Tag: smackdown results

WWE SmackDown live results: The Last Time is Now tournament continues

Posted on by Marc Quill

The Last Time is Now tournament continues tonight on WWE SmackDown from MVP Arena in Albany, New York.

The show will feature two first-round matchups, including one between two former World Champions Jey Uso and The Miz. The other pits LA Knight against a yet-to-be-revealed mystery opponent.

The winners will progress further in the bracketless tournament that will determine John Cena’s last-ever opponent for next month’s December 13 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event.

After a confrontation, new WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill will take on B-Fab in a non-title bout.

Sami Zayn will also be on the show as he has a message for Solo Sikoa after last week — when he attempted to get at Sikoa and the MFTs but was unable to. In storyline, Zayn was not medically cleared in storyline. We’ll see if tonight’s message has something to do with a Zayn return.

Plus, Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY are in the house as the WarGames build continues.

Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern.

**********

– We opened SmackDown on a recap of what happened last week with Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, along with the Kabuki Warriors and the new alliance of Nia Jax and Lash Legend. The chaos involving these groups led to WarGames being declared by IYO SKY and the returning Rhea Ripley.

Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY kick off SmackDown

The dynamic tandem made their way to the ring to the loud ovation from the fans in Albany. Once the two got into the ring, Rhea Ripley addressed how things have devolved into chaos since she was gone due to her broken nose. Ripley mentioned that the Kabuki Warriors think they’re untouchable because they’re the Women’s Tag Team Champions, and that Lash Legend & Nia Jax similarly though they were untouchable because of their added numbers. Ripley said that the numbers game meant that Jax & Legend were also making a lot of enemies, as SKY mentioned that there’d be nowhere to hide in WarGames. Ripley then introduced their two partners for the Match Beyond in two weeks: Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss.

Bliss started that if Jax & Legend wanted to get dirty, that was fine by her. If the Kabuki Warriors wanted a fight, they’re on, too. Flair interrupted by saying that she couldn’t pretend to do this anymore, as she told Ripley that she couldn’t trust her as she was a “snake”. It’s something that she couldn’t look past even with a common enemy. Flair called Bliss her friend, but she couldn’t go through with this WarGames match, as she walked out.

Interesting start, which is definitely meant to give the babyface team at Survivor Series a bit of adversity heading into next week.

**********

– Michael Cole and Corey Graves teed up the action ahead for tonight, including WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill vs. B-Fab, plus LA Knight vs. a mystery opponent in the Last Time is Now tournament.

The Last Time is Now Tournament First-Round Match: Jey Uso vs. The Miz

Miz and Uso locked horns to start us off before the latter struck with a clubbing blow to the back of his foe. Uso answered back with strikes to the face, but found himself down on the mat with a knee driven to the gut by Miz. In the corner, Miz went for his signature clothesline, but Uso countered that into a backslide pin for a two-count.

Uso escaped an early Skull-Crushing Finale attempt as he then clotheslined Miz to the outside. He then took off with a suicide dive, wich was the cue for a break in the action.

As we returned from commercial, Miz had the advantage as he dropped Uso face first on his knees from the corner, followed by a spike DDT that wasn’t enough to pick up the win. Miz then kicked repeatedly at Uso’s chest, but failed to hit the last kick as the former World Champion turned that into a neckbreaker for a near-fall. As Miz scurried into the corner, he avoided a running hip strike from Uso. He then decided to do a spoof of John Cena’s shoulder charges, Protoplex and the Five-Knuckle Shuffle.

Uso recovered and superkicked Miz, as he then tried to lift him up on his shoulders. Miz wriggled free and delivered the Skull-Crushing Finale. One, two…. NO! Miz lifted Uso up on the top turnbuckle as he tried for an avalanche Skull-Crushing Finale. Uso escaped and hit some sort of drop from the top instead. This led into the Spear, and the Uso Splash for the three and the victory.

Jey Uso def. The Miz via pinfall to advance in The Last Time is Now Tournament

A decent match, though I was surprised this went down cleanly without any sort of WarGames-adjacent shenanigans. It was certainly better than Uso’s last singles match at Saturday Night’s Main Event a few weeks back.

**********

– As Nick Aldis was meeting with Ilja Dragunov, they were interrupted by an incensed Tommasso Ciampa, who stood with Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae. Ciampa was upset at being snubbed by Dragunov once again. The U.S. Champion explained that he only gives opportunities to those who are honorable and deserve a shot at the title, and he’s found one such individual. Mr. Aldis left this scene and was met by Paul Heyman and Bronson Reed of The Vision, who wanted to chat wit him.

– We got a video of John Cena talking about how he became a wrestler. This was a tease for an interview with Cena conducted by Tom Rinaldi that will be released soon.

– Back with Nick Aldis, who requested for security to come to his office. Paul Heyman mentioned that he had an agreement regarding WarGames, stating that he was free to pick anyone across all brands. Aldis reiterated that as he asked Heyman and Reed to leave. Cody Rhodes showed up and explained that he showed up because his friends were held to the fire by The Vision and that he’d be willing to put himself through the fire next. This led to a major match being made tonight: Cody Rhodes vs. Bronson Reed for the WWE Championship.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. Axiom

We started hot right away as Dragunov and Axiom were engaged in a chain wrestling duel. The U.S. Champion missed on a chop as Axiom rolled underneath, which seemed to impress Dragunov a fair bit. Axiom followed with a headlock takeover, but was felled by a running shoulder block from Dragunov afterwards. Dragunov went for a back elbow, but Axiom dodged it and hit a dropkick that sent him out of the ring.

As Axiom tried to go to the top rope, Dragunov intercepted him and left him sat on the top rope. After a brief skirmish, Dragunov headbutted Axiom down to the mat, as he then followed that with a senton for the near-fall. We then went to a picture-in-picture break at this point.

SmackDown returned to full-screen action as Dragunov connected with a German suplex. Axiom escaped and caught his championship foe with a release Northern Lights suplex. As both men got themselves back up, Axiom blasted Dragunov in the face with a strike, as he then leapt from the top rope with a shotgun missile dropkick for the two-count. Axiom took shots at the chest of Dragunov, who responded with a hard boot to the face.

Dragunov’s attempt at a Constantine Special was reversed into an armbar by Axiom. The U.S. Champion used his strength to break free of the hold with a deadlift powerbomb. Axiom got ahead of an attempted H-Bomb and turned that into an incredible leaping springboard DDT for the close near-fall. With Dragunov stunned in the corner, Axiom lifted him up the top rope and was looking for an avalanche Spanish Fly. Dragunov tried to fight back, but could not prevent the Spanish Fly from the top.

Axiom had Dragunov locked for the Golden Ratio, but he was intercepted by a fierce Torpedo Moscow. An H-Bomb from the U.S. Champion put an end to this Open Challenge and brought victory for Ilja Dragunov.

After the match, Dragunov showed respect for Axiom’s effort in this one as he shook the challenger’s hand.

Ilja Dragunov def. Axiom via pinfall to retain the United States Championship

Another solid U.S. Title Open Challenge match. Dragunov has been just on a tear since his return with fantastic matches one after the other, and this week’s match was no exception. Axiom was a perfect challenger for Dragunov and looked great even in defeat.

**********

– During the commercial break, we saw Tommasso Ciampa brutally attacking Axiom before Nathan Frazer chased him off.

Sami Zayn addresses The M.F.T.s

The former U.S. Champion was out as he made his way to the ring and began by greeting the Albany crowd.

Zayn said that since he came to SmackDown, there were some extremely high highs and extremely low lows. He talked about how he beat Solo Sikoa for the U.S. Title and that he did some incredible things, like facing John Cena in his last-ever SmackDown ever. Zayn mentioned that the last four weeks have been incredibly rough on him as he wasn’t medically cleared yet. He was forced to watch Sikoa and the M.F.T.s attack his friends and people that he respected. And now, that will end tonight, as Zayn challenged Sikoa to face him right now.

On cue, Sikoa walked to the ring, surrounded by his motley crew. Sikoa talked about how he knew the real Sami Zayn: someone who was a pathetic, a liar, and selfish. He claimed that Zayn didn’t care about the people in the back or the people in Albany. That was in contrast to Sikoa, who said that he cared about his “family” and their loyalty to him. Sikoa told Zayn that he knew nothing about loyalty or love of his family. Sikoa threatned to do harm Zayn as he was “still wounded”. He motioned for the M.F.T.s to approach Zayn in the ring.

Sikoa stopped them from going on the attack as he wanted Zayn to be 100% and medically cleared, because he was coming for him. Zayn answered that he was medically cleared and that if Sikoa wanted to do something about it, he’d do something about it right now. Zayn then burst Sikoa’s balloon by stating that he wasn’t here alone. Just then, Shinsuke Nakamura, the Motor City Machine Guns, and Rey Fenix evened the odds as they helped Zayn clear the ring of the M.F.T.s.

Bless Zayn for trying to generate interest into this feud, but it’s still kind of doing nothing for me even with that. This Bloodline retread just is not clicking for me at all, I’m sorry to say.

**********

– Cody Rhodes was approached by Jey Uso, who wished him luck for his Undisputed WWE Title match later on tonight. Jimmy Uso then showed up and told both Rhodes and brother Jey that he spoke with CM Punk, who officially put Jimmy on their WarGames team for Survivor Series.

– Backstage, Nick Aldis declared that in two weeks we’d see the M.F.T.s take on the team of Sami Zayn, the Motor City Machine Guns, Rey Fenix, and Shinsuke Nakamura in a 5-on-5 Traditional Survivor Series match. The Wyatt Sicks’ VHS glitches were shown as Solo Sikoa and Mr. Aldis left.

The Last Time is Now Tournament First-Round Match: LA Knight vs. Zack Ryder

Ryder was revealed as Knight’s mystery opponent moments before this match got underway. He got a great reaction from the crowd.

As the bell rang, Ryder went for an early school boy roll-up pin, but that was clearly not enough this early into the match. Knight countered a Rough Ryder attempt, but was sent out of the ring, which was the cue to take us into the commercial break.

We resumed the match from the break with Knight getting sent hard into the corner by Ryder. This was met in kind with a nice back body drop from Knight shortly after. Knight avoided a clothesline from Ryder, as he then unleahsed a flurry of punches, followed by the neckbreaker for the near-fall. Knight continued on the offensive, but a reversal on a scoop slam led to Ryder picking up some momentum. As Knight was left down and out in the corner, this left him open to Ryder’s Broski Boot for a close near-fall.

Knight countered an attempt at an Unprettier from Ryder into a reverse DDT. The elbow from the top was avoided by Ryder, who turned that into the Rough Ryder on his foe. One, two… Knight was able to kick out at two. Knight’s BFT was countered into a roll-up pin, by Ryder, as he headed up to the top rope. Ryder’s attempt at a standing legdrop was turned into a powerbomb by Knight, who then soundly finished off Ryder with the BFT for the three.

LA Knight def. Zack Ryder via pinfall to advance in The Last Time is Now Tournament

Zack Ryder was a nice surprise, and it was at least nice to see LA Knight back in the winning column here for this match.

**********

– As Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, and Alexa Bliss were discussing what to do with Charlotte Flair walking ou on them, they were ambushed by the Kabuki Warriors, Nia Jax, and Lash Legend. The Jamie Noble-led vanguard of security officials got them to back off after the ambush.

Jade Cargill vs. B-Fab

B-Fab escaped an early chokeslam attempt by Cargill, as she then hit her with a dropkick and repeated elbows in the corner. B-Fab’s attempt at a pump kick was met by a fierce elbow to the face from Cargill, who followed that up with a fallaway slam. Cargill managed to connect with the chokeslam on B-Fab. This was followed by the powerbomb on her foe. Not satisfied with just one powerbomb, Cargill then dropped her with one more powerbomb, then the Jaded for the dominant victory.

After the match, Michin ran in to check up on B-Fab, which caught Cargill’s attention. The WWE Women’s Champion shoved her down afterwards.

Jade Cargill def. B-Fab via pinfall

Just kind of there in terms of being a match, and with how barebones the SmackDown’s women’s division is, that’s not a good sign. Not saying that B-Fab should be having competitive matches with the WWE Women’s World Champion, but sub-three minute matches are not the way to do it.

**********

– Nick Aldis revealed two more The Last Time is Now tournament matchups: Carmelo Hayes vs. Bronson Reed and Penta vs. Finn Balor, with these match set for next week’s SmackDown.

Next Week on SmackDown:

  • The Last Time is Now Tournament: Carmelo Hayes vs. Bronson Reed
  • The Last Time is Now Tournament: Penta vs. Finn Balor
  • Fraxiom (Axiom & Nathan Frazer) vs. #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommasso Ciampa)

– We got remarks from Aleister Black, with Damian Priest once again being the subject of discussion for him. Black said that they forced Priest to break his code, and now he had greater things in mind, namely those who hold championships on SmackDown.

Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Bronson Reed (w/ Paul Heyman)

The main event started off fast and furious as Rhodes went on the attack against Reed. A running thump from the Aussie put an end to that flurry as he maintained the assault on ringside with another running thump.

Our main event returned from the break as Rhodes nailed Reed with the Disaster Kick. This fired up the Undisputed WWE Champion as he attempted to blast Reed with the Dusty elbow strikes. Reed countered that into Jagged Edge, but he missed on the Tsunami. This left Reed open for a Cody Cutter for the close near-fall. As Reed scurried outside to the ring, Rhodes went for a suicide dive, but Reed intercepted him with an elbow.

Outside the ring, Reed had Rhodes in sight for an avalanche run, but he was met at the pass by the Undisputed WWE Champion. Things broke down once Bron Breakker and Logan Paul ran in to attack Rhodes as this match ended in a DQ.

The Usos ran in for the save as they cleared the ring of Paul and Breakker. Jimmy and Jey dropped Paul with a 1D, as they then grabbed a table from underneath the ring. Drew McIntyre showed up, despite being suspended. Nick Aldis confronted Paul Heyman about this outside the ring, as the heels got the upper hand in the ring. The Levesque & Fitting credits saw us off once more with The Vision standing united in the ring.

Cody Rhodes def. Bronson Reed via DQ to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship

**********

An okay ending to an otherwise better-than-average SmackDown once again carried hard by the U.S. Open Challenge. WarGames is at least setting up quite nicely, and presumably Roman Reigns will fill out the babyface team in the coming weeks. Perhaps, even John Cena.

Other than that, when I say that this show was decent, it is, of course, in comparison to the previous weeks of rather milquetoast episodes. The M.F.T.s storyline continues to just be kind of there, but I am enjoying everything surrounding the U.S. Title and the Ciampa/Dragunov feud that’s been building in the background of it. At the end of the day, a decent show is certainly better than a forgettably bad one.

WWE SmackDown live results: Saturday Night’s Main Event fallout

Posted on by Marc Quill

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown will emanate live from Greenville, South Carolina.

WWE Champion Cody Rhodes retained his title over Drew McIntyre at last weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event after using the title belt as a weapon. The answer as to what is next for Rhodes will be answered tonight.

Jade Cargill will celebrate on tonight’s show after she defeated Tiffany Stratton last Saturday to capture the WWE Women’s Championship.

Chelsea Green will get a chance to protect her record as the longest-reigning WWE Women’s United States Champion tonight as she challenges current champion Giulia for the title.

Men’s United States Champion Ilya Dragunov will host another open challenge as his young title run continues.

In a clash of former Women’s Champions, Charlotte Flair will battle Nia Jax, who fell to Flair’s tag team partner Alexa Bliss last Friday.

After a backstage skirmish, Rey Fenix goes one-on-one with Talla Tonga.

Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern.

**********

– Our show kicked off with a recap of last week’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, specifically as it pertained to Cody Rhodes retaining his Undisputed WWE Championship over Drew McIntyre. This segued right into our opening segment with the aforementioned Rhodes.

Cody Rhodes kicks off SmackDown

The champion arrived in his usual grand manner, pyrotechnics and all, to the cheers of the crowd in Greenville. As Rhodes entered the ring and took a microphone, he opened by asking what the crowd wanted to talk about. He said that we could talk about what happened at SNME last week, stating that Drew McIntyre was the one who introduced the Undisputed WWE Title as a weapon during the match. Rhodes responded that his reluctance to pull the trigger has cost him time to time, something that McIntyre obviously had no issue with. That said, Rhodes called McIntyre the most “self-sabotaging athlete” in this business, which meant that the Scotsman was now fully well behind him.

Rhodes said that he wanted to do something different tonight, with that something different being sitting in the crowd with the fans to decide who’d be next for the Undisputed WWE Championship. That’s when the music of Aleister Black interrupted. Black arrived to the ring with Zelina (nee Vega) and had something to say.

Black talked about how he set Damian Priest on fire as he confronted Rhodes in the ring, showing the issue being the “size” of the Undisputed WWE Title. As Rhodes tried to step up to Black, Zelina slapped him in the face. This brought out Nick Aldis to make it official for tonight: Cody Rhodes vs. Aleister Black as the main event on SmackDown.

This is something thankfully different to kick off SmackDown, and a Black vs. Cody main event is something that is a bit fresh, so I’m at least interested to see where this goes.

**********

– Michael Cole and Corey Graves teed up the rest of tonight’s show as we saw Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, as well as new WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill arriving to the arena. We then cut to U.S. Champion Ilja Dragunov making his entrance, but not before he was confronted by Tama Tonga of the M.F.T.s.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. Johnny Gargano

As Dragunov’s challenger stepped out, Tommasso Ciampa walked out and was indignant about being rejected last week and being called a “jackass” by the U.S. Championship last week. He demanded that the bell be rung on this match. Once Ciampa entered the ring, Dragunov said that he accepted the challenge… but from Johnny Gargano.

The match kicked off as Ciampa provided a bit of a distraction to Dragunov, which allowed Gargano to strike early against the champion. Gargano attempted a superkick, but Dragunov caught it and hit a set of German suplexes consecutively. Dragunov then battered the back of Gargano’s neck with elbow strikes before he delivered a suplex as we headed to a break in the action here.

