How Did Trick & Sami Make This Work?

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown had no business being this entertaining.

From the bizarre brilliance of Sami Zayn, Trick Williams, and the Gingerbread Man — somehow becoming one of the most compelling stories on the show — to the setup for what’s now shaping up to be a Gingerbread Man funeral next week, WWE leaned all the way into chaos… and it worked.

I break down:
🔥 Why Sami Zayn vs. Trick Williams is clicking on every level
🍪 How the Gingerbread Man angle went from ridiculous to incredible
🎭 The comedy chemistry of Danhausen, The Miz, and Kit Wilson — weird, absurd, and surprisingly great TV
👑 Jacy Jayne scoring a statement win over Charlotte Flair
🐺 Jacob Fatu continuing to feel like a rising monster presence
💥 Gunther attacking Cody Rhodes after Cody’s strong showing
🎤 Thoughts on Royce Keys, a character with real upside and presence

This is my full WWE SmackDown review — reactions, analysis, and why this show was ridiculous… incredible… and weirdly one of the most fun episodes in a while.

#SmackDown #SamiZayn #TrickWilliams #Danhausen #TheMiz

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Miz is about to become a baby face. Oh!

unknown 0:06

Miz!

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Two near-perfect segments tonight on SmackDown. Dan Housen, Miz, Kit Wilson, Sami Zayn, a Gingerbread Man, and Trick Williams. We had two future stars just like really shown, showcased tonight in Ricky Saints and JC Jane with a win over Charlotte Flair of all people. Holy cow, right? Cody Rhodes after a big program, not just going away for a couple weeks or or doing really nothing. He's actually going right into a program with Gunther, a credible threat. Jacob Fatto still building, still getting built up. Royce Keyes giving a character tonight. Like, wow. I was thoroughly sports entertained, as Simon Miller would say. This is your Smackdown one take, one shot review, where I do it immediately following SmackDown, and you get my gut reaction. I know it's a cool thing to hate WWE right now, and I'm not gonna lie, I've been pretty upset with WWE myself, but but I also gotta call a spade, a spade, and hey you, you're a spade. This was good TV tonight. Was it perfect? No, but two of the segments were. Let's talk the the Sammy Zayn segment right now, because Sammy Zayn is gonna be challenging Trick Williams for the US title. You can win the US title. All you gotta do, yes, I'm talking about you, the viewer out here. Sammy can win that backlash, but you can win it right now, or actually when I hit 30,000 subscribers, because I'm giving away this belt. All you gotta do is comment below, subscribe to the channel, and you can win this belt right here. It's not a toy, it's a replica, and it's the US title. It hurts because oh, it hurts. It's pointy, so pointy. You think I would you think I would remember that? This belt right here, the undisputed, I'm giving it away to the 20,000 subscriber. He Roman Reigns Acknowledged me, picked that. So I'm gonna give that belt away to him. Okay, let's talk though. Let's talk about it. Trick Williams is so freaking funny. He okay, okay, let's uh let me get my thoughts together. So Sammy Zayn comes out and he's cutting a promo with a gingerbread, like the gingerbread man just standing there. I thought it was gonna be Trick Williams, to tell you the truth, but no, no, by the time Sammy is done talking about his three rider dives in the audience, and he's a total heel now. We don't know when it happened, but at some point Trick became a baby face and Sammy became a heel. And Sammy is just talking about how it's okay, whatever, you can boo him, it don't matter. He's got his fans out there, and what this this gingerbread man, he's just like, and then he starts beating up the gingerbread man, and he tears, he tears his arm off, he tears the button off, right? So this absurd scene of Sammy Zayn crashing out on a gingerbread, then Trick Williams comes running in to save the gingerbread, and Sammy runs away. And Trick is like, he looks down, he sees the gingerbread's arms, arms ripped off, and he does the X sign. The X is historically like this is real. Last time you probably saw it on TV was Brock Lesnar actually doing this, saying my retirement is actually real at WrestleMania 42. But he does this and he says, get the get the EMTs in. So the paramedics they come in, and later, later we see, and there was a dub, this was a dummy. There was nobody in the gingerbread. Later, we have Kathy Kelly at the uh the doctor's room. Trick comes out of the doctor's