pre-match commercial break. When we return from the break, The Viking Raiders make their way out and A.J. Styles takes his spot on special guest commentary for this one.
Michael Cole and Wade Barrett inform us they will have more on the format for the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament. The bell sounds and both Erik and Ivar start beating down Karl Anderson with a two-on-one attack.
The ref restores order and the match gets underway with Erik and Anderson kicking things off for their respective teams. We see Anderson start to fight back and then the camera pans to ringside where we see Michin and Valhalla in a stand-off as we head to a mid-match commercial break.
When we return from the break, we see some more back-and-forth action, which again sees Valhalla try and play a factor, for Michin to once again stop her and make her pay for doing so. This leads into the finish, which sees Anderson and Gallows pick up the victory in a fun match. The crowd chanted “UNO! DOES! TRES!” on the pin.
Winners: The O.C.
World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Announced
We learn that Monday on Raw, a tournament will take place. On SmackDown next Friday, another tournament will take place.
The winners of those two tournaments will advance to the finals to meet each other at WWE Night Of Champions on May 27 to determine the new Raw-exclusive World Heavyweight Champion.
Bianca Belair Confronted In The Ring By Damage CTRL
The theme for “The EST of WWE” plays and out comes Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. As she settles inside the ring, we head to another commercial break. When we return from the break, we see Belair hyping the crowd up in the ring.
We see the official match graphic for Bianca Belair vs. Iyo Sky at Backlash and then settle back live to Belair in the ring as her music dies down. She talks about all the love she is getting in Puerto Rico.
Belair talks about being hyped to be in San Juan and to be drafted to SmackDown. She talks about the blue brand holding a special place in her heart due to her making history when she initially won the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
She moves on to talk about her Raw Women’s title defense against “The Genius of the Sky” at the WWE Backlash premium live event this weekend. She mentions that with a win tomorrow, she will set a record for the longest reigning women’s champion of the modern era. Michael Cole mentioned that earlier on commentary.
As Belair continues talking, she is interrupted by the theme of Damage CTRL. Out comes Bayley on the mic with Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai by her side. They head to the ring together as Bayley mocks and taunts “The EST of WWE.”
Bayley says Sky is gonna beat Belair for the title and then she and Kai are gonna take the women’s tag titles. She gets in a quick insult to Michael Cole on commentary and Cole sarcastically mentions how it’s great to have her back on SmackDown.
A brawl breaks out with Belair and all three members of Damage CTRL. She handles them well until finally Iyo Sky attacks her from behind. The three Damage CTRL members continue to beat her down until WWE Women’s Tag-Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez hit the ring to run them off.
Karrion Kross With A Message For Shinsuke Nakamura
We shoot backstage after this and we see Karrion Kross standing by himself. He cuts one of his trademark cryptic and ominous promos directed at Shinsuke Nakamura. This wraps up quick and then we head back inside the arena.
Trouble In Paradise Between The Usos & Solo Sikoa
We see video footage showing the looming issues between Paul Heyman and Solo Sikoa and The Usos. We then shoot live backstage where a jolly Jimmy and Jey Uso enter the dressing room where Solo Sikoa is taping up his Samoan Spike hand.
The two talk in a good mood behind him but Sikoa isn’t matching their energy. Finally, Jey seems bothered by this and gets in Sikoa’s face and says they just asked him a question.
He calmly says he heard it and mentioned he’s gonna do his part at Backlash, they better do theirs. He walks off. Jimmy asks Jey why he had to say something.
The Street Profits vs. Imperium
Now we hear the familiar sounds of The Street Profits’ theme and out comes Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins with their red solo cups. Michael Cole talks about it being a big night for red solo cups due to it being Cinco de Mayo.
As Ford and Dawkins head to the ring, we head to a pre-match commercial break. When we return from the break, the duo of Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser make their way out and head to the ring for this scheduled tag-team contest.
The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with this one. Straight out of the gate we see some wild, high-flying offense with Montez Ford jumping into the offensive driver’s seat for The Street Profits.
Kaiser and Vinci end up taking over after some dastardly heel tactics. They remain in the offensive lead until finally the big man, Angelo Dawkins, gets the sorely needed tag. He takes the hot tag and hits the ring like a bat out of hell.
Dawkins beats both Imperium members down and then tags in Ford, who comes off the top-rope with his picture-perfect frog-splash for the pin fall victory. Good match. But a quick one.
Winners: The Street Profits
Cody Rhodes Ready For Brock Lesnar
Once the match wraps up, we shoot backstage and we see Cody Rhodes walking the hallways. As “The American Nightmare” heads towards the Gorilla Position where he will make his way down to the ring, we head to another commercial break.
When we return from the break, we see the LWO backstage as Michael Cole hypes up the mixed tag-team main event scheduled for later tonight against The Judgment Day.
We then shoot to Michael Cole and Wade Barrett, who introduce a video telling the story leading up to the Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes match scheduled for Saturday’s WWE Backlash 2023 premium live event.
The video wraps up and then the lights in the building go out as we return live. The familiar sounds of Cody Rhodes’ theme plays and out comes “The American Nightmare” to an enormous pop from the Puerto Rico crowd.
Fans in the building in San Juan sing not just the “Whoa” part but literally every line of the song from the word “go.” Cody Rhodes is over in Puerto Rico, folks. Michael Cole mentions how this is the final time Cody will be on SmackDown as he officially reports to Raw after Backlash.
“So, San Juan, Puerto Rico …” Cody begins. He finishes the “Whatta ya wanna talk about?” line in Spanish. Nice. He then goes on to talk about “The Beast Incarnate” and the “Cowboy” or “Coward.” He says there’s a lot of nicknames he can attach to his opponent for Backlash.