Our match returned from commercial as Dragunov blasted Gargano with an uppercut to the face. The challenger matched the effort with an uppercut of his own, but the Constantine Special by Dragunov connected right on the button. With Gargano stunned in the corner, he was open for a big boot from Dragunov, followed by a diving knee for the near-fall.

Gargano used the ropes to get himself back to his feet as he stopped Dragunov’s dive from the top with a kick to the gut. Another kick by Gargano was then immediately followed by a Poison Rana for a near-fall for the challenger. Gargano lifted Dragunov up to the top rope, but the U.S. Champion lit his chest up with chops, followed by an elevated headbutt. Dragunov leapt off the top rope with a senton, but that wasn’t enough to put Gargano away.

With Gargano dazed in the middle of the ring, Dragunov attempted the H-Bomb, but was countered with a boot to the face. Gargano, however, couldn’t escape Dragunov’s standing uranage. Another attempt at a Constantine Special was thwarted by Candice LeRae at ringside as the referee was distracted. This opened Dragunov up for a tornado DDT to the outside by Gargano, followed by One Final Beat. Dragunov somehow kicked out of that at two.

Gargano tried for a dive from the apron, but was stopped by a kick from Dragunov. The U.S. Champion lifted him up from the middle rope for a superplex, as one final H-Bomb put an end to this 19th U.S. Title defense in Dragunov’s favour.

Ilja Dragunov def. Johnny Gargano via pinfall to retain the United States Championship

Another fantastic U.S. Title match that felt somewhat short, especially compared to other Open Challenge matches we’ve had before. That said, Dragunov continues to be a highlight of these shows since his return and he certainly brought out the best in Gargano, who got a chance to dig into some of that NXT magic for this one.

**********

– As Nick Aldis was discussing something with a referee, Sami Zayn once again tried to ask to have Rey Fenix’s back against Talla Tonga later tonight. Aldis rejected Zayn’s request, as he was not medically cleared. Zayn warned that he wasn’t able to watch for longer as the M.F.T.s ran roughshod over everyone. Once Zayn left, R-Truth appeared and asked Aldis if he could be in the tournament for John Cena’s final opponent. In Truth’s words, he said he was putting “his balls” in Aldis’ hands. After the SmackDown GM told Truth he was already in the Cena tournament, Truth said that he didn’t want his balls in Aldis’ hands anyway.

– We got a recap of Jade Cargill’s Saturday Night’s Main Event victory over Tiffany Stratton, which made her the new WWE Women’s Champion.

– Backstage, a defeated Johnny Gargano talked about his loss to Tommasso Ciampa. The Fraxiom duo of Nathan Frazer & Axiom showed up to rub a little salt in the wounds, particularly towards Ciampa for being rejected two weeks in a row by Dragunov.

Jade Cargill celebrates her WWE Women’s Title win

Once Cargill got into the ring, she made it short and sweet. What happened to Tiffany Stratton would happen to anyone else in the SmackDown’s women’s locker room. That’s because Cargill was “that bitch”.

As Cargill left and made her way to the ramp, she was interrupted by Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, who were entering for our next match. Cargill took time to taunt Flair briefly, which got enough of Flair’s attention that she tried to confront Cargill. Bliss got her tag partner to focus herself on her upcoming match against Nia Jax before anything physical could happen, however.

Pretty much just a short promo from Cargill that didn’t really need to go on for long, which does neatly help get around any sort of perceived limitations promo-wise from Cargill.

**********

– Backstage, Chelsea Green was getting herself hyped up for her Women’s U.S. Championship match against Giulia later tonight. That’s when Michin & B-Fab showed up to talk trash to her. As Green was boasting about being the greatest women’s champion on SmackDown, Jade Cargill appeared behind her. Green backed off and took her leave. B-Fab had a confrontation with the new WWE Women’s Champion afterwards, which led to a match between the two to be set for next week.

Nia Jax vs. Charlotte Flair (w/ Alexa Bliss)

The match got underway as Flair and Jax locked up in the middle of the ring. Jax used her strength to push Flair aside, as she then weathered a shoulder tackle from her foe. Jax facewashed Flair with a hand, but got taken down with a Lou Thesz Press. Jax shrugged that off and pushed Flair into the corner. Flair answered with a dropkick, followed by a headscissors takedown as she played to the crowd afterwards.

Back in the corner, Flair chopped at Jax, but got thrown into the corner, which led to her getting crushed and an ad break halfway through this one.

We returned from commercial as Flair attempted to fight back with a boot from the apron. She then went up to for the diving crossbody that landed on Jax. Flair fired away with chops to the chest of Jax, then the running clothesline to ground her gargantuan foe. Flair headed to the top rope and connected with the moonsault. One, two… no! Flair attempted to lock in the Figure-Eight, but Jax responded with a sitdown powerbomb that wasn’t enough to put this one away.

Jax dragged Flair near the corner as she looked for the Annihilator. Flair escaped, but found herself on Jax’s shoulders for a move of some kind. That, however, was countered as Jax fell victim to a diving elbow from the apron. Jax’s attempt at a Samoan Drop was countered into a Tornado DDT for the near-fall. Outside the ring, Lash Legend attacked Alexa Bliss and put her in a sleeper hold. This caused enough of a distraction as Jax won this with the Annhilator.

Post-match, it was clear that Legend was now aligned with Jax.

Nia Jax def. Charlotte Flair via pinfall

The match was not my cup of tea, but the partnership between Lash Legend & Nia Jax is at least somewhat interesting to partially freshen up SmackDown’s women’s division. Hopefully something’s cooking on that front.

**********

– A video package for the tournament to decide John Cena’s final opponent at the December 13th Saturday Night’s Main Event aired, narrated by the man himself. Afterwards, a video from Nick Aldis revealed the two matches that have been drawn so far: The Miz vs. Jey Uso and LA Knight vs. a surprise opponent.

– Backstage, Nia Jax and Lash Legend were interviewed about their new partnership. Jax called Lash her friend, something that she knew from their encounters on NXT. Lash said that this was only the beginning.

Women’s United States Championship: Giulia (c) (w/ Kiana James) vs. Chelsea Green (w/ Alba Fyre)

Green’s AAA Mixed Tag Team Champion partner, Ethan Page, was in the crowd and congratulated her as she made her way to the ringside area.

Green started off with a hard slap to Giulia’s face. She got a headbutt for her troubles, followed by a vertical suplex. Giulia caught Green with a knee to the face, but that wasn’t enough for the victory. Green got Biel thrown into the corner by Giulia, as she then found herself trapped across the ropes, and a knee to the face.

Kiana James got involved with a slap to the face to the stunned Green, which got her a superkick to the face by Alba Fyre. In the midst of this chaos, Green snuck in a roll-up pin with feet on the ropes to pick up the win and the Women’s U.S. Championship.

Chelsea Green def. Giulia via pinfall to win the Women’s United States Championship

This was not good, sorry to say. While I’m glad Chelsea got the win, and the result was certainly shocking, this certainly needed a bit more time to cook, and I’m not sure if people will be up for Giulia losing her title in only her third defense in the manner that she did here. It does highlight that there are underlying problems with how weak SmackDown’s women’s division is even with the new champions we’ve got, something that needs to be fixed.

**********

– The M.F.T.s plotted backstage ahead of Talla Tonga’s match with Rey Fenix. Solo Sikoa wanted to see Talla crush Fenix in their match. As the M.F.T.s left, we saw the Wyatt Sicks emerge from the shadows, as they kept a watchful eye on Sikoa’s group.

– As Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss were recovering from their tough night, Asuka — disguised as a doctor — spat her blue mist in both their faces before she and Kairi Sane made their escape.

Talla Tonga (w/ The M.F.T.s) vs. Rey Fenix

The Motor City Machine Guns & Shinsuke Nakamura snuck up behind the M.F.T.s and attacked them, which evened the odds for Fenix.

Once the match started, Fenix hit a feint between the ropes as he went after Talla’s legs with kicks to the back of his legs. Talla fought back by throwing Fenix down with a standing flapjack. With Fenix on the apron, Talla kicked him down, which sent Fenix crashing into the apron. Outside the ring, Talla threw Fenix into the barricade as we got a break in the action.

We returned from commercial as Fenix’s attempt at a springboard was met by Talla easily pushing him aside, to the amusement of Solo Sikoa at ringside. Talla clotheslined Fenix and began to pummel him in the corner with hard elbow strikes. Fenix created some separatation by avoiding a running attack from Talla, which allowed him to hit a feint kick to the big man’s face.

Fenix’s attempt at a sunset flip was stopped by Talla, who nailed his foe with a huge uppercut. As Fenix recovered on the apron, he avoided the big boot from Talla. He hit the Goodbye, Amigo kick on a stunned Tallaw as he then took off from the top rope with a crossbody for the near-fall. Fenix blasted Talla with a superkick to his kneeling foe. He tried to go for a dive, but Talla caught him for a chokeslam for the victory.

After the match, Sikoa tried to get Talla to chokeslam Fenix again, but Sami Zayn ran down with a chair in hand. Sikoa and Talla backed off.

Talla Tonga def. Rey Fenix

I honestly did not enjoy this match, but that might be largely due to me not really vibing this whole rebooted M.F.T.s. storyline, but I did somewhat appreciate the David vs. Goliath story that was attempted here. Other than that, not really much to write home about.

Next Week on SmackDown

  • Jade Cargill vs. B-Fab
  • Last Time is Now Tournament Rd. 1: The Miz vs. Jey Uso
  • Last Time is Now Tournament Rd. 1: LA Knight vs. ???

– The Miz was interviewed about his match with Jey Uso last week, as well as what he did to Carmelo Hayes last week. In Miz’s eyes, that was a reminder of what he was capable of. He said that he made Hayes relevant and that once he beats Jey Uso next week, he will be the one to end John Cena’s career.

Cody Rhodes vs. Aleister Black (w/ Zelina)

The two sized one another up and got into a chain wrestling battle to start off, with neither Black nor Rhodes having the upper hand early on. Shortly after, Rhodes lifted Black up for a standing suplex throw. He attempted his signature dropdown uppercut, but Black caught him with an armbar. Rhodes went for the Disaster Kick, but was met by a kick from Black instead, which took us to the final break of the evening.

SmackDown’s main event returned as Rhodes avoided a kick from Black and attempted the roll-up pin. Black responded with a boot to the face and another quick cover. In the corner, Black attacked Rhodes with chops and a kick to the chest, as he then hit him with the knee in the gut. Rhodes fought back with a running clothesline, followed by a successful Disaster Kick and the near-fall. Rhodes sized up Black for the Cross Rhodes, but Black countered and hit a fierce kick to the face for the two-count.

Black attempted a back suplex, but had that countered by Rhodes, who answered right back with the Cody Cutter for yet another near-fall. As Black got himself up, Rhodes tried for the Dusty-style strikes, but was met with a knee and a jackknife suplex from his foe. Black went for the Black Mass, but tried for the Cross Rhodes. That attempt was reversed as the two traded kicks that took each other out. Just as Black and Rhodes were recovering, Drew McIntyre appeared and hit the referee with a Claymore Kick.

Things descended into chaos as Black and McIntyre tried attack Rhodes with a two-on-one assault. Damian Priest ran down as a brawl broke out between everyone. Nick Aldis appeared after all this and announced that McIntyre was suspended indefinitely. The Levesque & Fitting producer credits appeared as McIntyre shouted repeatedly at Aldis that, quote, “his back was against the wall”.

Cody Rhodes vs. Aleister Black went to a No Contest

**********

It was an alright main event, and I suspect McIntyre’s “suspension” is to cover for him filming the Highlander reboot. That said, it does leave a hole in SmackDown’s world title scene, especially as it relates to who could Cody Rhodes face next while McIntyre is off TV.

The show itself, however, was not something I enjoyed watching. If 2025 has shown us anything, it’s just how much the bloom is off the rose with regards to Triple H’s booking post-Vince. SmackDown as a weekly show is a prime example of that. I enjoy the U.S. Title Open Challenges, yes, but everything else is either just there or not at all entertaining, sorry to say.

WWE SmackDown live results: Saturday Night’s Main event contract signing

Posted on by Marc Quill

The final WWE SmackDown before Saturday Night’s Main Event will see WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre interact one final time before their title bout.

Last week, McIntyre defeated Jimmy Uso in a no DQ match and then got the upper hand on Rhodes after a post-match altercation. The champion and challenger will have a contract signing tonight as the Scotsman hopes to gain one last bit of momentum ahead of taking on Rhodes.

Jade Cargill will address her actions from last week when she attacked WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton after fending off Giulia and Kiana James. Cargill is challenging Stratton for the title tomorrow night.

Alexa Bliss will face Nia Jax after she took exception to Jax’s insinuation that she’d be disloyal to her WWE Women’s Tag Champion partner Charlotte Flair.

After Pretty Deadly’s Kit Wilson accused Carmelo Hayes of giving off “toxic masculinity” backstage, Hayes and Wilson will go one-on-one.

Plus, Ilja Dragunov issues a United States Championship open challenge.

Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern.

**********

– Following the WWE signature, we went to shots of Salt Lake City, as well as shots of Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre, Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, as well as Jade Cargill (dressed as the Punisher).

– We went to a recap of Jade Cargill’s attack on WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton from last week. Michael Cole and Corey Graves then welcomed us to tonight’s show before Stratton interrupted.

Tiffany Stratton opens SmackDown

Stratton demanded that Jade Cargill come out to fight her now until SmackDown GM Nick Aldis asked that she back down as there was to be no physical contact before tomorrow night.

Cargill appeared as GM Aldis had security come out to prevent physicality. She said that she tasted her own blood last week and it only made her hungry to become the WWE Women’s Champion. Cargill vowed to end “Tappy Time” tomorrow night as Stratton tried to come at her. Security got in the way and prevented any physicality to happen.

Kind of a nothing segment and didn’t really do anything to build towards the Cargill/Stratton title match for tomorrow.

**********

– After receiving Halloween candy from R-Truth dressed as Santa Claus, the Motor City Machine Guns were confronted by Solo Sikoa. This led to a match between the MCMGs and the MFTs made for later tonight.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. Nathan Frazer

As Fraxiom was entering for the Open Challenge, Tommasso Ciampa stormed past the two and was upset about not getting picked. Dragunov interrupted and told Ciampa that Frazer would get the opportunity as he got him to leave.

Once the match started, Dragunov struck Frazer in the corner but found himself floored by an enzuigiri. Frazer followed that up with a suicide dive on Dragunov. Back in the ring, Frazer used his agility to briefly stymy the U.S. Champion, but a Dragunov chop put a stop to that. We went to commercial after Frazer went face-first onto the commentary table.

We returned from the break with Dragunov connecting with the repeated German suplexes on Frazer. He managed two before Frazer landed on his feet on the third. Frazer leapt off the middle rope with an amazing reverse DDT followed by a shooting star for the near-fall.

Frazer’s kick was blocked by Dragunov, who dropped him with a standing uranage. That wasn’t enough to end this Open Challenge. Dragunov tried to jump at Frazer, but found himself flying over the top rope. A missed senton by Dragunov allowed for Frazer to land a frog splash, but that only got a near-fall as we took a second break in the action.

Action resumed with Dragunov attempting a powerbomb, but Frazer managed to stun him with a kick. On the top rope, Frazer had Dragunov set up for a Frankensteiner. After a struggle, Frazer nailed it as he had Dragunov on the backfoot with a dropkick outside the ring. He then took off from the top with a Phoenix Splash. One, two…. Dragunov barely kicked out!

After he battered Dragunov with punches, Frazer tried to go to the top rope again. The U.S. Champion chopped at Frazer’s knee, which let him connect with a middle rope suplex. Frazer miraculously kicked out at two after that high-risk move. This war of attrition ended with Dragunov finishing Frazer off with a powerbomb, followed by the H-Bomb for the three.

Post-match, after Dragunov showed respect for Frazer’s effort, Tommasso Ciampa attacked the defeated challenger outside the ring. Axiom and Johnny Gargano made their way down to the ring as a brawl erupted between the teams.

Ilja Dragunov def. Nathan Frazer via pinfall to retain the United States Championship

A fantastic Open Challenge match as Frazer got his time to shine and looked incredibly strong in defeat.

*********

– Backstage, as Fraxiom and #DIY were brawling, Dragunov was confronted by Tama Tonga, who did his signature “yeah yeah yeah” taunt while he had the U.S. Title in hand.

Kit Wilson vs. Carmelo Hayes

Wilson got the advantage early with a flying elbow to Hayes, as he pulled at his head and then stomped on the back of the head. Wilson hit a swingng DDT.

Hayes fought back with a chop followed by a hurricanrana. Wilson retreated from the ring, but got dropped by a vaulting press from Hayes. Outside the ring, The Miz threw Hayes into the ringpost with the ref distracted. This allowed Wilson a temporary advantage, but Hayes won out with the First 48.

Post-match, The Miz snuck up on Hayes and delivered a Skull-Crushing Finale.

Carmelo Hayes def. Kit Wilson via pinfall

Nothing really to write home about in terms of a match, and this Miz/Hayes feud is alright, I suppose.

**********

– Sami Zayn asked to have the Motor City Machine Guns’ back, but Nick Aldis told him to stand down. Cody Rhodes showed up and had some friendly words with Zayn before Mr. Aldis asked Rhodes bluntly if he had something to do with the attack on Jacob Fatu two weeks ago. Rhodes denied it, and was then asked by Aldis if he read the contract for the Saturday Night’s Main Event match.

Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss

Jax took a cheap shot at Bliss while she was conversing with Flair to start off the match. Jax crushed Bliss in the corner as she held the upper hand to start off here. Jax missed on an elbow, which gave Bliss an openingS

Bliss got caught and thrown into the ringpost by Jax. A missed running hip charge across the apron caused Jax to crash into the ringpost. However, outside the ring, Jax took control once again by tossing Bliss into the barricade. This took us into commercial.

The match continued from the break as Bliss dodged a running hip strike in the corner. Bliss chopped away at Jax’s leg and kept her grounded with a kick to the head. Jax ran into the steel post again, which stunned her. Bliss headed up to the top rope, but was caught for the Samoan Drop by Jax for the near-fall.