room, and she's like, How's he doing? And and Trick's like, you know, you attacked, you attacked my my manager, you little yachty. Now you've you've now you're messing with my money, you're attacking the gingerbread man. No, no, you don't mess with money. He actually said a pretty non-PG thing about Lash Legend, even in a, you know, they're they're engaged and stuff, so he wasn't like being disrespectful, but it was definitely not PG. And he got away with it because he just he just spits out just so much awesome nonsense all the time that it's like it so reminds me of The Rock. You just hit you couldn't process what the rock would say until like three sentences later, and that's what Trick Williams is. He's just going at you with stuff, and then during the interview, the doctors come and Trick is like, he looks at the doctor, like shakes his head, and now Trick's mad because the gingerbread man is now dead. The gingerbread man is now dead, and you think this is over, but this thing keeps running on and going on and going on. It's like one of those running jokes that you're like, okay, okay, enough. But then you don't quit and it becomes funny again. Because later we'll see Nick Aldous. Actually, like they'll they'll say, like, they'll have a we're gonna have a funeral for the gingerbread man next week, and Nick Aldous is like, oh my gosh. And Sammy's like, what don't don't do this, don't, don't feed this this joke. He's he's just trying to get under my skin, and Nick Aldous, like, everybody's a little emotional right now. And so, yes, Trick Williams, that right there cements that Trick Williams is now a baby face. The fact that Nick Aldous is playing along with Trick's joke, you know? And so we're gonna have a gingerbread funeral next week. And so, like, everybody needs to dress in black for this because like we need to pay our respects to uh pay our respects to the gingerbread man. This one's for you, my man. Alright, but yeah, I love that segment. And I I I can understand if people are gonna hate on that segment, thinking that it's like what what's going on here? Because I don't know. I don't know. There's a fine line. There is a fine line with goofy wrestling being good and bad, like really, and this one is towing the line, which is which is impressive because the Danhausen Miz and and Kit Wilson stuff is towing the line, also, and they were both on this on this show, and it was just really, really good. Totally got me. The Danhausen stuff surprised me. If you go to the WrestleChops Plus channel where I put all my shorts and my reactions, or on the TikTok, you'll see me reacting to how the Miz totally swerved me. Totally swerved me. Early in the night, we had the Miz and Danhausen trying to like uh they have like a briefcase full of human monies, and they're gonna like, you know, it's gonna explode on him, but it doesn't explode. And then when the Miz and them open it, it explodes on them. Like, oh gosh. So later, when the when Danhausen goes to the ring, Miz comes out and he's like, I can't believe this. You know what? Maybe he's like implies that the curse is real, and he's like, I'm gonna take you under my wing. And then Kit Wilson's like, no, don't do it. And Kit Wilson says, I got a poem. He reads a poem and he's like, Shake my hand. And and Danhausen wants to shake his hand. Whoever the Miz, excuse me, whoever the Miz is gonna shake his hand is gonna take the Miz is gonna take him under his wing as his mentee, mentor mentee. And he shakes Ms. He shakes Danhausen's hand, and this was like pop of the night, maybe. Yeah, I think it was like, and everybody was into this. It was they were just into this, and that's why it's like you can have banger matches, but a banger segment is gonna trump a banger match any day of the week. We need to have banger matches, but but we need these banger segments to make the matches, you know, to get just emotionally invested in them. And so Miz shakes Danhausen, and I'm like, yes, yes, and then and then as they go to curse Danhausen, Ms. attacks Danhausen. Or no, Ms. Danhausen goes to attack uh to curse Kit Wilson. Ms. attacks Danhausen and then they beat him up. They straight up beat up Danhausen. This was this was good stuff here, great stuff here, and totally bought it, totally bought it. I was like hook line sinker. Danhausen will later go to Nick Aldis, and now we got a match at Backlash, Backlash. We got Danhausen, Miz versus or Miz, Kit Wilson versus Danhausen, and a partner that he has to find. Uh, hopefully, is you think it's gonna be jelly roll? I mean, ooh, I bet oh, I wonder now, no, would