WWE SmackDown Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights from May 13

At WrestleMania Backlash, The Bloodline once again proved its dominance over WWE with a victory over Drew McIntyre and RK-Bro in a stellar six-man tag team main event.

Friday night, the unsatisfied Raw Tag Team champions Randy Orton and Riddle confronted SmackDown tag champs The Usos as they continued their battle for tag team supremacy in WWE.

What would RK-Bro have in store for Jimmy and Jey as they sought to avenge the disappointing defeat from just five days earlier?

In other tag team action, would women's champions Naomi and Sasha Banks be able to thwart the challenge of Shayna Baszler and Natalya and retain the titles they captured back at WrestleMania?

Find out with this recap of the May 13 Fox broadcast.

• Confrontation between RK-Bro and The Usos
• Women's Tag Team Championship Match: Sasha Banks and Naomi vs. Shayna Baszler and Natalya
• Kofi Kingston vs. Butch

RK-Bro kicked off Friday's show to a thunderous ovation before Randy Orton cut to the chase and called out Undisputed WWE universal champion Roman Reigns. Instead of The Head of the Table, Sami Zayn interrupted and urged the Raw tag team champions to go back to their own brand.

Orton coerced Zayn into a match with Riddle. If The Original Bro were to win, RK-Bro would get the tag team title unification match they should have had at WrestleMania Backlash. Adam Pearce confirmed the match, which was to take place immediately. 

Riddle and Zayn tore the house down with a hell of an opener that saw some dramatic near-falls, a red-hot crowd hanging on to every one of them and a great finish that saw the tag champion beat the referee's count back into the ring before delivering Bro Derek for the pinfall win.

Zayn continued to highlight his Bloodline sympathizer character while obliviously referring to himself as the locker room leader, while Riddle shined in a match that only added to the idea that The Original Bro is quickly becoming one of the workhorses of WWE.

A great start to the show that set up a face-to-face later in the night between the babyfaces and The Bloodline, as we saw via backstage vignette from Roman Reigns and The Usos. 

Grade

A

Top Moments

• Zayn wore a Bloodline shirt, continuing his efforts to suck up to Reigns while calling himself a locker room leader.
• Riddle almost broke Zayn by ridiculously calling him Rusty "because your hair looks like the color of rust." 
• Orton leading a chant of "Rusty" is the absurd, wholesome goodness we are here for. 
• Orton sold the hell out of a late-match near-fall that had the crowd fired up.
• Backstage, The Bloodline took exception to the outcome and vowed to give RK-Bro an answer later.

On the heels of winning the SmackDown Women's Championship from Charlotte Flair in a physical, punishing I Quit Match, a confident Ronda Rousey issued an open challenge. Raquel Rodriguez answered and suddenly, SmackDown had a fairly significant, first-time-ever match on its hands.

The NXT export dominated the action, countering everything Rousey threw at her by using her unmatched size and power. The second-generation star appeared to be well on her way to victory when Rowdy managed to shift her weight, roll Rodriguez up and hook the leg for a desperation pinfall.

This was infinitely better than expected. Rodriguez as the dominant force and Rousey as the scrappy fighter dipping into her bag of tricks to score a win was a story that worked extremely well. Rodriguez instantly looks like a top contender who can hang with the best and baddest, while Rousey proved she does not have to resort to submissions to defeat an opponent.

A good match that enhanced both women, this was an easy thumbs-up that did not appear to be one when first announced.

Grade

B

Top Moments

• Rousey refused to call her title the SmackDown Women's Championship, twice referring to it as the SmackDown World Championship Title. It is in line with her questioning, prior to WrestleMania, why they have to call it the women's title in the first place.
• Rodriguez woman-handling Rousey around the ring made for some impressive visuals that further sold the story. 

An in-ring promo featuring Madcap Moss and Kayla Braxton came to an abrupt and sudden end when Happy Corbin attacked his former jester with a steel chair, beating him down before trapping his head in a steel chair and smashing the weapon with the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal trophy.

Corbin laughed as medics rushed a stretcher to the squared circle, content with his actions.