Bliss was dragged into the corner as she was in the drop zone for the Annihilator, but Charlotte Flair got on the apron and created a distraction, this let Bliss drop Jax with a kick and pick up the win.

Alexa Bliss def. Nia Jax via pinfall

Just a standard underdog vs. giant match as Bliss got the win with the help of her tag partner.

**********

– Rey Fenix challenged Solo Sikoa to a match. Instead, Sikoa offered Talla Tonga to face him next week instead. Fenix slapped Talla in the face afterwards.

– The WrestleMania 42 teaser was shown.

– Damian Priest said that Aleister Black will feel his punishment soon enough.

Saturday Night’s Main Event Card:

  • Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Drew McIntyre
  • Intercontinental Championship: Dominik Mysterio (c) vs. Penta vs. Rusev
  • World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk vs. Jey Uso
  • WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Jade Cargill

The M.F.T.s (JC Mateo & Tama Tonga) (w/ Talla Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Solo Sikoa) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)

The Machine Guns had the upper hand early with a double team assault that kept Mateo and Tama on their toes heading into the commercial break.

We returned from the break as Tama held Shelley in a resthold as the MFTs held the advantage now. Shelley escaped with a Flatliner to the middle turnbuckle to Mateo, which allowed him to tag Sabin in.

Sabin was a force as he held his own against Mateo and Tonga. Shelley had the clear for the suicide dive. A Solo Sikoa distraction allowed Tanga Loa to dump Shelley from the top rope, followed by the not-so-hidden blade of Tama Tonga’s Cutthroat for the MFT victory.

Sikoa had the MFTs attack the Machine Guns after the match, as Rey Fenix and Shinsuke Nakamura tried to make the save, but fell victim to the MFTs’ numbers game.

The MFTs def. Motor City Machine Guns via pinfall

Standard tag match followed by a standard beatdown by the “Bloodline with a new hat” afterwards. Not much home to write about.

*********

Next Week on SmackDown

  • Talla Tonga vs. Rey Fenix
  • Ilja Dragunov’s U.S. Title Open Challenge
  • Charlotte Flair vs. Nia Jax

Cody Rhodes/Drew McIntyre contract signing

Nick Aldis introduced Rhodes first to the ring. Once Rhodes entered, he took the microphone as he wished Salt Lake City a Happy Halloween. Aldis then introduced Rhodes’ Saturday Night’s Main Event opponent, Drew McIntyre. Once both men were in the ring, Mr. Aldis asked them to sign the contract.

McIntyre refused to do so, while Rhodes did so without question. The Scotsman said he would not sign such a “lopsided” contract as he complained that if he were to be disqualified or counted out, Rhodes would keep the title.

Aldis stated that he had enough of McIntyre’s whining as there were many others in the back that would gladly do it. As McIntyre walked out, Rhodes called him out and said that maybe McIntyre wants it where if he were to be counted out or disqualified, the title will change hands.

Despite Aldis’ protestations, he agreed the new terms. McIntyre again boasted about how he was the “real” American Dream as opposed to Rhodes. The Undisputed WWE Champion admitted that McIntyre may have created the blueprint that many followed. Rhodes said where he and McIntyre differ was when he was fed up with WWE, while Drew got fired. “Nice guys used to finish last, ‘til I showed up,” said Rhodes.

McIntyre again whined and riled up Rhodes by invoking his daughter’s name. In the chaos, Rhodes was again blasted by a Claymore from the Scotsman. McIntyre then powerbombed him through the table. McIntyre talked trash some more as the Levesque & Fitting producer credits ended the night.

*********

A fine enough contract segment to end a rathee weak SNME go-home show. McIntyre standing tall does not bode well for his chances of winning.

The rest of the show was just there, but seek out the Dragunov vs. Axiom Open Challenge match. That was my highlight of the night.

WWE SmackDown live results: Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre conflict continues

Posted on by Marc Quill

After last week’s impromptu match, WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre will both be in the building for tonight’s SmackDown from Tempe, Arizona.

McIntyre won last week’s title match by DQ after he hit Rhodes with the title belt. With their rematch at November 1’s Saturday Night’s Main Event now official, both men will advance their storyline tonight.

In a non-title match, WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton will look to return to her winning ways when she takes on Kiana James. The business associate to Women’s U.S. Champion Giulia found herself in this match after having some choice words for Stratton last Friday.

Ilja Dragunov became the new United States Champion last week by defeating Sami Zayn in an open challenge. Dragunov has vowed to continue the open challenge series and make his first title defense tonight.

A grudge match between Fraxiom and DIY was originally made for tonight but isn’t listed on the official WWE.com preview for the show. We’ll see if that bout is still on.

Join us for live coverage starting at 8 p.m. Eastern.

**********

– Over a live shot of the Mullett Arena in Tempe, AZ, we were taken to a recap of last week’s chaos with Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre and an injured Jacob Fatu.

– After the recap, Rhodes was shown arriving backstage as Jimmy Uso welcomed him. Jimmy thanked Rhodes for sticking up for Fatu last week.

Cody Rhodes opens SmackDown

The Undisputed WWE Champion headed out to the ring to address the challenge of Drew McIntyre at Saturday Night’s Main Event next week.

”So, Tempe, Arizona, what do you wanna talk about?” asked Rhodes before he turned attention to what he did to McIntyre last week, something he described as being “uncharacteristic of him”.

Before Rhodes could continue, Drew McIntyre himself interrupted and remained incredulous that the crowd would cheer for Rhodes over him. McIntyre ranted about the crowd cheering for Rhodes no matter what he did, even with the title belt strike last week. McIntyre said that this had now become about him finishing the story, and he’d do it next week.

McIntyre again deflected blame for the Jacob Fatu attack, trying to insinuate Jimmy Uso as the culprit. Rhodes angrily interrupted and challlenged the Scotsman to a fight. As McIntyre and Rhodes got ready for a fight, Jimmy Uso leapt from the barricade and went on the attack. Security poured in to break up the skirmish but not before Uso got in a dive between the ropes on McIntyre.

With order being attempted to be restored, Solo Sikoa and The M.F.T.s made their way to the ring for our opening contest, which was coming up next.

A wild and chaotic opening buoyed by Jimmy Uso’s anger-filled attack on McIntyre, which will undoubtedly set up our main event for tonight.

**********

– Backstage, McIntyre yelled at Nick Aldis to do something, but Jimmy Uso again attacked as security stopped the chaos once more.

The MFTs (JC Mateo & Tama Tonga) (w/ Solo Sikoa & Rey Fenix)

Nakamura and Tama started off this match. Tama went on the attack against Nakamura with a series of strikes, but he found himself downed by a knee to the gut. Fenix and Mateo tagged in and had their turn of the action.

Fenix launched himself from the rope with an elevated armdrag as Nakamura entered the match with a tag. The two showed impressive teamwork in the corner at Mateo’s expense, which forced the M.F.T.s to retreat to ringside as we took a commercial break.

Our match returned as Tama stopped Fenix’s atrempts to reach his corner with a fierce lariat. Mateo re-entered the match and slammed Fenix with a bomb as the M.F.T.s continued the momentum. Fenix created some needed separation with an enzuigiri as Nakamura got the hot tag.

Nakamura atrempted to lift Mateo, but to no avail. Mateo answered with a twisting back suplex that kept Nakamura grounded. As Tama tagged in, Fenix made his presence known with a springboard on Tama. He followed that up with the Goodbye, Amigo tightrope kick. Things broke down further, which led to Fenix leaping onto Tama and Mateo on the outside.

As Fenix tried to go up top, Solo Sikoa created a distraction, as Talla Tonga chokeslammed Fenix onto the apron. This weakened Fenix for Tama’s Hidden Blade-style running elbow for the three and the win for the M.F.T.s

Match Result: The M.F.T.s def. Rey Fenix & Shinsuke Nakamura via pinfall

Not a bad first outing for the “Bloodline with a new hat”. A decent tag opener for sure.

**********

– Backstage, Jimmy Uso spoke with Nick Aldis and through all this, we learned that our main event tonight would be Jimmy taking on Drew McIntyre in a No Disqualification match.

Tiffany Stratton vs. Kiana James (w/ Giulia)

Stratton wrenched James’s arm to start us off, as the two got into a bit of a stalemate afterwards, owing to both women’s gymnastics backgrounds. Stratton connected with consecutive armdrags on James before she again went after the arm with a submission. James attempted to fight back with a forearm strike, but she found herself taken down by a dropkick. A running hip strike against a stunned James across the middle ropes sent her to the outside. Stratton continued the punishment with a right hand strike. Giulia provided a distraction by stepping up to Stratton, which allowed James to throw the WWE Women’s Champion into the barricade, as we took a break in the action.

We returned to our match as James flattened Stratton with a running big boot to the face, but couldn’t put her foe away. James punched at Stratton, who responded with a jawbreaker that took her and Giulia’s business manager down out. Both women struggled to get up as they then battered away at one another with strikes to one another. Stratton got the better of James and nailed the handspring elbow into the corner, followed by her signature Alabama Slam. Stratton connected with the Rolling Senton, but couldn’t capitalize with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever.

James responded with a Falcon Arrow but again only got a near-fall in the process. In the corner, James placed Stratton on the top rope, but couldn’t get the Superplex as she was shoved aside to the canvas. Stratton soared with a Swanton Bomb, as she followed that up with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever for the victory.

After the match, Stratton’s victory was cut short as Giulia attacked with the Arrivederci Knee. Before Giulia could dole out more damage, Jade Cargill ran in and sent Giulia scurrying with a pump kick. As Giulia and James backed off, Cargill offered a hand to Stratton, who accepted the help of her former foe. However, that seemed to be an all-too-fleeting moment as Cargill abruptly smashed Stratton with a clothesline. The embittered Cargill refused to let up with her attack on Stratton, throwing her around at ringside into the steel steps and ring post.

With Stratton unable to defend herself, Cargill stomped away on her behind the announce table as referees and officials led by Jamie Noble tried and failed to stop the assault. As Stratton’s leg was planted along one of the steel steps, Cargill stomped on it before she walked off.

Match Result: Tiffany Stratton def. Kiana James via pinfall

A good match, but the real story was Jade Cargill’s heel turn, which was much needed for her as she was feeling kind of stale as a face. Could be what’s needed to refresh SmackDown’s flagging women’s division.

**********

– Sami Zayn congratulated Ilja Dragunov on his U.S. Title victory last week, as he passed on the U.S. Championship Open Challenge onto the new champion. In Zayn’s mind, Dragunov was the right guy to carry on the legacy of these Open Challenges as he hyped up the champ.

– Jade Cargill was asked about her actions as she said that this world does not reward patience and she was ready to take what was hers: the WWE Women’s Championship.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. Aleister Black (w/ Zelina Vega)

Before the match, Dragunov addressed the crowd, stating that he missed the fans after being out for so long. He thought he’d never see the light at the end of the tunnel, but he said that he’d never give up. Dragunov declared that he’d defend the title with all his obsession and proudly continue the U.S. Open Challenge. “Tonight, pain shall entertain you,” Dragunov said.

Black and Dragunov locked up to begin the match before the challenger attempted to take control with his fierce kicks. Black countered the Constantin Special with a kick before Zelina Vega threw Dragunov into the barricade with a hurricanrana. Black absolutely pasted Dragunov with a running kick to the face from the apron to send us to the break.

We returned from commercial with Black and Dragunov exchanging fierce blows, as the U.S. Champ connected with an enzuigiri. Dragunov followed that with a running strike to the corner on a stunned Black. Dragunov then threw Black around with repeated German suplexes followers by a unique rotating suplex for the near-fall.

As Dragunov headed to the top rope, Vega created a distraction, which allowed Black to stop Dragunov’s attack. From the top, a Black Meteora stunned Dragunov. Suplex attempt was turned into a rollup by Dragunov for the two. Black once again drove a knee to the back of Dragunov, but couldn’t get the three. Black failed to connect with some sort of springboard attack, as Dragunov struck with the Constantin Special and this match went to a second break in the action.

The match returned with Dragunov taking off from the top rope with a dropkick on a prone Black. He then flew from the top with a sentin for a two. Dragunov had Black targeted for the Torpedo Moscow, but was met with a knee to the face. One, two… not quite!

Black had Dragunov in his sights for the Black Mass, but he missed and fell victim to a Torpedo Moscow instead. Dragunov got up and attempted to finish this off with an H-Bomb, but Zelina Vega pulled at his leg. This earned Vega an ejection from the match. At that moment, Damian Priest marched down to the ring, with eyes on revenge on Black. Priest removed his sunglasses to reveal a burn mark as Black was distracted long enough for a Torpedo Moscow from Dragunov and the the three.

Post-match, an irate Priest attacked Black as he got two chairs and cleared away the commentary table as he looked to dish out some ultimate damage. Zelina Vega leapt onto Priest’s back and scratched at the burnt eye, which allowed Black to escape a most grisly fate.

Match Result: Ilja Dragunov def. Aleister Black via pinfall to retain the United States Championship

A fantastic Open Challenge match. I’m glad Dragunov is continuing it. However, I’m not too hot on the Aleister Black vs. Damian Priest feud continuing longer than it needs to.

**********

– Carmelo Hayes was interviewed about his attack on The Miz last week. Hayes said that everyone was expecting him to say he was happy to attack the Miz, but he wasn’t going to do that because revenge was a double-edged sword. Hayes noted that he was ready to get his career back on track with thanks to the support of the people and he owes it to get back to being “HIM”. Kit Wilson interrupted and trashed Hayes for being a proponent of “toxic masculinity”, and found himself set for a match against Hayes on next week’s SmackDown.

– Ilja Dragunov met with Fraxiom and said that the Open Challenge would continue. #DIY taunted Fraxiom, who called Gargano and Ciampa a scared duo. Tama Tonga then appeared and mocked Fraxiom as he did his signature “yeah yeah yeah” taunt.

– Nia Jax appeared to question Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss’s friendship, which led to a match between Bliss and Jax to be made for next week.

No Disqualification Match: Jimmy Uso vs. Drew McIntyre

Things got going right away as Uso and McIntyre brawled at ringside for a bit before the action spilled into the ring. McIntyre pummeled Uso in the corner with strikes, before he found himself lit up with chops to the chest. McIntyre struck Uso with a hard kick to the chest, as he then continued the punishment with a clubbing blow to the back. Uso fought back and clotheslined McIntyre to the outside. He then followed this up with an attempted suicide dive that was met with a forearm from the surly Scotsman.

At ringside, Uso slammed McIntyre’s face across the steel steps, which sent McIntyre retreating into the crowd. Uso followed suit and the fight continued into the stands. McIntyre attempted a DDT onto the floor, but got countered into a suplex by Uso. McIntyre was thrown back over the barricade into the ringside area afterwards. Uso obliged the crowd’s demand for tables by pulling one out from underneath the ring, which was suitable enough for our final commercial break of the evening.

We returned to SmackDown’s main ewvent with McIntyre lifting Uso onto his shoulders, but instead getting blasted with a kick to the head. Outside the ring, Uso tightrope walked across the barricade in the hopes of nailing a splash, but he got caught by McIntyre, who threw him for a belly to belly suplex onto the floor.

McIntyre grabbed a steel chair from the timekeepers area and immediately struck Uso in the ribs before whacking his foe across the back with it. McIntyre unfolded the chair and smashed Uso’s face on the seated portion. He set Uso up for a Claymore, but a drop toehold instead sent the Scotsman face first onto the chair. Uso fired himself up and hit a Whisper in the Wind onto McIntyre for the two-count.

Uso grabbed the chair and went to town on the fallen McIntyre with repeated strikes before he set up the Slim Jim-branded table. As Uso tried to grab at McIntyre, he was caught by surprise with a Future Shock DDT for yet another near-fall. McIntyre tried to go for another Claymore, but he was intercepted with a Samoan Drop onto the table that broke it on impact. Uso tried to go up top for an Uso Splash, but McIntyre threw a chair in his face to counter it. This allowed McIntyre to finish things off with a Claymore Kick for the pin and win in our main event.

After the match, McIntyre placed Uso’s neck across a chair and pressed on it, which led to officials running down in the hopes of breaking it up. Just then, Cody Rhodes ran down and mixed it up with McIntyre, as he thrw him over the timekeeper’s area. McIntyre recovered and took out Rhodes with a Claymore as the Levesque & Fitting producer credits signalled the end of the show.

Match Result: Drew McIntyre defeated Jimmy Uso via pinfall

**********

Standard SmackDown main event followed by standard post-match shenanigans to top of a moderately good show. This Rhodes/McIntyre feud is at least a hot one, but I’m feeling a bit cold on it, if we’re being honest.

Other than that, tonight’s show had some decent-to-great in-ring action that buoyed everything else, and I dare say that SmackDown has been better than above-average as of late. Ilja Dragunov’s U.S. Title Open Challenge and a needed heel turn for Jade Cargill were the standouts of tonight’s show, in my view.

WWE SmackDown live results: Cody Rhodes addresses Crown Jewel loss

Posted on by Marc Quill

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown in San Jose, California will be the first since Crown Jewel: Perth.

At the PLE, Cody Rhodes lost to Seth Rollins and was unsuccessful in his mission to repeat as men’s Crown Jewel Champion. Rhodes will kick off the show tonight and address that loss, along with what’s next for him in his WWE Championship reign.

Women’s Tag Team Champions Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss have a title defense tonight against NXT’s Zaria & Sol Ruca — who have made it clear they want the gold. The team known as ZaRuca earned their opportunity after proving themselves several weeks ago with a win over Chelsea Green & Alba Fyre.

Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu are scheduled to finally settle their score in the ring. The two have been involved in a heated rivalry for the past few weeks after Fatu took exception to McIntyre’s ranting. Reports this week have Fatu out for a considerable amount of time with a non-wrestling related injury, so it’s unclear what will develop tonight.

Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

**********

– We opened with a recap of the major events that took place at Crown Jewel concerning Seth Rollins’ big win over Cody Rhodes, followed by the shocking betrayal Rollins suffered at the hands of Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed two nights later on Raw. We have Vic Joseph filling in for Michael Cole on commentary, and a returning Corey Graves joining him.