they like I wanted that match at WrestleMania, but that that that ship has sailed. We'll see, we'll see. Who knows? But like, great stuff here, too. Great, great stuff here. I love these two segments. I just want to hug and squeeze them. Like, right now, it's this will this segment, the only segment that I could think that was better than this segment all year long, hot take here, was maybe Roman and Punk, night after Russ uh Royal Rumble. Like, these three that and these two segments are my favorite of the year so far, believe it or not. We started off with SmackDown, also. Smackdown starts off. Cody Rhodes is like, I'm clear to wrestle, and then out comes Ricky Saints. Ricky Saints, they did kind of allude to or they did a callback to their matchup in AEW, but Ricky Saints is like, Well, I'm a different guy now, and well, you are kind of injured, you're like, you're kind of hurt. I challenge you to a match, and they do have a match, and Cody Rhodes couldn't even main event Smackdown. That that hurt. That I was like, I was low-key embarrassed for Cody Rhodes because he didn't main event Smackdown. Like, come on, like he's the he's QB1. He should have been main eventy, he should have main evented SmackDown tonight. But regardless, regardless, I I think Ricky Saints, I it wasn't like uh I I it was not it was not a home run, but he got to third base. I think I made this analogy on on for something else, but that's how it is. Like, it wasn't like horrible, but it wasn't like the greatest. He had a couple good lines and then a couple awkward lines, but you know, good matchup, good matchup, and then after the Cody, Ricky Saints match where he just won clean, Cody won clean, brought me back to when he beat Carmelo Hayes on Carmelo's first day on the main roster. So hopefully, hopefully, Ricky Saints doesn't take two years before he actually starts to move up the card and then be forgotten at WrestleMania. Like, so but right after right after the match, Gunther comes and attacks. I wonder if Gunther has now been traded to Smackdown. You could say maybe trade Jacob to Raw and Gunther to Smackdown. I don't know. We should like we should make that make sense. But yeah, so Gunther attacks, and he does the thing where he lifts up the belt, like just stop doing that, just stop lifting up the belt, everybody, and stop with the open challenges. Tiffany Strang says, I think we should have an open challenge. Like, so many open challenges. But then, yeah, JC Jane fought Charlotte Flair. Rhea Ripley says, I want to help you. Charlotte says no at first, but because of Fatal Influence helping Charlotte win or lose, Rhea comes out to for the save, and Charlotte and Rhea are now on the same page. And it looks like next week we're gonna have Fatal Influence versus Alexa, Charlotte, and Rhea Ripley. Uh Rhea Charlotte Alexa Bliss did not, she was still considered goth by Charlotte Flair, but she definitely did not look like the Bray Wyatt version of Alexa Bliss. She did say that she is retiring the the spooky dookie, spooky ooky character, Alexa Bliss. And I'm not saying that as a bad thing or or a good thing. I'm just saying that as a thing. And she definitely did not come out dressed fully. It's like kind of like an in-between of Bray Wyatt, Alexa Bliss, and her other Alexa Bliss from way back in the day. But yeah, just note that. Royce Keys did squash the other member of um, you know, Umberto or or uh I forget who they are at the moment. I'm sorry, it's been a long, long day, and it's gonna be a long day tomorrow, but whatever. But he he did squash the other guy, and I apologize, I don't mean to forget the name, that's disrespectful on my part. But what I liked about this was that after Royce Keys goes up to Jacob and is like, Jacob, you need to get what's yours, and they it shows that they have a relationship from the past. I really think they should have played more into this. This was the first time I actually connected with Royce Keys, because it was like he wasn't being a good guy. He wasn't because, like, what is Jacob right now? Is he a good guy? Is he a bad guy? He's like facing both, and so Royce aligning himself with Jacob, like I, you know, that would have been kind of cool. Like, you have the good guys, the bad guys, and then this third entity, which is Jacob and Royce, and they're from the streets, you know, not necessarily bad guys, but not necessarily good guys. I kind of wanted to see more of that. I think there was a miss opportunity with Royce later in the evening, but so that was interesting. We talked, we had the Bellas versus no one Bella, Brie