Cody talks about how he has another nick name for Brock — gate-keeper. He talks about Double A being his coach and mentioned how he talks about the kingdom and being a top guy in the business, and how Lesnar is a gate-keeper in front of that kingdom.
He gets good and fired up and talks about how he is gonna beat up the man who picked a fight with him and still has yet to explain why — Bbbbrrroockkk Lesnar! The crowd pops as his music plays again to end a fun promo segment with “The American Nightmare.”
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karrion Kross
We shoot backstage and we see Shinsuke Nakamura warming up and stretching. Up walks Kayla Braxton for a quick pre-match interview. “The King of Strong Style” delivers his quick one-word sound byte and walks off for his entrance.
In the arena the violins begin playing and out comes the Japanese legend for our next match of the evening. The crowd is super pumped up to see Nakamura, and he’s feeding back their energy with his super-charismatic style.
Michael Cole talks about it being a damn shame that tonight is the final night we get to see Shinsuke Nakamura on the blue brand before he reports to Raw after being drafted to the red brand. We head to a pre-match commercial break on that note.
When we return from the break, we see Nakamura still in the ring awaiting the arrival of his opponent for tonight. With that said, the theme for Karrion Kross hits and out he comes accompanied by Scarlett. The two settle in the ring.
The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with this one. We see some good back-and-forth action and then Kross takes over as the match spills out to the floor. Kross rams Nakamura into the steel ring post as we head to a mid-match commercial break.
As we settle back in from the break, we see Kross beating on Nakamura and taunting him about being the king of nothing. He continues beating him down but not for long, as Nakamura starts to fire up and fight back as the crowd rallies behind him.
Scarlett hops on the ring apron and provides a distraction, which allows Kross hit a Doomsday Saito for a close near fall attempt. He looks for the Kross Jacket submission but Nakamura counters into an arm-bar on the mat. Kross rolls into him but Nakamura switches to a triangle-arm-bar combo.
Kross tries hoisting Nakamura up but the Japanese legend slaps a guillotine choke on him. Kross ends up muscling him up and off but Nakamura catches him with a knee. He then suplexes him on his dome and plays to the crowd.
He stalks him but runs into a big lariat from Kross that turns him inside-out. Moments later, Nakamura does hit his finisher for the win in a good match. After the match, we head to another commercial break.
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura
Backstage With Cameron Grimes & Baron Corbin
We see footage of some of the NXT Superstars who were drafted up to the WWE main roster. When we return live, we see Cameron Grimes approaching Adam Pearce backstage.
Up walks Baron Corbin, but Pearce tells him he’s busy talking to Grimes. This leads to a back-and-forth exchange between Grimes and Corbin. Corbin is offended by the mere thought that Pearce picked Grimes over him.
The two end up agreeing to a one-on-one match against each other on next week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown. Corbin walks off. Grimes is just happy to possibly have his first blue brand match.
Final Hype For Saturday’s WWE Backlash 2023
Now we return inside the arena where Michael Cole and Wade Barrett run down the lineup for Saturday’s WWE Backlash 2023 premium live event. We then shoot to highlights from today’s WWE Backlash press conference and the pull-apart between Bad Bunny and Damian Priest.
Rey Mysterio & Zelina Vega vs. Dominik Mysterio & Rhea Ripley
We then hear the familiar sounds of the theme music for Rey Mysterio. Out he comes accompanied by Zelina Vega for our scheduled mixed tag-team main event of the evening here on the final show before Backlash.
As the two settle inside the squared circle, we head to a pre-match commercial break. When we return from the break, we see Rey and Zelina in the ring awaiting the arrival of their opponents.
Now the theme for The Judgment Day hits and out comes the team of Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley. They head to the ring to a ton of boos. The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with our main event.
Rhea Ripley and Zelina Vega kick things off for their respective teams. We see the two fight back-and-forth with Zelina faring surprisingly well early on. Rey ends up tagging in but Dom doesn’t want anything to do with it. Rhea does.
Eventually Zelina comes back in but it is Ripley who starts to dominate this time around. We see Zelina on the floor holding her face as Rey checks on her as we head into a mid-match commercial break.
When we return from the break, we see Ripley easily handling Zelina as the crowd tries to rally behind the former Queen of the Ring champion. As she fights back and nears a tag to Rey, we see Dom yank Rey off the apron from the floor.
We finally see Rey get the tag and the crowd goes absolutely bonkers as he hits the ring and starts taking it to Dom. As soon as he wraps things up and scores the pin fall victory, we see The Judgment Day hit the ring and begin beating down Rey.
Winners: Rey Mysterio & Zelina Vega
Bad Bunny Joins The LWO
As The Judgment Day beat down continues on an isolated Rey Mysterio, some Bad Bunny music plays and the roof nearly blows off the joint as the multiple-time Grammy award winner comes out with the LWO and a Kendo stick in hand.
The LWO takes out all of The Judgment Day guys and leaves Damian Priest alone in the ring. Bad Bunny stands outside the ring and taunts Priest with a Kendo stick in hand. He finally enters the ring.
As soon as he does, Dom dives at him but Bad Bunny whacks him with the Kendo stick. This does, however, allow Damian Priest to exit the ring without any harm done. He looks nervously back in the ring at Bad Bunny.
Rey Mysterio and the LWO join Bad Bunny in the ring. They hold up an LWO shirt and hand it to him. He puts it on as the crowd pops and Michael Cole plugs the WWE Backlash 2023 premium live event on Saturday night in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That’s how this week’s show goes off the air. Thanks for joining us!