This was a rare, welcome midcard angle. It is not every week in today's WWE that we see a midcard program like Corbin vs. Moss given time and a genuine angle that it can build heat from. WWE Creative helped Moss here, giving him something he can build sympathy and hopefully an increased fanbase from.

Corbin is one of the best heels in the business thanks to sheer unlikability, and that was on full display here as he smirked as medical help rushed to his former tag team partner's aid. The feud is far from over and this not only should propel it forward, but result in Moss dropping the "Madcap" moniker and maybe taking on a more focused and serious edge.

Grade

B+

Top Moments

• Moss pitching a mixed tag team with Sasha Banks called Madcap Boss was the perfect dad joke.
• Corbin's facial expressions were great here. He remains one of the most underrated, underappreciated stars on the WWE roster. He can do it all and does not get nearly enough credit for it.

After weeks of build, Sasha Banks and Naomi successfully defended the Women's Tag Team Championship, defeating Natalya and Shayna Baszler to retain.

Banks overcame a focused attack by Baszler and Natalya on her knee to make a timely hot tag to Naomi and spark the champions' comeback. Naomi ultimately scored the win over The Queen of Harts with a modified small package.

The match, like everything else on the show to this point, was very good. It was given time and had a quality heat portion of the bout, and the hot tag was an explosive one fueled by the great Naomi. Baszler and Natalya never really felt like a team destined to dethrone the champions, a sentiment enhanced by their half-entrance, but they performed up to the level of the champs. 

The chemistry was strong, the action crisp and the crowd hot for what may have been the best women's tag team title match in months.

Grade

B

Top Moments

• Banks sold her knee even as the babyfaces were mounting their comeback in a nice bit of continuity.
• Pat McAfee recalled Natalya's win over Cora Jade on NXT. By mentioning that, he helped build credibility for The Queen of Harts to anyone questioning whether she and Baszler had a chance at capturing the gold.

A week after dropping a Tables Match to Sheamus and Ridge Holland, thanks to interference from the returning Butch, Kofi Kingston squared off with the latter in singles competition.

Butch got back to his winning ways, delivering the Bitter End to knock off the former WWE champion following considerable interference from Sheamus and Holland. The victor took off through the crowd and left his teammates befuddled.

This is the feud that simply will not end. It has been beaten into the ground repeatedly, to the point that a victory over New Day is meaning less and less with every passing week. Butch winning and still taking off is an interesting character development in that we know his unpredictability is not limited to losses, but that is about as big a takeaway as there was from this.

This was a perfectly acceptable wrestling match, but it did little to create excitement or intrigue for anyone involved.

Grade

C

Top Moment

• Woods hoisted Kingston on his shoulders and proceeded to play the trombone entering the commercial break.

The Bloodline ended the night's show by hitting the ring for a promo. Undisputed WWE universal champion Roman Reigns suggested there was no one left for him to conquer before RK-Bro made their presence felt again.

Orton cut a fiery promo that ended with one more challenge for a tag title unification match. Jimmy Uso accepted on behalf of his brother, and Jey revealed the match will take place next week. Riddle rocked Reigns with a knee from out of nowhere, leaving The Tribal Chief infuriated to close the show.

RK-Bro is as hot a babyface act as there is in WWE right now, and this is an Orton unlike any we have ever seen. It has been said ad nauseum that he is having the most fun of his career, but promos like this amplify that even more. He is energized, motivated and turning in some of the best work of his eventual Hall of Fame career. More importantly, his influence is felt in Riddle's performance as the Original Bro has confidence and an air of credibility he did not have before teaming with The Viper.

With limited options elsewhere, there is no act better suited to feud with The Bloodline right now than the Raw tag team champions.

Grade

B+

Top Moments

• "We smash 'em on Sunday and come out the next Friday and tell you what's next!" Reigns said of The Bloodline's dominance.
• "I just noticed I'm way taller than you," Orton said after a fiery, mocking promo on The Usos and their "one brain."
• The knee to Reigns' face from Riddle came from out of nowhere and served as a hell of an exclamation point on the show.