– Inside the ring, SmackDown’s GM Nick Aldis was here to inform us that tonight’s Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre match will now be a No. 1 Contender’s match, with the winner set to face Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. At this time, Rhodes was introduced by Mr. Aldis.

Cody Rhodes opens SmackDown

Rhodes started by stating that he might not feel that he and Seth Rollins need to be in the ring together again, but that’s not how it worked around here. He said that Rollins had some business of his own with a rogue Vision and Paul Heyman to deal with, and he had business of his own to handle as the top guy of SmackDown.

Rhodes sized up both Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre, one of which would be facing him for the Undisputed WWE Title at the next Saturday Night’s Main Event in two weeks time. He concluded that he didn’t know how things would shake out, but Rhodes knew that the road to SNME ran through San Jose.

Standard Cody Rhodes promo to open SmackDown, as the Fatu vs. McIntyre match still appears to be on despite the reported injury that Fatu sustained. We’ll see how that plays out later tonight.

**********

– Solo Sikoa and the M.F.T.s accosted a cameraman who was taking pictures of Rey Fenix, who took exception to Sikoa’s belligerence. Fenix paid for it as the M.F.T.s. laid a beating on him before a vanguard of officials warded them off.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Zaria & Sol Ruca

Blake Monroe was shown in the crowd, stated to be watching Sol Ruca ahead of their Women’s North American Championship match at Halloween Havoc.

Ruca and Flair got things going with a test of strength in the ring before the former escaped the grasp of the latter with a somersault. Flair answered by flipping over the turnbuckle so that she could kick Zaria on the apron. Flair then continued to go to work on Ruca as Bliss got the tag. Bliss connected with a hurricanrana on Ruca that sent her back to her home corner as Zaria entered with a tag.

Bliss tried for a charge, but got caught by Zaria, who lifted her. However, Bliss escaped and attempted a Sister Abigail early on. Zaria answered with a huge spinebuster that sent us to the commercial break.

We returned from the break with Zaria having Bliss trapped in the corner with an elevated sleeper hold from the middle rope. Bliss managed to escape the Aussie’s grip as she tried to reach out for a tag to Flair. Zaria, however, managed to cut Bliss off as Ruca entered the match and sent her championship foe spinning with a tilt-a-whirl drop. Zaria and Ruca tried to connect with an assisted diving attack, but Bliss dodged and managed to get to her corner as Flair got the hot tag.

In the ring, Flair blasted both Zaria and Ruca with chops before she connected with her signature somersault clothesline on the former. Flair then dropped Zaria with a northern lights suplex followed by a taunt towards Ruca. Shortly after, Ruca got a tag as she went to work on Flair with a German suplex in the corner followed by an attempted diving dropkick. Flair intercepted and caught her legs to turn that into a Boston Crab. Flair was in position for the Sol Snatcher by Ruca, which hit its target perfectly. One, two… Bliss managed to break it up in the nick of time.

Outside the ring, Bliss tried to dive at Zaria, but she got thrown against the barricade instead. Flair interjected with a boot to the face as Ruca leapt from the apron to take down the Women’s Tag Champions. Ruca then traded some words with Blake Monroe in the front row, which opened her up to Flair clipping her in the back of her legs. Flair threw Ruca into the ring and proceeded to lock the Figure Eight submission hold, with Ruca being forced to tap shortly after.

Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss def. Zaria & Sol Ruca via submission to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships

That was a fun opening tag match, and the Blake Monroe involvement in the finish does continue that story she has with Ruca ahead of their Halloween Havoc match.

**********

– Cody Rhodes was walking backstage as Jacob Fatu had a chat with him. Fatu said that once he was finished dogwalking Drew McIntyre from San Jose to San Francisco, Rhodes would find out that Jacob Fatu is all gas and no brakes. Fatu and Rhodes shared a respectful handshake as the latter walked off.

– We got remarks from Aleister Black regarding what happened last week with Zelina Vega’s arrival to his side. Black said that he had been setting this in motion for months now, and that Vega’s assistance was part of the plan alll along. “We are not the infection, just the mirror that shows it,” said Vega of her alliance with Black. They said that the venom wasn’t poison, but it was salvation.

– Backstage, The Miz was shaking hands with Nick Aldis as Sami Zayn appeared and wondered why the U.S. Title Open Challenge wasn’t happening tonight. Aldis explained that Shinsuke Nakamura was still owed a rematch but he wasn’t here tonight, and the M.F.T.s were still lurking about. Zayn would have none of it as he said he waas ready to hold the Open Challenge and if anyone wanted a shot at the U.S. Title, they knew where they could find him.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Ilja Dragunov

As it appeared that The Miz was going to answer Zayn’s Open Challenge, Carmelo Hayes attacked from behind and took him out of the equation as the two brawled out of the stage area.

After a moment, we found out that the returning Ilja Dragunov was Zayn’s opponent for the Open Challenge.

Dragunov and Zayn shared a handshake of respect as the bell rang before the two stood toe-to-toe and slugged one another with strikes. Zayn recovered and lit up Dragunov with a chop as he went for a suplex. Dragunov countered out of the suplex with Zayn fighting back afterwards. Dragunov left Zayn stunned a enzuigiri, as he then threw the U.S. Champion in the corner and absolutely blasted him with a running boot to the face. This took us to a break in the action.

We returned from commercial break with Zayn dropping Dragunov with a clothesline as we got a replay of the action that took place during the break. With both men back up, Zayn and Dragunov once again got into an exchange of strikes that neither man could get an upper hand of. Zayn recovered and delivered a tornado DDT in the corner.

As Dragunov seemed to be stunned in the corner, Zayn ran at him, but ended up eating a jumping kick to the face instead. That only got a near-fall for the returning Dragunov. Zayn valiantly tried to fight out of Dragunov’s grip, but got dropped with a German suplex. Zayn eventually escaped and nearly got the win on a roll-up, as he then responded with some German suplexes of his own on Dragunov.

Dragunov lifted Zayn up and then dropped him with a standing uranage that once again got the two-count. Dragunov tried to go up top, but Zayn avoided it and connected with the Michinoku Driver for a near-fall. The two competitors’ battle reached the apron as Dragunov tried to get Zayn up on his shoulders. Zayn countered and instead got Dragunov with a nasty DDT onto the apron. With both men down, we took another break in the action.

The match returned from break with Zayn and Dragunov duking it out on the top rope, but it was the U.S. Champion who found himself flat on the canvas as Dragunov soared with a senton on Zayn. One, two…. NO! Zayn once again headed up to the top rope, but Dragunov again tried to go after his foe. Even after Zayn took Dragunov down, he just couldn’t keep his foe out cold as he fell victim to a Superplex.

Dragunov had Zayn dead to rights for the H-Bomb, but Zayn got a boot up to stop it. Meanwhile, Zayn’s Helluva Kick attempt was avoided by Dragunov, who then connected with a standing back suplex for the near-fall. Dragunov hit the Constantin Special and nearly had the match won with a Torpedo Moscow. Zayn intercepted at the last second with a Helluva Kick, followed by a Blue Thunder Bomb. One, two… 2.99999999!!!!!

As Zayn had Dragunov targeted for a Helluva Kick, Solo Sikoa appeared on the ramp and provided a distraction. Zayn threw Dragunov in the corner with an Exploder Suplex. However, Sikoa’s distraction seemed to be enough as it inadvertently bought Dragunov time to recover. Dragunov intercepted the Helluva Kick with a Torpedo Moscow. He then finished it off with an H-Bomb to become the new United States Champion.

After the match, the M.F.T.s. rolled up and unleashed an assaualt on Zayn and Dragunov while Sikoa watched on. Rey Fenix ran in but fell victim to the M.F.T.’s numbers game.

Solo Sikoa got on the microphone and promised that the M.F.T.s would run SmackDown as they’d get their championships back again. Before he could continue, he was interrupted by a video from The Wyatt Sicks, as Bo Dallas asked Sikoa if he and his M.F.T.s were ready for what was to come on the other side. As the video ended, the members of The Wyatt Sicks appeared in the darkness and once again stared down Sikoa and the M.F.T.s. Sikoa’s group backed off as the segment ended with the usual Wyatt Sicks static.

Ilja Dragunov def. Sami Zayn via pinfall to become the new United States Champion

Fantastic match. It was great to see Dragunov back in action, as he and Zayn put on a hell of a contest. A shame that it got partially marred by the M.F.T.s stuff at the end. I’m not sure if a feud between Sikoa’s faction and the Wyatt Sicks will be any interesting, I have to admit. Still, it’s nonetheless great to see Dragunov finally become a champion.

**********

– There was an Arby’s-sponsored recap of Stephanie Vaquer’s big victory over Tiffany Stratton at Crown Jewel to become the 2025 Women’s Crown Jewel Champion.

– Stratton was interviewed backstage about her loss and how that’d affect her. Stratton said that one loss would not affect her as she’d be still the WWE Women’s Champion. Kiana James interrupted and badmouthed Stratton for not being a “premium talent” unlike her client, the Women’s U.S. Champion Giulia. Stratton taunted James for not having it in the ring and promptly challenged her to a match for next week’s show.

– We got Earlier Today footage of the Motor City Machine Guns celebrating their one-year anniversary in WWE before Los Garza rudely interrupted the two. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley pointed out that it was Angel and Berto who lost to them in their debut match and they sought to make it an annual thing, which led to this next match.

The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) vs. Los Garza (Angel & Berto)

Angel and Shelley started off, as Berto provided a brief distraction, which allowed Angel to go on the attack. That advantage for Los Garza was all too fleeting as the MCMGs got the momentum back with a dive outside the ring. As Sabin was trying to get into the ring, Berto grabbed at his leg, which again gave Angel an opening to pounce on his foe with a stomp.

Sabin avoided a corner splash from Angel as Shelley got the tag. Los Garza once again turned it around as they dropped Shelley with an assisted double team boot to the face. Sabin got sent to the floor as we took a break in the action.

We returned from the break with Angel working over Shelley as we got a look at a replay of a double knee/kick combo from Los Garza that left Shelley stunned during the break. Shelley hit a neckbreaker on Angel as Sabin got the hot tag. The tag team veteran unleashed a flurry of offense on both Angel and Berto while Shelley contributed as well. Los Garza turned it around with a Gory Special/jumping neckbreaker combo on Sabin. One, two… Shelley broke it up just in time.

As the action broke down ont he outside, Berto took flight and vaulted over the top rope to take both Shelley and Sabin out. Back in the ring, an attempted double team move by Los Garza was thwarted by Shelley and it came down to a patented Skull and Bones from the Machine Guns on Berto to pick up the victory.

Motor City Machine Guns def. Los Garza via pinfall

A fun tag match yes, but honestly kind of a sad indictment that this is the first time in over a month or so that we’ve seen either team. I understand it’s hard to find time to fit the many tag teams of the tag division of SmackDown into a two-hour show, but it’s kind of unfortunate that the Machine Guns were brought in with much fanfare and seem to just be mostly an afterthought.

**********

– As Fraxiom plotted their next moves for the WWE Tag Titles, the #DIY duo of Tommasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano rolled up and had some harsh words for the rest of the SmackDown tag division. Axiom took exception to Gargano making fun of his mask as he challenged him to a match

– As Jacob Fatu was scheduled to make his entrance for our main event, we suddenly cut backstage as Fatu was seen crushed underneath a girder with various officials running up to check up on him. After the break, Nick Aldis was checking up on Fatu alongside the officials while McIntyre made his entrance.

The Main Event: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Drew McIntyre

McIntyre entered with a smug smile on his face as he then got into the ring with a microphone in hand. He taunted Fatu as he demanded the referee to award him the match to become the number one contender. Mr. Aldis interrupted and warned McIntyre that if he found out that McIntyre had something to do with this, he’d do something about it. As McIntyre continued to complain about a conspiracy, Cody Rhodes interrupted and angrily said that if McIntyre wanted a shot at the WWE Title, that we should do it right now. We went to a commercial break just as the match was apparently kicking off.

Our main event continued with Rhodes and McIntyre continuing to brawl at ringside before the battle spilled into the ring as it finally kicked off in earnest. McIntyre got the upper hand with a suplex across the ring. Rhodes threw his vest at McIntyre as he punched away at him. The surly Scotsman got the advantage again with another throw across the ring. Rhodes recovered and punched away at McIntyre in the corner, followed by a bite to the forehead.

McIntyre caught Rhodes by surprise with a Future Shock DDT, and nearly had the WWE Title won, but Rhodes kicked out at two. McIntyre continued his attack in the corner as he punched away at Rhodes before the referee got him to back off. McIntyre caught Rhodes by surprise with a headbutt as he then continued away with the chops to the exposed chest.

Rhodes recovered and hit his uppercut followed by a Cody Cutter. As Rhodes tried to go for a suicide dive, McIntyre met him at the ropes with a headbutt. Rhodes was then thrown over the timekeeper area. McIntyre tried to retrieve Rhodes, but he got hit in the face with the WWE Championship title belt to cause the DQ.

The brawl continued after the bell as Rhodes cleared away the announce table and had him set up for a Cross Rhodes over the announce table. At that moment, Nick Aldis and several officials stepped in to stop the chaos. However, Rhodes eluded them and headed to the top rope as he then crushed McIntyre with a dive to the outside.

SmackDown ended with both men separated by the gaggle of officials as Rhodes looked on from the ring at McIntyre with anger.

Drew McIntyre def. Cody Rhodes via DQ (Rhodes retains Undisputed WWE Championship)

**********

Obviously, this whole main event angle with Jacob Fatu being crushed underneath a girder was WWE’s way of writing him off TV and add more heat to McIntyre to build him up as (most likely) the opponent for Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event in two weeks.

That said, this was a strong edition of SmackDown, bolstered by a big main event angle and a shock return that doubled as a shock title win. I’ll admit that I quite enjoyed tonight’s show a fair bit and hopefully we’re in for more episodes like this in the coming weeks.

WWE SmackDown live results: Crown Jewel go-home show

Posted on by Marc Quill

Editor’s Note: The following are live results from the international broadcast of WWE SmackDown on Netflix with the U.S. version airing at 8 PM Eastern on USA. If you want to avoid spoilers for tonight, you have been warned.

WWE heads to Perth, Australia, for today’s SmackDown — the first of three WWE live shows over the weekend centered around Saturday’s Crown Jewel.

WWE men’s United States Champion Sami Zayn will continue his open challenge series after defeating Aleister Black last Friday with an assist from Damian Priest.

Speaking of Priest and Black, they will attempt to settle their simmering feud in a Last Man Standing match.

The WWE Tag Team titles will be on the line as The Wyatt Sicks’ Joe Gacy & Dexter Lumis defend against The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins).

WWE Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer & WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton will attempt to put their differences aside before their Saturday match as they take on Giulia & Kiana James.

Our live coverage starts at 8 AM Eastern.

**********

– Our show opened with a video package showing the mens and women’s Crown Jewel Championships being moved from the WWE Experience museum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Perth, Australia ahead of tomorrow’s Crown Jewel PLE.

– Following that, we then went live to the RAC Arena, as the men’s Crown Jewel Championship was shown in the ring.

Cody Rhodes addresses Crown Jewel

The Undisputed WWE Champion and reigning men’s Crown Jewel Champion was first to enter for our opening segment as Michael Cole and Wade Barrett recapped the happenings of last Friday’s SmackDown as it related to Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins.

Once Rhodes entered the ring, he basked in the cheers of the Australian crowd before he started off by asking “what do you want to talk about?” Rhodes said that we could talk about Seth Rollins and the supposed “doom and gloom outcome” of the match at Crown Jewel, but after he heard Paul Heyman’s warnings on Raw, it’s clear that Rollins is becoming the man he sacrificed himself to defeat at WrestleMania 41.

Rhodes continued by saying that when you love WWE as much as Rollins does, you’d do everything for it, even perhaps skewing reality as a result. But, there comes a downfall as it becomes a quest for control. Rhodes said that Rollins might not love the “QB” nickname that was given to him, but it’s a collective one that he’s proud to have as making WWE great is a team effort. Rhodes shouted out individuals like Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, CM Punk, Rhea Ripley, Jey Uso, and even Seth Rollins as being important aspects of WWE.

The crowd began chanting “Seth’s a wanker” as Rhodes asked for Barrett and Cole on commentary to confirm that chant. As he got back on track, Rhodes said that if the world did revolved around Seth Rollins, what did that mean for him? He said that in this hypothetical world, this still meant that Rhodes would remain the one man that Rollins just simply cannot defeat.

This did its job of selling the men’s Crown Jewel match and the idea of Cody Rhodes being the one white whale that has eluded Seth Rollins. It’s clear that Rollins will certainly win tomorrow’s match, but just how he does it is something to watch.

**********

– Backstage, Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer was being approached by Chelsea Green to join the Secret Hervice until WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton appeared. Green left as Vaquer and Stratton agreed to be on the same page for tonight’s tag match.

– Elsewhere, Cody Rhodes was walking and approached by Jacob Fatu, who said that once Rhodes was done with the Crown Jewel business, he wanted next for the Undisputed WWE Title. SmackDown GM Nick Aldis approached Fatu and wanted to discuss something with him. As Aldis left, Drew McIntyre attacked Fatu before he was backed off by officials.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Nakamura was revealed as Zayn’s opponent, as he entered to his old theme music and entrance.

The match got going with Zayn and Nakamura engaging in a duel of chain wrestling that neither man got the upper hand on. Nakamura got a bit of an advantage with a boot to the face followed by a leg drop on Zayn. The momentum continued for the challenger as he delivered his sliding German suplex to Zayn, which took us into the break.

Our opening contest returned from commercial with Zayn and Nakamura trading strikes in the middle of the ring until the latter dropped his foe with a nice vertical suplex. Nakamura fired himself up and teed off on Zayn with strikes and an enzuigiri that sent Zayn stunned into the corner. The challenger followed that with a heel kick to the face of Zayn that got a near-fall. Nakamura maintained his strong-style-tinged assault on Zayn until a clothesline turned him upside down.