and Paige versus Lash and Lash and Pai. And Lash, no, I am so sorry. Naya and Lash. My dyslexia sometimes really kicks in and it's going that way today. We have Naya and Lash, they lost, they lost, which is let's just split them up then. If they're just not gonna win the tag team and dominate the tag team division, let's Lash go on our own and just you know run run amok. I wouldn't, I would like that. I would like that. We also had Damian Priest and R Truth, they beat Fraxium. Fraxium did a good job selling, but this was kind of a nothing match. But then we had Talatonga and Solo Sokoa, they uh attacked, and when they attacked, Solo starts talking, but that brings out the Usos, they have a little bit of a thing. I wish we would have brought more on the history of Solo being part of the bloodline before, and yeah, it's kind of like you could feel that tension, but they I just wish they would have said something, and this will set up a match later with the Usos, Talatonga, and Solo Sokoa, because the Usos, I don't get this either. Usos are telling Solo to back off because Jacob has business with the tribal chief. Wouldn't they want Solo and Tala to beat up Jacob? Because Solo's mad that Jacob beat up the MFTs last week. So a little bit of uh inconsistent storytelling there, unless you want to say Roman is trying to do this all legit. I did like, I did like J Uso saying he used the tongue and death grip. That's like nobody should be using that. That's like the like the the last resort move or like the nuclear bomb move, don't and he's using it. And like so, and then Tala Tunga, you know, like that that move, the the tongue and death grip, that's from Ming Haku, which is Talatunga's dad, his actual dad. So like I I didn't like that, but it's kind of like insider baseball. Look at me, two two fake sports references. But yeah, so then we have our match with oh Talatunga and Solo Sokoa will beat up Jacob Fatou at some point in the night. We will then our main event is going to be solo tala versus usos. Jacob's gonna come out and attack, and it's gonna be a DQ. Jacob will look super strong here. He beats up everybody, and then at one point you have the Usos in the ring, and Jacob, it's a stair down, and Jacob just walks through them. So I did like that because I I hate when when it's just they they they they bury each other on the microphone or they have a microphone off, and then one just walks away. But this one was he walked through them, so it was almost like Jacob was inviting them, he was challenging them. He's like, I'll walk away, but I'm gonna disrespect you as I walk, and then it's up to you if you're gonna man up or not. And when they didn't man up, Jacob's like, okay, guess my night's done. So Jacob, like, yeah, like they're they're definitely bringing him back to his roots of when he first debuted of attacking of taking out Randy, Cody, and Kevin Owens. So, like, interesting stuff. I didn't like how he did it last week, but I was more in tune with how he did it this week. Maybe because it was only two guys. Now, I do think though, that we should have had Royce Keys come out and help Jake uh Jacob fought too as well. I think that would have been that would have been really good and we could have had those two as kind of like running amok as this like third party, this third party mercenary team. So, you know, good stuff though. Overall, I will say that. Let me see if I missed anything. Not sure. Did I miss anything? Nope, wrong phone. I have two phones right now because this phone, like the internet on it, for some reason, like I can see my YouTube comments, but I can't see YouTube videos. So I had to like grab an old phone just to use the internet and upload stuff, like too much information. Shut up, chop. I think that's it. Uh open challenge. Yeah, that that's pretty much it. I really enjoyed this SmackDown though. I really did. I'm gonna give it an eight because I think the matches themselves were like were like whatever, but the segments, the segments were really good. Definitely go and watch, definitely go and watch the the Miz stuff with Danhausen and Kit Wilson and all of the all of the gingerbread man stuff. Go watch all of that. And then like for real, like if you're a big Jacob fan or Ricky Saints fan, then then watch their segments too. Just good stuff, good stuff, JC Jane. If you're a fan of hers, maybe I should give it a nine. I'm gonna stick with eight. Maybe when I wake up though, I'll give it a nine. What will you give it? Tell me in the comments below. See ya bye. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. There.