WWE SmackDown Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction, Highlights From May 24 (2024)

Welcome to Bleacher Report's recap of the WWE SmackDown go-home show before Saturday's King and Queen of the Ring pay-per-view in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

This week's show featured the final SmackDown matches in the Queen and King of the Ring brackets to determine who would go to the final round this weekend.

Tama Tonga Battled Randy Orton while Nia Jax took on Bianca Belair. We also saw Bayley take on Chelsea Green in singles competition, and Cody Rhodes had yet another confrontation with Logan Paul to hype their title bout.

Let's take a look at everything that happened on Friday's show.

The final SmackDown before the PPV opened with shots of various Superstars arriving at the arena before the show.

They took in the reaction from the crowd before locking up. Jax immediately took control and began tossing The EST around the ring.

This was the classic Irresistible Force vs. Immovable Object pairing. Jax is one of the most physically imposing women in WWE history, and Belair is one of the strongest, so they are two of the only people who can offer a believable challenge for each other.

This wasn't a fast-paced affair, but they took the time to sell everything and spaced out the big moments well. Belair kept trying to go for the KOD, but her injured knee wouldn't allow for it. Jax was able to take advantage of the injury and hit her finisher for a clean win.

Result: Jax defeated Belair

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

Grayson Waller and Austin Theory hosted an episode of The Grayson Waller Effect. They were trying to bring out someone else, but Carmelo Hayes showed up.

Waller ended up agreeing that Hayes would be a better guest than LA Knight, so they welcomed him to the ring. Hayes tried to pitch an alliance before Knight made his way out. The Street Profits eventually saved him from a three-on-one attack.

A six-man tag match got started after we returned from a break. Hayes and Ford started things off with a nice exchange but quickly tagged out to Knight and Theory.

This was pretty standard stuff, but everything was executed well. The heels played their part and the babyfaces were getting consistent pops from the crowd.

Ford scored the victory with a huge frog splash.

Result: The Profits and Knight defeated Theory, Waller and Hayes

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

Paul and Rhodes had their final confrontation before the PPV. A ref found a pair of brass knuckles in his pocket after he claimed not to have any.

The next matchup featured Bayley facing Green in a non-title bout. Green took control almost immediately and showed a lot more aggression than usual as she dominated the champ until a commercial break.

Bayley used the Rose Plant to get the win when we returned, but Piper Niven attacked her before she could even get to her feet to celebrate.

The former leader of Damage CTRL now found herself the victim of the numbers game and was left lying in the ring by the former women's tag champs.

The match itself was relatively simple, but the post-match attack instantly made Niven look like a potential contender for the belt.

Result: Bayley defeated Green

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

The main event this week was the final KOTR match in the SmackDown bracket between Orton and Tonga.

Paul Heyman and Solo Sikoa were present to watch the MFT battle The Viper. Tonga promised a new king would be coming to The Bloodline this week in a backstage promo.

Tonga may be a badass, but Orton had a pretty big height and weight advantage, so he was able to get the upper hand and keep it until Tonga clipped his knee at ringside.

The match slowed down significantly when Tonga kept The Viper in a sleeper hold for a long time. Once he broke the hold, the former world champion began running through his signature moves.

Orton picked up the win with an RKO as a mildly impressed Gunther looked on from the crowd.

Result: Orton defeated Tonga

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

This week's SmackDown only featured four matches, so a lot of what we saw was non-wrestling segments designed to hype the PPV this weekend.

All four of the matches we got were enjoyable, but it's hard to look at a show like this and not feel like WWE skimped a bit, which is not uncommon with go-home shows. Some people had the same complaint about Wednesday's AEW Dynamite.

While all four matches were decent, none of them really stood out as noteworthy in any particular way. The six-man tag was the most exciting bout, but both the QOTR and KOTR matches were enjoyable for different reasons.

All in all, this was an average show, but it went by surprisingly quick for an episode with a lot of talking segments and video packages.

Grade: C+