Zayn headed to the top rope and missed with a dive. He attempted a Blue Thunder Bomb, but fell victim to Nakamura’s patented spinning kick. In the corner, Nakamura had Zayn dead to rights for a Kinshasa, but he got countered into a Michinoku Driver for a near-fall. After pinfalls were traded, Zayn connected with the Exploder Suplex into the corner and looked like he’d have the Helluva Kick in the chamber. Nakamura avoided that and went to the top with a diving kick to the back of Zayn’s head. One, two… not yet! With the match still to be decided, we went to another break.

SmackDown returned from the break with Zayn and Nakamura once more mixing it up with strikes until Zayn’s attempt at a Blue Thunder Bomb was countered into a modified Kinshasa to the back of the U.S. Champion’s head. Zayn instinctively rolled out of the ring as he caught Nakamura by surprise with an Exploder Suplex into the barricade. Zayn then hit a Helluva Kick before he threw Nakamura back into the ring before the count of ten. As Zayn tried to get back into the ring, Nakamura caught him by surprise with a Sudden Impact kick that got a near-fall. He then got Zayn with the Scorpio Rising and looked to have the Kinshasa lock and loaded. That was until a hooded man attacked

The hooded man pulled Nakamura out and threw him over the barricade. The man revealed himsefl to be the returning Tama Tonga, as the other members of the M.F.T.s appeared around the ring to surround Zayn. The group laid a beatdown on both champion and challenger, as Solo Sikoa took in the destruction.

Sami Zayn def. Shinsuke Nakamura via DQ to retain the United States Championship

A great match ruined by another DQ finish. I’m not sure if dressing up this Bloodline retread in facepaint in a “Malibu Stacy with a new hat” situation is going to make them any interesting, but I guess I can’t fault WWE for trying again with this, as daunting a task as it may seem to be. That said, it’s at least great to see Tama Tonga back from injury.

**********

– Backstage, we learned that on next week’s SmackDown, Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu would go one on one. As McIntyre discussed this with GM Nick Aldis, he was attacked by an irate Fatu, who wanted to get a little payback on the assault from earlier in the night. A gaggle of referees and officials tried their best to keep the two separated.

Stephanie Vaquer & Tiffany Stratton vs. Giulia & Kiana James

Vaquer and James started things off for their respective teams as the latter delivered a cheapshot to her opponent. Vaquer answered with a back suplex and caught James in prime position for an early-match Devil’s Kiss, much to the crowd’s delight. James retreated and tagged Giulia as we headed into an oddly-placed commercial break.

The action resumed from the break with Giulia throwing Vaquer into her team’s corner as James tagged herself in and kept the Women’s World Champion isolated for a moment. Giulia was the legal woman again as she took off from the top with a dropkick for a near-fall. Vaquer managed to kick Giulia aside which gave her enough time to tag in Stratton.

The WWE Women’s Champion was a house of fire as she unleashed a flurry of offense on James with a somersault clothesline into the corner followed by a slam for the near-fall. Stratton stunned James into the middle rope and looked to have a running attack, but Giulia created a distraction as she then entered the match with an Arrivederci Knee to Stratton. Giulia then connected with a Northern Lights Bomb, but Vaquer broke up the pin.

As things began to break down, Stratton got the Alabama Slam on James as Vaquer entered the with a tag. Vaquer connected with a modified version of the Angel’s Wings, but Giulia broke up the count. Stratton with a blind tag as Vaquer launched herself onto Giulia outside to take her out of the equation. Back in the ring, Stratton finished James off in short order with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever.

Vaquer and Stratton stood in front of the Women’s Crown Jewel Championship and faced off after the match.

Tiffany Stratton & Stephanie Vaquer def. Giulia & Kiana James

Standard women’s tag team fare, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I do think that giving Giulia and James the win here wouldn’t have hurt as it’d at least create a new set of challengers for Stratton to contend with post-Crown Jewel.

**********

– As Zaria and Sol Ruca were chatting amongst themselves, the Women’s Tag Team Champions, Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss appeared and told the NXT stars that facing them would be not be an easy battle to expect. Utlimately, Flair and Bliss granted Zaria and Ruca a chance at their Women’s Tag Titles.

WWE Tag Team Championships: The Wyatt Sicks (Joe Gacy & Dexter Lumis) (w/ Nikki Cross & Erick Rowan) (c) vs. The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) (w/ B-Fab)

The match got going right away as Gacy and Lumis ran into the ring and immediately began to fight with Dawkins and Ford. As things finally setled down, the Profits had the upper hand early as they threw their weight around at Gacy’s expense. Outside the ring, Dawkins barrelled through both Gacy and Lumis, which sent the two Wyatts into the timekeeper’s corner. We headed to the commercial break with the Street Profits having control in the early stages of this match.

We returned from the break as the Wyatts had Ford staggered in the corner and ready for a double superplex. Dawkins emerged and held Gacy and Lumis in place instead, as Ford recovered and delivered a double blockbuster on the WWE Tag Champs. The cover, but Nikki Cross put Gacy’s foot on the bottom rope. Things broke down as B-Fab attacked Cross on the outside. Erick Rowan stood behind B-Fab, which allowed Cross to go on the attack with a leap. Dawkins then launched over the top rope to take down Rowan as Ford was the legal man.

From the top rope, Ford wanted to hit the Frog Splash, but Lumis pulled Gacy out of harm’s way, which caused Ford to hit the mat hard instead. The two Wyatts then finished things off with the Plague on Ford to retain the WWE Tag Titles.

After the match, Solo Sikoa and the M.F.T.s. appeared and had a brief, but tense staredown with the Wyatt Sicks.

The Wyatt Sicks def. The Street Profits via pinfall to retain the WWE Tag Team Championships

Just a standard tag match, with nothing really to write home about. The tease with the M.F.T.s targeting the Wyatts certainly happened, I do at least want to see where this goes initially.

**********

– The Miz was interviewed backstage about his betrayal of Carmelo Hayes on last week’s SmackDown, as he called himself “the spotlight” and that Hayes “blew it” in his eyes and that his former Melo Don’t Miz partner ultimately “missed”.

– We got a recap of the Crown Jewel Kickoff and Seth Rollins’ abrupt exit from the kickoff while The Vision was on stage, with the implication being that Rollins’ confidence is in question ahead of his match with Cody Rhodes tomorrow.

Crown Jewel Final Card

  • Men’s Crown Jewel Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins
  • Women’s Crown Jewel Championship: Stephanie Vaquer vs. Tiffany Stratton
  • Australian Street Fight: Roman Reigns vs. Bronson Reed
  • Rhea Ripley & IYO SKY vs. Asuka & Kairi Sane
  • John Cena vs. AJ Styles

Last Man Standing: Damian Priest vs. Aleister Black

We got going right away with Priest pummeling Black in the corner before he threw him over the top rope. Priest pulled out a kendo stick from under the ring, but got caught by surprise with a kick from Black. Priest recovered and battered his foe with the top half of the steel steps as the fight made its way through the entry way. We took a commercial break after one more steel steps strike from Priest to Black.

SmackDown’s main event resumed as Priest sent Black crashing into the barricade with a fierce throw. The referee began his count, but Black managed to get himself back on his feet as he ran back into the ring. Priest connected with an elevated Flatliner on Black before he set up the bottom half of the steel steps in the middle of the ring. Priest looked for a superplex onto the steps, but Black escaped and instead sent his rival face first into the steps.

Priest wanted to hit the South of Heaven on Black right on the steps, but he couldn’t connect with it. Black headed up top and crashed onto Priest with a Meteora. That, however,was not enough to keep Priest down for the count. With the steps turned on its side, Priest threw Black face-first onto it. As the action spilled to the outside, Priest was thrown against the steel steps as his neck bounced off of it. Somehow, Priest recovered and shoved Black onto the top of the commentary table, as we took another break in the action.

We returned as Priest unleashed the pain on Black with a kendo stick to the back. He tried for some sort of an Old School-style maneuver, but Black kicked Priest upon landing, which sent him out of the ring upon impact. Black took a chair from the crowd and battered Priest in the ribs with it repeatedly. Priest recovered in time and chokeslammed Black against the apron before delivering a Razor’s Edge onto the commentary table. Black was seemingly out cold, but he woke up and got himself back to his feet before the count of nine.

As Black stood up, Priest once again threw Black with a Razor’s Edge onto the table. Once more, Black rolled off the top of the table, which allowed him to beat the count of ten. After this, the battle broke out into the crowd as Priest took Black to a set of production boxes. With Black and Priest on top of a platform, the latter looked to have this won. That was, until Zelina Vega appeared and checked up on Black, as he pleaded for Priest not to do any damage. Priest did not comply, and ended up eating a fireball to the face, followed by a Black Mass kick that sent him crashing through a table. The referee made the count, and Priest was unable to make it to the count of ten, which gave Black the victory.

Aleister Black def. Damian Priest via pinfall

**********

A fun main event with a very interesting finish as Zelina Vega made her return to WWE TV with a new gimmick as she’s now aligned with her real-life spouse Aleister Black. That should be interesting to see going forward.

All in all, this wasn’t really much of a go-home show for Crown Jewel as it was basically an extended PLE where matches that otherwise wouldn’t fit the Levesque-ian way of 5 matches per PLE card are booked. It’s certainly not bad thing to position pre-PLE editions of SmackDown. The matches that we did get were at least decent, and it was nice to see some surprise returns to spice things up.

WWE SmackDown live results: Cody Rhodes & Randy Orton vs. The Vision

Posted on by Marc Quill

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown from Cincinnati’s Heritage Bank Center will be headlined by WWE Champion Cody Rhodes teaming up with Randy Orton to take on The Vision’s Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker.

Last week, Rhodes confronted Paul Heyman and suggested that the loyalties of World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins’ “Oracle” may lie with Brock Lesnar once more. This brought Breakker and Reed out to confront Rhodes before Orton evened the odds.

Men’s United States Champion Sami Zayn continues his open challenge series after another successful defense last week against NXT star Je’von Evans. Tonight marks the fifth time Zayn has defended his title since winning it in late August.

Coming off her title defense last Friday, WWE Women’s World Champion Tiffany Stratton will have a contract signing with Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer as their Crown Jewel Championship match approaches.

Plus, Damian Priest said that he plans on issuing a challenge to his rival Aleister Black.

Join us for live coverage starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

**********

– Over shots of the Cincinnati skyline, we were welcomed to tonight’s SmackDown by Michael Cole before we headed to the arena for our opening segment.

Cody Rhodes kicks off SmackDown

The entrance of the Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes, got things going for tonight’s show as he made his way to the ring with some things to say on his mind ahead of his tag match with Randy Orton against Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed later tonight.

As Rhodes got into the ring, he started off with his usual “what do you want to talk about?” icebreaker. Paul Heyman interrupted him, accompanied by Breakker and Reed at his side. “What would we like to talk about?” asked Heyman.

At the same time, Orton appeared at Rhodes’ side to even the odds as Heyman introduced himself in his usual manner. Heyman said that he and the Brons weren’t here to talk to Rhodes, but rather to Orton. He said that Orton wasn’t taking his calls all week, which meant that he had the Brons corner Rhodes, which would bring out the Viper. According to Heyman, that wasn’t a prediction, but a spoiler.

Heyman pointed out that no matter the strategy that Orton and Rhodes would come up with, it wouldn’t be enough as they’d lose to Breakker and Reed later tonight. Heyman asked Orton what would happen if he and Rhodes lost tonight, attempting to stir the pot. “That’s the Undisputed World Champion, we could do so much more than that,” Heyman asked Orton.

He said, that either way, no matter how we’d look at it, the alliance between Orton and Rhodes would not last, because that’s not a prediction, but rather a prophecy. The Seth Rollins-less Vision made their exit as this segment ended.

Seems like a bit of foreshadowing for what could be a future feud for Cody Rhodes, perhaps for down the line, just not tonight, however. Still, an intriguing start to the show, nonetheless.

**********

– As Carmelo Hayes walked in the locker room, the Miz accosted him and chewed him out for letting him get beat last week. Hayes responded by saying that this partnership between him and Miz was done because Miz was simply standing in his way when he was supposed to be watching his back. Hayes said that he was being cool about this because normally, he shoots first. He told Miz that “we good” before walking off.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Aleister Black

Before the match, Carmelo Hayes addressed Zayn, saying that this time it’d be different because nobody was here to cloud to his vision or judgement. He said that he’s been the best that he’d ever been. However, before Hayes could actually make his way to the ring, The Miz attacked him with a Skull Crushing Finale, which left him laying. WWE officials shooed Miz away as they checked up on the downed Hayes.

Aleister Black appeared and said he’d take the open challenge as this match got underway officially after that.

Zayn dropped Black with a series of arm drags before he transitioned into an hammerlock following the last one. Black escaped the hold and kicked Zayn in the face as he took over with strikes in the corner. Black maintained control with a boot to the face of Zayn, which left him trapped against the ropes momentarily. Black took us into the commercial break with a springboard moonsault on Zayn, as the challenger still had the upper hand.

We returned from the break with Zayn having fought back and battering Black with punch after punch in the corner, followed by repeated stomps to his foe’s head. Zayn leapfrogged above Black before he clotheslined him out of the ring. He followed that up with a moonsault from the apron that floored Black at ringside. Back in the ring, Zayn caught Black with a nice Michinoku Driver for the close kickout at two.

As Black recovered, he and Zayn got into a standing switch standoff until the challenger blasted him with a kick to the head and a German suplex. One, two… not quite. Zayn avoided a spinning kick and attempted a Blue Thunder Bomb, but got countered into a discus knee by Black instead. The challenger headed to the top rope, but Zayn intercepted and left him staggered long enough for a superplex that took both men out as we got another break in the action here.

Our match continued as Zayn headed to the top and took a leap, but he was skeetshotted with a kick by Black upon landing. That, however, was still not enough for Black to pick up the win and the U.S. Title. With both men on their feet, they exchanged strikes until Black gained the upper hand with strikes in the corner. In the midst of this, Zayn attempted a Helluva Kick, but Black dodged and responded with a top rope Meteora. One, two…. Zayn just managed to kick out! As Zayn was at Black’s mercy, Damian Priest appeared at ringside and created just enough of a distraction for Zayn to catch Black with a Helluva Kick, followed by the Blue Thunder Bomb. One, two, three. This one’s done.

After Zayn left the ring, Priest cleared the commentary table and hoisted the fallen Black above him. He then threw Black through the commentary table with a Razor’s Edge.

Sami Zayn def. Aleister Black via pinfall to retain the United States Championship

This was probably the weakest of Zayn’s U.S. Title Open challenge matches, but it was still an entertaining bout nonetheless. Zayn has proven himself a workhorse in the past few weeks and this match was no exception to that.

**********

– As SmackDown GM Nick Aldis was talking to NXT talents Zaria and Sol Ruca, he was interrupted by Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre, who were looking to recruit the team into the Secret Hervice. However, that turned sideways as the two instead found themselves booked in a match against Zaria and Ruca by Mr. Aldis.

Chelsea Green & Alba Fyre vs. Zaria & Sol Ruca

Zaria and Fyre opened the match for their respective teams with a lockup. Zaria grabbed Fyre by her throat and threw her into the corner and laid into her foe with a strike. As Fyre escaped, Zaria took her to the opposite corner and held her up with an elevated sleeper. The Australian followed that up with a top rope clothesline. After Green tagged herself in, Ruca entered the match and held her with an interesting modified tarantula hold of sorts, followed by an X-Factor for the near-fall.

The Secret Hervice showed some effective teamwork as they took out Ruca with a double team dropkick that sent the Women’s North American Champion to the outside. Zaria was taken out of the equation with a dive from Fyre. With Ruca isolated, Green and Fyre maintained control for a bit. Zaria eventually recovered and threw Fyre into the barricade. Back in the ring, Green fell victim to Ruca’s incredible Sol Snatcher cutter for the victory.

Zaria & Sol Ruca def. Chelsea Green & Alba Fyre via pinfall

A rather short match here, but it’s nice to see some variety in the SmackDown women’s roster in the form of some NXT stars showing up, and their eventual Women’s Tag Title match against Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair should be entertaining.

**********

– Backstage, Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss were interviewed about the victorious team of Ruca and Zaria. The Women’s Tag Champions said that their potential challengers have proven themselves, but that they need to be ready when it’s their turn to challenge for Flair & Bliss’s titles. As the champs left, Bliss humorously imitated Flair’s “woooo”.

– A recap of Roman Reigns’ return on Raw this past Monday was shown. Reigns was also advertised to appear on next week’s edition of Raw.

– Cody Rhodes talked with Randy Orton, who said that nobody should care what Paul Heyman said earlier. The two exchanged a fistbump, their alliance seemingly stronger than ever.

Stephanie Vaquer vs. Tiffany Stratton contract signing

SmackDown GM Nick Aldis was in the ring to moderate this contract signing for Vaquer vs. Stratton for the Crown Jewel Championship at next week’s Crown Jewel event in Perth. Stratton was introduced first, followed by Vaquer.

Once both women in the ring, Vaquer took to the mic first. She said that she respected Stratton, and that even though she has only been Women’s World Champion for two weeks, she said she’d prove herself to be the best. “Let the best woman win,” said Vaquer.

Stratton answered that although she and Vaquer were the best women right now in WWE, she’d be the one to beat Vaquer at Crown Jewel. Stratton said that it didn’t matter if they were in Cincinnati or Perth or anywhere else, it’d always be Tiffy Time. Both women signed the contract amicably and shook hands. The contract signing ended without incident.

However, as Stratton was walking out, she was ambushed from behind by Giulia. Kiana James told Aldis not to notarize the contract just yet. James then tried to recruit Vaquer for her services, as she said Giulia outshined even Stratton as the top star on SmackDown. As James continued to talk, Stratton pulled James out and attacked her. Vaquer caught Giulia napping and had her hoisted up for the SVB, but the Women’s U.S. Champion managed to escape unscathed.

