Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of the go-home episode of SmackDown before Crown Jewel this weekend.

This was WWE's final chance to tie up any loose ends with the feuds heading into the PLE, but it still had to make Friday's show worth watching.

Here's a look at what WWE advertised for this week's episode:

• Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton vs. Imperium
• Liv Morgan and Nia Jax faceoff
• Bianca Belair vs. Piper Niven vs. Iyo Sky vs. Lash Legend

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

Tiffany Stratton vs. Liv Morgan

SmackDown opened with Jax making her way to the ring for her face-to-face confrontation with Morgan, her Crown Jewel opponent.

The WWE women's champion gave a brief promo about getting everything she wanted before the women's world champion interrupted her.

Tiffany Stratton came out with the MITB briefcase and said she was open to cashing in on either woman at Crown Jewel. The segment ended with Tiffy knocking Morgan off the apron and asking for a referee to come out.

We returned to see the match already in progress. Morgan was in control and took a moment to give Dominik Mysterio some attention before Stratton took over.

Morgan ended up winning what turned out to be a very short match for the TV audience. What we saw was fine, but there wasn't enough of it. Jax took out everyone with Tiffy's briefcase to finish the segment.

The entire promo, match and commercial break took less than 15 minutes.

Result: Morgan defeated Stratton

Grade: C

Notable Moments and Observations

• It's always interesting to see how heel vs. heel dynamics are handled. 
• Tiffy did a good job with her part of the promo. She gains more confidence with each week. 
• Morgan's counter into a codebreaker looked awesome. 

The Street Profits vs. Pretty Deadly

The next match featured Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins taking on Kit Wilson and Elton Prince.

Pretty Deadly attacked the Street Profits from behind to get the match going. Prince and Walker kept Ford isolated for a bit with quick tags and double-team moves.

Dawkins eventually got a hot tag and turned things around. B-Fab bodyslammed Prince at ringside while Ford and Dawkins finished off Wilson with their finisher for the win.

This was a quick tag match that would have been way better if it had five more minutes.

Result: The Street Profits defeated Pretty Deadly

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• We saw a pre-recorded video of Kevin Owens asking why Randy Orton is making him do this. 
• Pretty Deadly gave a copy of their musical to Lin-Manuel Miranda at ringside. Corey Graves said he was going to go on Napster to look for the songs. 
• The way Ford finally made the hot tag was cool, but it would have been awesome if he landed the front flip without using his hands. 

Naomi and Bayley vs. Indi Hartwell and Candice LeRae

In what turned out to be her last match with WWE, Indi Hartwell teamed up with Candice LeRae to take on Bayley and Naomi. Hartwell's exit was announced earlier today.

Hartwell took control early against Bayley and softened her up for LeRae. Bayley was kept away from Naomi during the break and for a couple of minutes after we returned.

Naomi turned things around and won for her team with a Rearview, but it was a weird ending to a match that had one too many awkward moments.

Result: Naomi and Bayley defeated LeRae and Hartwell

Grade: C

Notable Moments and Observations

• Hartwell's release was very surprising because WWE has been featuring on social media content a lot recently and she's always been seen as a reliable performer. 
• LeRae is so much more suited to being a babyface. 
• Naomi looked like she was just waiting for LeRae to kick her. It was awkward. 

The OG Bloodline Is Back

Jimmy Uso and Roman Reigns came to the ring so Reigns and Jey could settle their differences before Crown Jewel.

Jey came out and said he is only doing this to get back at Solo Sikoa for costing him the IC title, but his problems with Reigns are far from fixed.

Jey said he wanted the three of them to be equals and if Reigns speaks down to him, he's out. Reigns said "Yeet" and got a huge pop. Jimmy got them to put up the 1s like the old days.

This segment was definitely longer than it needed to be, but it was done about as well as it could have been with that much time to fill.

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• The way Roman looked around at the crowd while Jey was coming out was a good touch. 
• Reigns has yet to apologize or show any real contrition for any of his actions during his title reign. 

Iyo Sky vs. Bianca Belair vs. Lash Legend vs. Piper Niven

One-half of each team in the women's tag title bout at Crown Jewel competed in a Fatal 4-Way singles bout. Belair, Niven, Legend and Sky represented their teams but their partners were all at ringside, too.

It looked as if there was no plan because the first few seconds had a couple of moments when it was clear one or more people were behind or unsure of what to do next.

The second half of this bout had better energy and a few standout moments. The EST was one of the highlights, which is usually the case when she's involved.

Sky ended up stealing the win by taking out Belair with a moonsault and then pinning Legend for the win.

Result: Sky defeated Niven, Belair and Legend

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Niven and Green had gear referencing Deadpool and Wolverine. 
• Legend has impressive strength and seems more comfortable using it than she used to be. 
• Chelsea Green was being very vocal at ringside. 
• Belair struggled to hit the KOD on Legend. She's not used to hitting that move on opponents who are taller than her. 

Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser

The main event for this week's show saw Gunther and Rhodes fight in a tag match before they fight at Crown Jewel. Kaiser and Orton were their respective partners.

This match got started with a little over 10 minutes left in the show, and since it included a commercial break, we didn't get a lot of actual wrestling.

The Ring General and American Nightmare began, but Gunther immediately tagged out to Kaiser so he could take Rhodes down.

After a solid back-and-forth tag match, Rhodes pinned Kaiser to score the win after The Viper took out Gunther with an RKO.

Kevin Owens showed up and attacked Orton with a chair while Gunther choked out Rhodes with a sleeper.

Result: Orton and Rhodes defeated Imperium

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• Gunther needs his ring jacket. He looks weird without it during his entrance. 
• Orton's participation was very limited. He was only tagged in with a couple of minutes left. 

The Final Word

This week's SmackDown bucked the usual four-match setup and included five, but that may have been to its detriment.

Not only did none of the matches stand out in a significant way, but most of them were shorter than what we've come to expect from the blue brand.

WWE also spent a lot of time wrapping up the storylines heading into Crown Jewel, so between each bout was a segment or two meant to hype the PLE.

The main event was the Match of the Night, but honestly, nothing we saw stood out enough to say you absolutely have to go see it right now.

Crown Jewel is shaping up to be an entertaining show, but the go-home episode of SmackDown left a lot to be desired.

One interesting stat is that tonight's show featured almost twice as many women as it did men.

Grade: C