I low-key enjoyed this segment, if only for giving us something different in terms of Giulia potentially running back her rivalry against Women’s World Champion Vaquer. Even if it’s a tag match with Vaquer and Stratton vs. Giulia and James, it’s something I want to see to break up the monotony that the SmackDown women’s divison has been mired in for the last few months.

**********

– We got Earlier Today footage of Je’von Evans talking with Mr. Aldis about his future potentially involving a move to SmackDown. Rey Fenix appeared and got friendly with Evans, as Los Garza talked trash to the two. This led to Mr. Aldis scheduling a tag match with Fenix & Evans vs. Los Garza.

– A vignette from Jacob Fatu aired. He said that he was tired of people lying and talking out of their ass. Fatu declared that Drew McIntyre was going to the bottom, while he was headed straight to the top at the expense of the Scotsman.

Je’von Evans & Rey Fenix vs. Los Garza (Angel & Berto)

Evans caught Berto with a high-flying crossbody to start things off. Berto responded with a knee to the face as he then attacked Evans with punches to the face, followed by a hard kick. In the corner, Evans attempted to fight out of trouble, but got hit with a dropkick by Berto. The high-flying Evans countered with a springboard hurricanrana on Berto. Los Garza, however, caught the young gun with a double team kick to the face, followed by a punch.

Fenix entered the match and took flight with a tornillo dive that took Angel out. Berto then took out Fenix with a dive of his own. This was then followed by Evans soaring with a big time leap over the top rope that took everyone out as the action headed to a break.

SmackDown returned with Angel punching away at Fenix in the corner, until his foe escaped and caught him with a hard kick to the face. On the other side of the ring, Evans clotheslined Berto out of the ring. Things broke down a bit as Los Garza coordinated with a unique double team move where Berto kicked Evans while Angel held Fenix up. Despite that move, it still wasn’t enough to end this match.

Fenix and Angel took each other out with a clothesline as Evans got the hot tag. Evans hit Berto in with an elevated Cheeky Nandos kick before he dove onto both Angel and the cameraman at ringside. As Evans entered the ring, Berto tried to catch him by surprise with a rope-assisted pin, but the referee broke it up.

As Angel entered the ring, he fell victim to a rebound springboard kick by Evans as Fenix re-entered the match. Fenix lifted Berto up for the Mexican Muscle Buster, while Evans intercepted Angel with an OG Cutter. Fenix pinned Berto to pick up the victory for his team.

Rey Fenix & Je’von Evans def. Los Garza via pinfall

This was a great little match and if it was a tryout of sorts for Evans to be a part of the SmackDown roster moving forward, I’d say he passes, as his high-flying moveset is perfect to pop crowds.

**********

– As Damian Priest was interviewed about how far his rivalry with Aleister Black would go, Kit Wilson interrupted and told him that he’d do everything he can to stand up against what he saw as “toxic masculinity”. Priest answered by pushing Wilson on his wheelchair far enough to send him crashing into some pipes. Ultimately, Priest challenged Black to a Last Man Standing match for next week’s SmackDown.

– A vignette from Solo Sikoa and his M.F.T.s aired, focusing on Talla Tonga.

– The Street Profits were interviewed about their WWE Tag Title matches against the Wyatt Sicks on next week’s SmackDown. Montez Ford said that they weren’t just fighting for the Tag Titles, but they were fighting for each other. The Wyatt Sicks interrupted on the screen behind the Profits, and talked trash to their challengers.

Next Week on SmackDown

  • Tiffany Stratton & Stephanie Vaquer vs. Kiana James & Giulia
  • Last Man Standing: Damian Priest vs. Aleister Black
  • WWE Tag Team Championships: The Wyatt Sicks’ Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy vs. The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins)
  • Sami Zayn’s U.S. Title Open Challenge

Cody Rhodes & Randy Orton vs. The Vision (Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed)

Our main event kicked off with Orton facing off against Breakker in the middle of the ring. Orton quickly pushed Breakker into the corner and opened up with an European uppercut, followed by repeated punches to Breakker’s face. Orton followed it up with a clothesline over the top rope as we went to commercial not even a minute into this one.

SmackDown’s main event bout continued as Orton was in the grip of Bronson Reed. During the break, Orton was dropped across the announce table by Reed, which led us to this point in the match. Back to live action, Reed ran shoulder-first into the steel post after Orton dodged at the last second. Rhodes entered the match with a tag, as he took out Reed with a Disaster Kick. Both Reed and Breakker were taken out to the ringside area and fell victim to a suicide dive by the Undisputed WWE Champion.

Back in the ring, Breakker struck Rhodes from behind while Reed had the referee distracted, as Reed seized the opportunity to punish his foe with clubbing blows. Rhodes turned it around with a dropdown uppercut, but found himself on the receiving end of a World’s Strongest Slam by Reed. Breakker tagged in and absolutely blasted Rhodes with a charged clothesline and we once again headed to one last commercial break in the midst of the action.

As we returned from the break, it was still The Vision in the driver’s seat as the Brons kept Rhodes isolated in their corner. Rhodes managed to kick Breakker away in the hopes of getting a tag, but Reed stamped out those hopes. The Undisputed WWE Champion avoided a Reed senton, which finally allowed Orton to get the hot tag.

It was classic Orton at his best as he hit his signature powerslam on both Breakker and Reed. However, the titanic Australian responded with the Jagged Edge on Orton. Reed tried to head to the top rope, but Orton recovered and met him at the pass with a massive superplex. Breakker managed to break up the pin at two. Rhodes and Breakker fought as the hotshot flew from the apron and took out Rhodes with a diving clothesline through the barricade.

In the ring, Orton had Reed scouted for the RKO, but Paul Heyman created a distraction as Seth Rollins stepped in and stomped Orton. This allowed Reed to pick up the victory with a Tsunami.

After the match, Rollins told Breakker and Reed to back off while Rhodes was in the ring to check up on Orton. Heyman advised Rollins not to go in for the kill, but to no avail. Rollins tried to go for a Stomp, but Rhodes avoided it and instead caught Rollins with the Cross Rhodes to end SmackDown.

The Vision (Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed) def. Randy Orton & Cody Rhodes via pinfall

**********

Above average main event, but the Brons getting the victory was the right call, perhaps to further tease the Orton & Rhodes dissention mentioned at the top of the show.

Despite that, I quite enjoyed this week’s NXT-infused edition of SmackDown. The matches were all good and as a result, the two hours flew by quickly. As always, Sami Zayn’s U.S. Title Open Challenge was the standout (distraction finish aside), but the Evans/Fenix vs. Los Garza tag match was solid action too. All in all, tonight was entertaining.

WWE SmackDown live results: Women’s title triple threat

Posted on by Marc Quill

Tiffany Stratton defends her WWE Women’s Championship against both Nia Jax and Jade Cargill in a triple threat match as part of tonight’s WWE SmackDown from the Kia Center in Orlando, Florida.

Stratton last defended her title two weeks ago in a no contest against Cargill due to a Jax attack. An altercation between the three last week led to Nick Aldis making this match for tonight. It will determine who heads to Crown Jewel: Perth to face Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer.

After defending his WWE title at Wrestlepalooza against Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes will appear on tonight’s show to address his upcoming Crown Jewel match against World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins.

United States Champion Sami Zayn will hold another open challenge after successfully retaining against Carmelo Hayes last week.

The card is rounded out by Michin & B-Fab joining forces to take on Women’s United States Champion Giulia & Kiana James in tag team action.

The show began with the updated WWE signature open introduced this week. We then got shots of Tiffany Stratton, Jade Cargill, Nia Jax, and Sami Zayn arriving to the Kia Center.

Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern.

**********

– Michael Cole welcomed us to tonight’s show as Booker T was introduced as his partner on commentary for tonight. Cole then tossed to a recap of what happened at last Saturday’s Wrestlepalooza.

Paul Heyman opens SmackDown

After the Wrestlepalooza recap ended, we returned to the arena with Paul Heyman in the ring. He did his usual “ladies and gentlemen” introduction as he said he’d paraphrase a pseudo-de facto secondary champion, “So, Orlando, what do you want to talk about?” Heyman asked if we’d like to talk about the World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins as the fans chanted “O.T.C.” at him.

Heyman said he’d love to talk about to Roman Reigns, but it’s disrespectful to speak of the injured after he got stretchered out of Paris following Bronson Reed’s attack. He then asked if we should talk about the man who will main event WrestleMania into the 2030s and 2040s, Bron Breakker. Heyman then turned his attention to the conspiracy theories and rumors about Brock Lesnar. Before Heyman could go on further, the theme of Cody Rhodes cut him off.

The Undisputed WWE Champion made his way down to the ring as the Orlando crowd cheered him on. Once Rhodes got into the ring, he took a mic and asked if we all got a chance to watch the Wrestlepalooza recap. He said that he made a mistake last week in calling Paul Heyman a “goon”. Rhodes called Heyman the most smartest man that he knows as he said that he’d go ahead and ask the question: tell him more about Brock Lesnar. Rhodes then had a still from Wrestlepalooza of Heyman introducing Lesnar before the match.

Rhodes said that the face on Heyman last Saturday, that it wasn’t the face of a guy treating it as a one-night thing. He asked Heyman if he was talking to the Oracle, to the Wiseman, or the Advocate? Heyman responded by saying that Rhodes was talking to the GOAT and that he respected him for confronting him about Brock Lesnar. He said that when Lesnar is around, everyone will be in danger. Heyman mentioned that Lesnar is not here, but the bad news for Rhodes, he’s got others here instead as Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed appeared.

As Breakker and Reed faced down the Undisputed WWE Champion, Rhodes tried to give the two advice as he asked “who is Paul Heyman loyal to?” Rhodes said he didn’t know for sure, but he said that it ain’t to the Brons. This then led to Rhodes attempting to fight the Vision’s deadly duo, but the numbers game got the better of him. Randy Orton made the save as he took the fight to Breakker and Reed. Orton delivered an RKO on Reed, while Rhodes clotheslined Breakker out of the ring.

An interesting open to this week’s show, and again, I’m left cold at the idea of seeing another Brock Lesnar match, as they teased a potential title match with him against Cody Rhodes. As for the now, it seems we’ll likely get Rhodes and Randy Orton fighting The Vision soon.

**********

WWE Tag Team Title No. 1 Contenders Match: The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) vs. Melo Don’t Miz (Carmelo Hayes & The Miz)

The match got underway with Ford and Miz as the legal men. As Ford tried to get at Hayes on the apron, Miz attempted to get an early rollup pin, to no avail. Hayes tagged in and tried to keep things going for his team, but he ate a high knee to the face from Ford. Dawkins entered the match as Miz tried to get involved. Miz got thrown onto a downed Hayes for his troubles. At ringside, Dawkins tried for a running attack, but was met by a dropkick by Hayes, as the action went to a break.

We returned to the action as Miz drilled Ford with a kneeling DDT for the near-fall. The cohesive unit of Hayes and Miz continued to work over Ford as they grounded him with an assisted double-team clothesline in their corner. With Ford struggling to get himself back up, Miz taunted Dawkins in the corner, but paid for it with a kick to the face from Ford.

Hayes got the tag as he delivered a cheap shot to Dawkins on the Street Profits corner. Meanwhile, Ford attempted to fight his way out of enemy territory and managed to do so after sending Miz out of the ring. Ford tried to tag Dawkins, but Miz pulled Dawkins from the outside. This allowed Hayes to hit Ford with the First 48. Hayes headed up top and looked for Nothin’ But Net, but Miz once again selfishly tagged himself in. This gave Ford the opening to get the tag on Hayes.

The Street Profits took command as Dawkins rocked Miz with his corkscrew elbow followed by a spinning neckbreaker. With Ford as the legal man, he took to the skies with his From the Heavens frog splash. As Ford pinned Miz, Hayes didn’t seem to be in a hurry to break up the pin as the Street Profits became No. 1 contenders for The Wyatt Sicks’ WWE Tag Titles.

After the match, The Wyatt Sicks appeared in front of the commentary table and simply stared down the victorious duo of Ford and Dawkins.

The Street Profits def. Melo Don’t Miz via pinfall

That was a decent match to start off the in-ring action tonight, and it seems we’re getting forward movement with the Miz/Hayes breakup if that finish is any indication, so it’s a win all around.

**********

– As Jade Cargill was interviewed ahead of her triple threat match for the WWE Women’s Championship, the Women’s World Heavyweight Champion, Stephanie Vaquer confronted her. Cargill said that storm would be coming Vaquer’s way at Crown Jewel. Vaquer responded by saying that she’d be ready.

Giulia & Kiana James vs. Michin & B-Fab

B-Fab opened the match by blasting James with some strikes, before she got taken down by a clothesline from the business associate of Giulia. B-Fab responded with a dropkick to James as she tagged Michin in. James managed to get the drop on Michin, which allowed Giulia to be tagged in. The Women’s U.S. Champion struck Michin with a kick, but was met with a hurricanrana by her hated rival. The tag was made to B-Fab, who kept Giulia grounded with a double team move.

Outside the ring, Giulia rolled out for the retreat and things broke down with the Women’s U.S. Champion getting waylaid by a dropkick from the commentary table by Michin, which took us into the commercial break halfway through this one.

SmackDown returned with B-Fab in trouble as James and Giulia teed off with a big boot, followed by a missile dropkick. James re-entered the match and maintained the upper hand on B-Fab with a punch. A missed elbow dropped allowed B-Fab to create some separation as she desperately tried to go for a tag to Michin. One final side kick from B-Fab finally got the hot tag from Michin.

Michin dropped James with a DDT, using Giulia as a base. As things broke down, Michin hit James with Eat Defeat, but that sent her to Giulia’s corner, which allowed the Women’s U.S. Champion to make the tag. Giulia flattened Michin with the Arrivederci Knee, followed by a Northern Lights Bomb with some added sauce for the pin and win.

Giulia & Kiana James def. Michin & B-Fab via pinfall

A fine enough tag match, but I’m kind of tired of the very limited Women’s U.S. Title picture where it seems like it’s just Michin as a frequent challenger to whoever is the champion. I think this is where some NXT call ups to bolster SmackDown’s women’s roster would do the most good. Giulia certainly deserves better than fighting the same two people every so often.

**********

– Backstage, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair were confronted by Zaria and Sol Ruca, who wanted to call their shot for the WWE Women’s Tag Titles. Bliss told the two that they needed to prove themselves as she told Zaria and Ruca to get in line. After the NXT duo left, Flair expressed joy in seeing Bliss telling off Zaria and Ruca the way she did.

– A preview for Crown Jewel was shown highlight the matches we’d be seeing, including Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins for the Men’s Crown Jewel Champion, plus John Cena vs. AJ Styles.

Drew McIntyre on his Wrestlepalooza defeat

McIntyre appeared with a walking boot following his loss at Wrestlepalooza.

McIntyre said that Orlando held a special place in him, as he talked about making his WWE return here, winning his 2nd WWE Championship in front of a bunch of screen. He then talked about how he should’ve been here as the new WWE Champion as he proceeded to got mad about the referee getting in the way at Wrestlepalooza. McIntyre claimed that the referee was being paid off by Cody Rhodes as Nick Aldis soon interrupted him.

Aldis said that McIntyre was making too many excuses, and that to acknowledge that people won some and lose some. As McIntyre continued to complain about the WWE medical team being supposedly on the Cody Rhodes payroll, Aldis said that he was done and left the surly Scotsman to his own devices. Before McIntyre could continue on, the returning Jacob Fatu interrupted him unexpectedly. Fatu marched his way down to the ring and confronted McIntyre face to face.

Fatu snatched the microphone from McIntyre and told him to “shut his ass up” and to “stop bitching”. He said that McIntyre came out every week to cry, complain and blame everyone else for his wrong doing. Fatu told him to sit his peg-leg ass down. McIntyre had his turn yelled at him for trying to put him out. As Fatu was doing his usual “all gas and no brakes” spiel, McIntyre surprised him with a headbutt. Fatu answered with a superkick to the face of McIntyre before he ripped the walking boot off of the Scotsman’s foot. Fatu then kayoed McIntyre with the boot as he left him laying.

This Fatu/McIntyre feud has the potential to be very interesting, so this has my full, undivided attention for when this match goes down.

**********

– While Tiffany Stratton was getting ready for the main event triple threat match, Stephanie Vaquer sized up her potential Crown Jewel challenger, like she did with Jade Cargill earlier.

– Sami Zayn was chatting with Fenix as he prepared for his U.S. Title Open Challenge match up next. He said he didn’t know who he’d be facing, as it could be anyone from Raw or SmackDown, or even NXT, as they’re in Orlando. Shinsuke Nakamura was briefly seen in the background watching Zayn in the shadows.

– We got another vignette for Solo Sikoa’s M.F.T. that focused on J.C. Mateo. Sikoa said that Mateo was loyal to him and that he’d be rewarded as long as he was part of the Family Tree.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Je’von Evans

Zayn’s challenger in the Open Challenge was revealed to be Je’von Evans from NXT. Evans’ opponent at NXT No Mercy tomorrow, Josh Briggs, was seen in the crowd watching.

The two combatants locked up to start as Evans dodged Zayn acrobatically before he got thrown around by arm drags from the U.S. Champion. In the corner, Zayn lifted Evans back up as the chain wrestling battle continued between the two. In the corner, Evans delivered a chop to the chest of Zayn and backed off. In response, Zayn got in some chops of his own on Evans. The NXT young gun answered with a high-flying springboard clothesline, folowed by a leaping rana off the top rope. Evans sent Zayn to the outside and looked like he was about to take flight. Zayn put a stop to that with a hard lariat that took us into the commercial break.

We returned with Zayn literally having Evans on the ropes with a chop. The challenger fought out and threw Zayn outside of the ring before he finally connected with a soaring dive over the top rope on the U.S. Champion. In the ring, Evans countered a Blue Thunder Bomb attempt and answered with a springboard enzuigiri that took Zayn out. On the top rope, Zayn and Evans had a skirmish, with the former winning out by sending the latter.

Zayn tried to go for a diving move off the top, but Evans ran up and delivered an avalanche hurricanrana that nearly won him the U.S. Title. In the corner, Evans tried to run at Zayn, but got caught with the Exploder Suplex. A Helluva Kick attempt was intercepted by a dropkick on the button by Evans. Another attempt at the Helluva Kick was once again countered by Evans, who dodged at the last second. This left Zayn stunned as Evans connected with the OG Cutter. One, two… NO!

Evans headed to apron for a springboard, but miscalculated, as he ended up in the corner as a result following a rollthrough. Zayn made him pay with a Helluva Kick, followed by the Blue Thunder Bomb for the one, two, three.

After the match, Zayn congratulated Evans on his effort and got the fans to cheer for the NXT upstart.

Sami Zayn def. Je’von Evans to retain the United States Championship

For the fourth week running, Sami Zayn’s U.S. Title Open Challenge is the highlight of the show. The matches have been fantastic since Zayn began the Open Challenge, and this week was no exception. Je’von Evans is my favorite of NXT’s prospects, and he had a great showing here in this one. Certainly match of the night, for sure.

**********

– Nia Jax was walking backstage on her way for our main event when Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre attempted to recruit her into the Secret Hervice to fill in for the injured Piper Niven. Jax emphatically rejected the offer by ripping up the flyer that Green gave her. She was then confronted by Stephanie Vaquer, who made it clear that whoever one between Jax, Tiffany Stratton, or Jade Cargill, she’d be ready for them at Crown Jewel.

– Damian Priest was accosted by Kit Wilson, who called him the “personification of toxic masculinity”. Wilson got a bit too pushy in calling Priest toxic, but ended up running into oxygen tanks. Priest turned around and got a Black Mass kick from Aleister Black. With Priest yet again left down and out, Black mockingly wished him a happy birthday before he left.

WWE Women’s Championship Triple Threat Match: Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Nia Jax vs. Jade Cargill

The match started off right away as Jax threw Stratton right into Cargill. She then slammed Stratton onto a fallen Cargill. The WWE Women’s Champion struck back with a double dropkick on Cargill and Jax as we took an oddly-placed commercial break just a minute into this main event bout.

We returned to SmackDown’s main event as Stratton flew into Jax with a suicide dive that she did not get all of. Jax recovered and pushed Cargill into the steel steps before she reentered the ring and took aim at Stratton in the corner with running charges. Cargill intercepted Jax with a shove as she then hit a modified pumphandle facebuster on Stratton. Cargill’s pin attempt was broken up by Jax. With Jax in the top rope, Stratton shoved Cargill and attempted a rollup pin. Cargill turned that into a submission hold as Stratton escaped the hold. Stratton tried for the pin, but got out of the way as Jax took off with a legdrop that ended up hitting Cargill instead.

Stratton headed to the top rope and hit a Swanton Bomb on Jax, but got put down with a superkick by Cargill which ended up actually making her fall onto the out-of-it Jax for the pin attempt. As Jax kicked out, we took one more commercial break as the action continued in picture-in-picture on the USA Network feed.

The main event returned from the break as Cargill and Stratton unexpectedly teamed up to deliver a double superplex onto Jax. With Jax still recovering, Stratton took Cargill down with the rolling senton as she then connected with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever on the still-knocked out Jax. Cargill easily broke up the pin after avoiding Stratton’s moonsault. In the middle of the ring, Stratton countered Cargill’s powerbomb into a hurricanrana. As Stratton ran towards Cargill in the corner, she was caught and promptly dropped into a modified Jaded. One, two… Nia Jax saved the match by pulling the referee out at the last possible second.

Outside the ring, Cargill cleared the commentary table, but got thrown into the steel steps by Jax. The top half of the steps was cleared as Jax attempted some sort of elevated suplex from the steps. Cargill countered that into a samoan drop onto the base of the steel steps. Cargill was shown to have suffered a cut to her upper eyebrow in the midst of this.

In the ring, Jax got dropped by an Eye of the Storm from Cargill. Stratton broke up the count and tried a pin, which led to a “phantom kickout” from Jax and some miscommunication, as it appeared to be a botched pin. The true finish came when Stratton ended things with a Prettiest Moonsault Ever on Jax, as she retained her WWE Women’s Championship in the SmackDown main event.

After the match, Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer made her way down to the ring to get a better look at her opponent at Crown Jewel in two weeks. We ended the night on the two raising their respective titles and jawjacking at one another.

Tiffany Stratton def. Nia Jax & Jade Cargill to retain the WWE Women’s Championship

**********

That was a fine main event that seemed to pick up steam a bit as the match neared its conclusion, though the botched finish with the phantom kickout did kind of put a damper on things.

That being said, I liked this week’s SmackDown a lot more than previous weeks, and after a rather mediocre Wrestlepalooza show, that is a miracle in of itself. The in-ring action was mostly great, especially the continuing success of Sami Zayn’s U.S. Title Open Challenge and we got some set ups of interesting matchups to come in the near future. All in all, a better edition of WWE’s Friday night show than what we’ve seen recently.

WWE SmackDown live results: Wrestlepalooza go-home show

Posted on by Marc Quill

The final WWE SmackDown before Wrestlepalooza, WWE’s first PLE on ESPN, will feature an interaction between WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and his next challenger Drew McIntyre.

Rhodes returned last week after a month away to save Randy Orton from a potential Claymore kick through the announce table. Tonight, Rhodes and McIntyre will have a contract signing to make their Wrestlepalooza title match officially official.

In an exclusive interview, Brock Lesnar will address his Wrestlepalooza matchup against John Cena. Last week, Lesnar delivered an F5 to R-Truth after demanding a face-to-face with Cena.

United States Champion Sami Zayn continues his open challenge series with Carmelo Hayes stepping up to the plate, much to the chagrin of his tag partner, The Miz.

A WWE Women’s Tag Team title match originally set to take place in France will come to fruition tonight as Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair defend against Chelsea Green & Alba Fyre.

Join us for live coverage starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

**********

– We opened tonight’s SmackDown with the arrivals of Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes, Chelsea Green and the Secret Hervice, Carmelo Hayes, and Sami Zayn to the Huntington Center in Toledo, OH.

– Inside the arena, Michael Cole and Corey Graves welcomed us to the show as they talked about tomorrow night’s Wrestlepalooza. Cole said that Brock Lesnar wanted to do the sitdown interview right now as he left commentary. However, Lesnar made his entrance and it appeared that the interview would happen in the ring instead.

Brock Lesnar interview ahead of Wrestlepalooza

Lesnar grabbed Cole and held him over his shoulder as he made his way into the ring. Inside the ring, Lesnar continued to threaten Cole before Corey Graves entered the ring and pleaded with him to not attack Cole. He got an F5 for his troubles as the crowd chanted for John Cena. Lesnar then directly addressed the camera, yelling that he was coming for John Cena’s blood tomorrow and that it was D-Day. Lesnar paced around ringside and destroyed the Prime Hydtration station before he once again entered the ring to hit Graves with another F5. Various referees and security surrounded the ring while Lesnar yelled for Cena to come get himself some. He then left the ringside area, as the crowd jeered.

Pretty much a last gasp attempt to add fuel into this Cena/Lesnar Wrestlepalooza match that’s barely had a build. I can’t say if they succeeded on that front, though. That said, I guess we’ll have to find out tomorrow whether or not this match that has been haphazardily built will be any good at all.

**********

– We returned from the break with Cole and a few WWE road agents checking up on the fallen Graves, who was still out cold from being on the receiving end of two F5s.

– Backstage, Brock Lesnar was walking as he was confronted by Paul Heyman and The Vision’s Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. Lesnar simply said that he and Heyman should talk before he left. SmackDown GM Nick Aldis warned The Vision to not cause anymore problems tonight, especially with the Cody Rhodes/Drew McIntyre contract signing to come. Heyman said that he and the Brons were simply here to enjoy the show.

– Back in the arena, Cole returned to the commentary table and was at a loss of words for what happened to his commentary partner. He said that in the years he’s been on commentary, he never felt as helpless as he did tonight. Cole said that if that’s what awaited John Cena tomorrow, he doesn’t know if even Cena had the answers.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Alba Fyre & Chelsea Green

Flair and Green started off the match here with a lockup. Green took a shot at Bliss in the corner, but ate an elbow from Flair as a result. Bliss tagged herself in and went to work on Green and Fyre for a moment. The challengers took advantage after Bliss was dragged into their corner. Green connected with a dropkick, as Bliss was then slammed into the ringpost by Fyre. This took us into the break.

During the break, the Miz took over for Graves as he joined Cole on commentary.

We returned from the break with Bliss desperately trying to get the tag. She almost got the tag, but Flair was pulled from the apron by Fyre, which gave Green a chance to continue her attack on Bliss. Green taunted Flair and ended up missing on the shoulder charge to Bliss. This allowed Bliss to finally get the hot tag for Flair.

Flair teed off with chops on both Green and Fyre, before she blasted the latter with a somersault clothesline. Flair tried to set up for the FIgure-Eight, but Green provided a distraction as she ate a big boot. Fyre went for the roll up, but couldn’t get the pin. As Flair headed up top, Green grabbed at Flair’s leg, which allowed for Fyre to connect with the Swanton Bomb. Bliss broke up the pin at the last second.

A double suplex from the challengers was turned back as Bliss and Flair delivered stereo Natural Selections to Green and Fyre instead. Flair ended up getting the pin on Green to get the victory and the successful Women’s Tag Title defense.

Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss def. Chelsea Green & Alba Fyre via pinfall to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships

A decent defense for the tag champs, who continue to be a popular act with fans. I’m curious now as to who steps up to Flair and Bliss.

*********

– Backstage, B-Fab tried to get The Street Profits on the same page, but was interrupted by Michin, who told B-Fab that Nick Aldis wanted to talk to them about getting a chance at Giulia and Kiana James. Montez Ford told Angelo Dawkins that he was going to talk to Nick Aldis about getting back into the tag picture, as Bo Dallas tried to get into Dawkins’ head. Ford got into Dallas’ face, but Erick Rowan attacked the Profits to leave them laying.

– We got a backstage skit with R-Truth and Los Garza telling us how to download the ESPN app in order to watch Wrestlepalooza tomorrow.

– Fraxiom were set for a match, but got attacked by Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. Paul Heyman soon walked down the ring and did his usual introduction. He said that Fraxiom reminded him of the Usos, because both were down, out, victimized, and lying on their backs. As Heyman continued to talk, Nathan Frazer and Axiom got up on the top rope and took out the Brons with dual dropkicks. The two then unleashed a barrage of dives on Breakker and Reed to leave them staggered.

Nick Aldis appeared on stage and decided to book a tag match between Fraxiom and the Vision’s duo, which was to take place right now.

The Vision (Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed) vs. Fraxiom (Nathan Frazer & Axiom)

The match returned from break joined in progress, with Breakker working over Axiom in the corner. Axiom fended off Breakker momentarily, but got thrown overhead instead with a back drop. Breakker got a full head of speed and absolutely flattened Axiom with a lariat. Reed entered the match with a tag and continued to pummel Axiom with a senton. Breakker got the tag once more as he suplexed Axiom before pulling down the straps. He attempted a spear, but was met with a calf kick from Axiom. This allowed Frazer to get the hot tag.

Frazer had Reed staggered with a dropkick, as he soared from the top with a frog splash. Reed kicked out at two and avoided a moonsault before he dropped Frazer with the Jagged Edge. The Aussie headed up top for a Tsunami but was stopped temporarily by Axiom. Reed shoved Axiom below right into a spear from Breakker. Reed then finished Frazer off with the Tsunami.

After the match, Heyman tried to announce his men as the winners, but were interrupted by The Usos on the titantron. Jimmy and Jey were already in Indiana and said that they were going to lock things down as they welcomed The Vision to the Uso Penitentary.

The Vision def. Fraxiom via pinfall

Just a short and sweet match to give the Brons some momentum heading into their tag match with the Usos tomorrow. Bron Breakker’s spears continue to be a thing of beauty.

*********

– We got a sizzle reel for WWE’s full court press on ESPN in anticipation of tomorrow night’s Wrestlepalooza event.

Nia Jax in-ring promo

Jax asked what she was sick of, before she took a shot at the Toledo crowd. She then went on to say that she was sick of the SmackDown women’s division claiming that they were the alpha females, when she was the “true” alpha female of the division. Jax took credit for taking Tiffany Stratton out, which prevented her from showing up on the NXT Homecoming this past Tuesday. Jax then took a shot at Jade Cargill, saying that she should trade places with her, as Cargill was apparently not talented. Jax said that she was the alpha and that she’d annihilate any storm or any Tiffy time, any damn time.

This brought out the WWE Women’s Champion out for a rebuttal. Tiffany Stratton said that the people have had enough of Nia Jax being in the women’s division. She said that Cargill was not a superhero here to save the division. And since Jax and Cargill were committed to acting so delusional, Stratton said that she was here to prove that she was the one, true WWE Champion. Stratton attempted to walk down the ring to confront Jax, but was stopepd by a gaggle of referees. Jade Cargill made her way and decked a few security personnel.

Before Cargill could enter, Nick Aldis stopped things as he announced that next week on SmackDown, we’d see Stratton vs. Cargill vs. Jax in a triple threat match for the WWE Women’s Championship.

This match was reportedly set for tomorrow’s Wrestlepalooza, but postponed due to an apparent injury to Stratton, so it seems like they’re moving to have this match happen next week instead. That said, hopefully it’s the last we see these particular set of players in the women’s title picture together.

*********

– We got another R-Truth skit about the ESPN App, as he told the Motor City Machine Guns and Rey Fenix how to use it, again neglecting to mention the $30 monthly price tag of the new app.

U.S. Championship Open Challenge: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Carmelo Hayes

The action kicked off with Zayn and Hayes trading hammerlocks in a show of chain wrestling prowess. After that, Hayes used his athleticism to hit Zayn with a dropkick after a leapfrog dodge. Hayes continued to hit Zayn with blows to the back, but found himself on the receiving head of a forearm strike by the U.S. Champion. On the apron, Zayn looked like he was going for something big, but Hayes stunned him with a a guillotine leg drop as we took a break in the action.

SmackDown returned as Hayes had the upper hand on Zayn. The challenger had his foe floored with a leg drop for the near-fall. Zayn fought back with a clothesline on Hayes, as he then followed that up with an axe handle from the middle turnbuckle. Zayn dragged Hayes to the corner and teed off on him with repeated punches to the face, much to the chagrin of the Miz on commentary. Zayn then spun Hayes’ world right round with a tornado DDT, but couldn’t pick up the win there.

Zayn headed up to the top rope, but Hayes recovered and avoided the high-risk attempt. Hayes, however, couldn’t avoid Zayn’s Michinoku Driver, which got yet another near-fall. Hayes caught Zayn on the button with a big knee to the face as he headed up top for a frog splash. Zayn got his knees up at the last second, which sent Hayes scurrying to the corner and right into the crosshairs for a Helluva Kick. Hayes intercepted Zayn with a superkick as both men went down and we went to a second commercial break during this match.

We returned from break as Zayn attempted the Exploder Suplex into the corner, but Hayes managed to block it. On the apron, Zayn got dropped with a flip over the rope by Hayes, which had his wrist caught up in the middle rope. Hayes then headed up top and got the Frog Splash, but could not secure the victory. Hayes followed that up with the First 48 after successfully countering a Blue Thunder Bomb attempt by Zayn. One, two… no!

Hayes lifted Zayn up for a cutter, followed by springboard neckbreaker on the U.S. Champion. Zayn managed to avoid the Nothin’ But Net from Hayes and turned that into a Blue Thunder Bomb for the rare victory with that signature maneuver.

Sami Zayn def. Carmelo Hayes to retain the United States Championship

Another solid match for Zayn in this U.S. Open Challenge he’s run as of late. I’ve been enjoying these matches, which have become the highlight of SmackDown every week.

*********

– Kit Wilson was talking with Nick Aldis about hypermasculinity, as Damian Priest stormed in and demanded a shot at Aleister Black. Wilson got upset at Priest’s demands, calling it a case of toxic masculinity, as he ended up being thrown through the wall by an irate Priest.

– The second part in the retrospective of John Cena and Brock Lesnar’s rivalry was shown.

Wrestlepalooza on ESPN Card

  • Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena
  • AJ Lee & CM Punk vs. Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins
  • Jimmy & Jey Uso vs. The Vision (Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed)
  • Women’s World Championship: IYO SKY vs. Stephanie Vaquer
  • Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Drew McIntyre

– We got a vignette from Solo Sikoa as he showed appreciation for Tonga Loa for showing loyalty to him since day one. He said that he owed it to Tonga to be a champion, and that his loyalty would be rewarded as long as Tonga was part of his Family Tree. Tonga then said that he loved Solo to end the vignette.

Cody Rhodes/Drew McIntyre contract signing

In the ring, SmackDown GM Nick Aldis said that the main event of Wrestlepalooza would be the Undisputed WWE Championship match, of which the contract would be signed for in mere moments. Aldis then introduced the challenger, one Drew McIntyre, to the ring.

The surly Scotsman made his way to the ring and immediately took a mic. Before he could utter a word, the theme of Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes interrupted, which brought out the American Nightmare to the usual reaction of cheers from the crowd.

Once both Rhodes and McIntyre in the ring, the champion took to the mic. He said that fifteen years ago today, he and McIntyre won the Tag Team Championships, and that no one wasn’t talking about it, mainly because it wasn’t his or McIntyre’s story. It was the story of the people, and they didn’t care about the lore and wanted to see two people fight.

Rhodes listed off McIntyre’s past accolades, as he said that he was a “keyboard warrior” as of late. He urged on McIntyre to do his talking on social media because it’d be the last time he’d get one up on him. McIntyre showed his phone to Rhodes, with a post that said “Thank you, Cody.”

McIntyre responded that this match without intereference or shortcuts was what he wanted all along, before he called Rhodes a cardboard champion that was unwilling to compromise the main event of Wrestlepalooza. McIntyre said that the crowd would eventually turn on Rhodes and all he’d be left with is to say that “Drew was right”.

Rhodes fired back asking McIntyre what would happen if his legacy now was to be the man who lost the first main event of the ESPN Era. As both men signed the contract, McIntyre delivered a blindside headbut on Rhodes and attacked the champion at ringside.

As McIntyre had Rhodes at his mercy against the announce table, the Scotsman refused to hit the Claymore kick, stating that he wanted him to be at his best tomorrow at Wrestlepalooza. As McIntyre tried to walk away, Rhodes dove through the middle rope to tackle McIntyre. The two continued to fight as referees tried to separate the two. As the producers credits for Paul Levesque and Lee Fitting popped up, McIntyre popped Rhodes with a boot to the head. We ended the final SmackDown before tomorrow’s Wrestlepalooza with McIntyre taunting Rhodes, stating that it was going to be the last time he’d be sleeping with the title for a long time.

*********

A decent final segment to build up, again, another haphazardly-built feud for this first ESPN PLE where it just happened within a span of a week. That seems to be a pattern with this Wrestlepalooza card, with the exception of CM Punk/AJ Lee vs. Seth Rollins/Becky Lynch, which seems to be the best-built match out of the five matches set to take place tomorrow.

As a go-home show for Wrestlepalooza, this SmackDown was okay on that front. The Sami Zayn U.S. Open Challenge continues to be the stand out of these weekly shows, as the matches there have been excellent. Other than that, everything else just ranges from okay to mediocre, sorry to say.

WWE SmackDown live results: Brock Lesnar appears

Posted on by Marc Quill

At the end of another newsworthy week in WWE, tonight’s SmackDown airs live from Norfolk, Virginia — as Wrestlepalooza approaches next weekend.

Ahead of his match against John Cena at the new PLE, Brock Lesnar will appear on tonight’s show. Lesnar issued the challenge last Friday in Chicago after attacking Cena during his United States title match with Sami Zayn.

Zayn will be in action again, defending the title in another open challenge.

In a meeting of former champions, Randy Orton will finally get a chance to face Drew McIntyre in singles action after weeks of targeting his hated rival. The two met in a tag team bout at SummerSlam and last squared off one-on-one at July’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.

In a rematch from SummerSlam, WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton will defend against Jade Cargill. Stratton has held the gold for 250+ days.

Our live coverage kicks off at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

**********

– As Vic Joseph introduced us to tonight’s show, shots of Randy Orton, Drew McIntyre, Tiffany Stratton, and Jade Cargill arriving to the Scope Arena were shown. We then went to inside the arena, where Joseph was joined by his NXT color commentary partner Booker T. to call tonight’s action.

– A recap of last week’s John Cena vs. Sami Zayn match being crashed by Brock Lesnar was shown.

Brock Lesnar opens SmackDown

Lesnar arrived to the arena, cowboy hat and all, as the crowd was a mix of cheers and boos for his arrival.

With mic in hand, the fans chanted “you suck” at Lesnar before he could speak, and he was soon interrupted by R-Truth, who rapped his way to the ring. Once Truth entered the ring, he asked the Norfolk crowd to make some noise before Lesnar told him to shut up.

Truth responded by saying he was going to be the first WWE superstar to say to Lesnar, “welcome back”. He said that he used to be scared of Lesnar, but not anymore. Lesnar answered by saying that he didn’t know who Truth was and he wanted him to get to the point.

Truth said that Lesnar was disrespecting John Cena, his hero and older brother for the past twenty-five years. Lesnar said he was here to look for John Cena tonight as he asked Truth for his whereabouts. Truth said he didn’t know where Cena was, but he was here to defend the honor of his “older brother”. Truth then told Lesnar that his name was “Ron Cena”.

Lesnar asked again where Cena was, as Truth again answered that he didn’t know. Truth warned Lesnar that “Super Cena” was coming for Lesnar, as he wouldn’t be running from The Beast, he’d be feeding on him. Lesnar had enough and picked Truth up for an F5, which somehow ripped his pants.

Not a very good segment to start the show, but it was mercifully short. The necessity of reverting R-Truth to his pre-Cena heel turn character randomly has hurt his standing and the build (or lack thereof due to Cena’s absence this week) towards Wrestlepalooza’s scheduled main event just isn’t grabbing my attention at all.

**********

– Backstage, Sami Zayn was talking with someone as he was happy to continue the U.S. Open Title Challenge, as he and his opponent would give the crowd a hell of a show tonight. We found out he was talking to Rey Fenix, and their match would be up next.

– We were shown shots of various WWE and AAA officials arriving to the arena in Las Vegas for Worlds Collide, which airs after SmackDown.

– A vignette from Solo Sikoa was shown, where he expressed anger about having lost his Bloodline, Ula Fala, and the United States Champonship. He vowed to take back what he lost, as it was time for others to live in the shadows of his Family Tree.

U.S. Title Open Challenge: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Rey Fenix

We started off fast with Zayn rocking Fenix with repeated arm drags. Fenix responded with an acrobatic arm drag, followed by an attempted dive to the outside. Zayn dodged out of the way, as Fenix feinted between the ropes at the last second to stop himself. We went to a break at this early point in the match.

SmackDown returned with Zayn having the upperhand as he delivered a pitch-perfect tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Fenix for the near-fall. Zayn continued to target Fenix’s shoulders with a submission, but found himself taken out by a kick on the apron. With Zayn stunned outside the ring, Fenix soared above the ropes with a tope con hilo that took the U.S. Champion out.

Back in the ring, Fenix took off from the top rope with a frog splash on Zayn, but couldn’t get the three out of it. Zayn attempted a Blue Thunder Bomb, but Fenix countered him twice in two attempts. Fenix blasted Zayn with a superkick after another feint between the ropes. One, two… not quite. Fenix headed up top, but couldn’t connect with the moonsault, as Zayn dodged.

Zayn had Fenix in position for the Helluva Kick, but the masked star avoided and countered with a DDT, that once again wasn’t able to get him the victory. We got a second break in the action with both men down in the ring.

Our match returned from the break with Fenix once more heading up to the top rope, looking for a high-risk maneuver. Zayn cut him off at the pass and put Fenix on his shoulders. However, Fenix countered and hit an incredible double stomp from the top rope onto a seated Zayn.

Fenix leapt up for his signature moonsault and connected, but Zayn kicked out at the nick of time. In the middle of the ring, both men tried to hit a suplex, but couldn’t. Fenix was first to escape as he bounced off the ropes for a kick, but Zayn caught him for the Blue Thunder Bomb. One, two… 2.9999999!!!!!!!!

Zayn managed to catch Fenix with his Exploder Suplex in the corner and had him targeted for the Helluva Kick. Fenix recovered and hit a hurricanrana instead, but only got a near-fall out of it. Fenix continued the momentum with the Goodbye Amigo kick. He attempted his spin kick in the corner, but Zayn reversed it into another Exploder Suplex. One Helluva Kick later, and it was a succcesful title defense for Sami Zayn.

Sami Zayn def. Rey Fenix via pinfall to retain the United States Championship

That was one heck of a match to kick things off. Both Zayn and Fenix were at the top of their game and I quite enjoyed this from start to finish.

**********

– We got Earlier Today footage of B-Fab being confronted by Giulia and Kiana James. B-Fab said that she might’ve been busy as of late with the Street Profits’ drama, but she wasn’t busy now. This led to a match being made between the two, which was up next.

– A video from the Wyatt Sicks was shown, with Bo Dallas wondering where the Street Profits would go from here. He said that the Profits have failed at every turn, as Erik Rowan said that people never truly appreciate things until it’s gone. Dallas said that the Sicks weren’t the ones who sowed the seeds that sprouted horns, as he told us to follow the buzzards.

Giulia (w/ Kiana James) vs. B-Fab

As B-Fab entered the ring, James got in her face, and paid the price for it. Giulia took exception and kicked B-Fab to the outside, as she threw her around outside the ring. In the ring, James stomped away on B-Fab and teed her up for Giulia’s Arrivederci Knee. They looked like they were going to do further damage to B-Fab until Michin ran in, armed with a kendo stick. Michin struck James with the kendo stick, as she sent Giulia to a retreat.

Giulia vs. B-Fab never happened

**********

– We got remarks from Aleister Black about his win over Damian Priest on last week’s SmackDown. He said that Priest could keep fighting and he could die by that code, and that violence begat violence.

WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Jade Cargill

Cargill immediately went for a pump kick, but Stratton avoided it soundly. The challenger tried to lift up Stratton, but got met with a high dropkick. Cargill eventually got the advantage with a powerslam on Stratton, as she then followed that up with an attempted suplex. Stratton countered the suplex attempt and went for a rollup to little success. With Cargill out of the ring, Stratton vaulted over the top rope with a dive, as we went to a break in the action.

Our WWE Women’s Title match returned with Cargill hitting a fallaway slam on Stratton. She tried to go for a corner attack, but Stratton countered and eventually hit a spinebuster on Cargill. Stratton tried for a hurricanrana, but Cargill caught her and looked for a powerbomb. Stratton turned that around into a hurricanrana as she then hit a double-footed dropkick on her opponent.

Stratton headed up top and connected with the Swanton Bomb for a near-fall. Cargill recovered and hit a superkick on Stratton that sent her outside. In the ensuing mixup, Stratton attempted a baseball slide, but she got caught by Cargill, who slammed her against the apron. Back in the ring, Cargill failed to connect with a pump kick, but managed to avoid the Prettiest Moonsault Ever. She had Stratton on her shoulders and hit a modified Blue Thunder Bomb for a close near-fall.

Stratton hit a nice rollthrough into an Alabama Slam, as she looked for another Prettiest Moonsault Ever. Cargill avoided calamity and hit the Pump Kick as both women were down in the ring. Cargill and Stratton eventually recovered and mixed it up on the apron with an exchange of strikes. Cargill looked for a Spear, but Stratton dodged, which caused the challenger to hit the ringpost instead.

Stratton missed with the diving moonsault to the outside, as Cargill speared her opponent through the barricade. The match was then ruled a draw due to a double countout.

After the match, Nia Jax attacked both Cargill and Stratton and left both women laying.

Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill ended in a Double Countout

A decent match that was undercut by the draw ending and Nia Jax showing up once again, really highlighting how bare the cupboard is, when it comes to the top of the SmackDown women’s division. It’s honestly felt like the same set of players in the title picture and it’s really hurt the main event scene as it pertains for the women of SmackDown.

**********

– As Nick Aldis walked out of his office, he was accosted by Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre, who demanded a Women’s Tag Title match. Aldis proposed that the two would face the winners of Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss’s title defense on Tuesday’s NXT Homecoming.

– We got a video package ahead of Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena at Wrestlepalooza that focused on both men’s beginnings in wrestling.

– Over in Las Vegas, Rey Mysterio was interviewed about Worlds Collide, before his son Dominik rolled up and said he’d become the AAA Mega Campeon after tonight’s main event. Rey said he’d put the AAA Mega Campeon belt around Dominik’s waist if he won tonight.

– Back in Norfolk, Sami Zayn was interviewed after his successful U.S. Title defense as Carmelo Hayes called his shot to be Zayn’s next challenger. After Zayn left, The Miz showed up too late and was upset about Hayes taking up Zayn’s U.S. Open Challenge, having been seemingly outsmarted by his Melo Don’t Miz partner.

Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre

Both men locked up in the middle of the ring to start before McIntyre went on the attack in the corner. Orton roared back with a clothesline as he got in some shots of his own on the Scotsman with punches in the corner. He then sent McIntyre crashing to the outside with another clothesline over the rope as our main event headed to a break.

SmackDown’s main event came back from the break with McIntyre seemingly having Orton at his mercy, but he fell victim to a suplex instead. With McIntyre down in the ring, Orton targeted him with some stomps to the legs, followed by a knee drop to the face. McIntyre took a shot at Orton’s knee with a clip, followed by a stretch in the corner.

McIntyre maintained the pressure on Orton’s injured knee with a figure-four leglock cinched in tight in the middle of the ring. Orton struggled hard, but managed to turn it over to reverse the pressure of the leglock on McIntyre. In the middle of the ring, Orton dropped his foe with a belly-to-back suplex that sent McIntyre scurrying back out of the ring.

Orton slammed McIntyre against the commentary table, but got raked in the eyes, as he found himself dropped across the table with a back suplex. McIntyre once again clipped at Orton’s knees as our main event headed to one final break in the action.

We returned from the break as McIntyre slammed Orton down to the mat, with the bum knee making contact with the top rope as a result. Orton poked McIntyre in the eye to regain momentum, as he then bashed his opponent’s head across all four corners. McIntyre tried for another figure four, but Orton kicked him aside into the ring post, which sent the Scotsman out of the ring once more.

As McIntyre got himself back in the ring, Orton tried to generate momentum with a signature powerslam to fell his foe. Orton looked like he was going to hit the apron DDT, but McIntyre scurried to the announce table. This opened him up to consecutive back suplexes across the commentary table. Back in the ring, McIntyre connected with the Claymore Kick, but couldn’t capitalize. This gave Orton the opportunity to land an RKO out of nowhere. Out of the ring, McIntyre shoved Orton against the apron.

McIntyre tried to get back into the ring, but he fell victim to the apron DDT from Orton. McIntyre was in position for getting punted by Orton, but the referee got in the way. In the ensuing chaos, this gave McIntyre an opening to hit one final Claymore Kick to get the victory in our main event.

After the match, McIntyre looked like he was going to finish Orton off good with a Claymore against the commentary table, but Cody Rhodes ran in for the save, going after McIntyre right away with a flurry of offense. Rhodes hit a Cody Cutter on McIntyre as he asked for a microphone after the fighting was done. Rhodes said that the champ was back and that he’d face McIntyre at Wrestlepalooza.

**********

An okay main event for an otherwise okay episode of SmackDown. Obviously it was a nice star power-filled match and it did its job of bringing Cody Rhodes back into the mix after a month or so of filming the Street Fighter movie, setting up another Wrestlepalooza match.

The dismal opening segment got things off on a shaky note, but I did enjoy the in-ring action this week, especially with Zayn vs. Fenix in the opening bout. That made for some okay viewing for the rest of the night on this week’s SmackDown.

WWE SmackDown live results: John Cena makes his final Chicago appearance

Posted on by Marc Quill

A huge episode of SmackDown takes place in the Chicago area tonight at Allstate Arena.

With his December retirement approaching, John Cena will appear on SmackDown for the final time. It will also be the last Chicago appearance for Cena, who is coming off a victory against Logan Paul at Clash in Paris and heading toward an expected clash with Brock Lesnar at Wrestlepalooza.

A hometown appearance by CM Punk — and possibly the return of his wife AJ Lee — have been teased. The two are reportedly set to face Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch in a mixed tag match at the upcoming Wrestlepalooza PLE.

Following his United States title victory, Sami Zayn will appear tonight. Zayn has said he’s looking to start his reign off with a bang.

There will be a Women’s United States Championship match with Giulia defending her gold against Michin. Plus, rivals Damian Priest and Aleister Black meet in a singles match.

Join us for live coverage starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

**********

– Over shots of Chicago, we were welcomed to the show by Michael Cole. Shots of Damian Priest, Aleister Black, Michin, Giulia (with Kiana James), as well as hometown hero CM Punk arriving to the Allstate Arena were shown.

– Inside the arena, Cole (who’ll be on SmackDown for the next two months in the place of Joe Tessitore) and Corey Graves tossed to a recap of Clash in Paris last Sunday.

John Cena kicks off SmackDown

To a loud reaction from the Chicago faithful, John Cena made his way down to the ring to open the evening. Once Cena entered the ring, he took the mic and began to address the crowd, but was interrupted by “thank you, Cena” chants. He acknowledged the chants because it meant something special to him that it came from the Chicago crowd.

Cena talked about how people told him at the start of the retirement tour to enjoy it while it lasted, but he was focused on getting his mojo back and give his absolute best. However, tonight, Cena said he was just here to take it all in. He said that tonight is what makes Chicago special, and that the crowd’s reactions were apparently enough to bring people back into WWE. The crowd chanted “AJ Lee” in response to that.

Cena said that this was the last time for him in Chicago, and the last time he’d ever be on SmackDown as he recounted his debut 23 years ago on this very show. Cena talked about the moments he had in Allstate Arena, like fighting Triple H at WrestleMania 22 or facing CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011. Cena noted that there’s always been talk about who the greatest crowd was, but in his eyes, there was no question. The Chicago crowd let Cena experience humility, failure, and above all else, joy. He went on to thank the crowd and told them to enjoy a hell of a night tonight.

Before Cena could exit, the music of the new U.S. Champion Sami Zayn interrupted. In the ring, Zayn said that he didn’t want to interrupt Cena’s moment as the crowd booed him unexpectedly. He wanted to thank Cena on behalf of everyone in the back for what he did for us. Zayn wanted to bring things full circle, as he remembered how he debuted against Cena as the U.S. Champion. And as such, he was going to debut the Sami Zayn U.S. Open Challenge with Cena’s permission. The former U.S. Champion approved of Zayn’s proposal and tried to leave again. Zayn stopped Cena and said he wanted to pay it forward to Cena and give Cena a shot at the U.S. Championship, much like he did a decade ago.

Zayn didn’t want to do it in a month, or next week, but rather right now. “If you want some, come get some!” Zayn challenged Cena. Naturally, Cena accepted the challenge.

A solid opening segment as Cena and the Chicago crowd really got things going here, and Zayn’s appearance sets up a huge opening bout.

United States Championship: Sami Zayn (c) vs. John Cena

The match was already in progress heading out of the commercial break as Cena and Zayn locked up in the middle of the ring. Zayn threw Cena with an arm drag before he applied an arm submission for a moment. Cena responded with an arm drag of his own as he had Zayn in a headlock. Zayn attempted a springboard leapfrog, but couldn’t quite get all of it, but that gave him the upper hand on Cena. Zayn delivered a suplex on Cena and looked for another one. Cena, however, countered with a suplex on Zayn.

Zayn whipped Cena hard into the corner, which didn’t seem to please the very pro-Cena crowd in Chicago. Cena threw Zayn with a particularly hard Irish whip that sent the U.S. Champion flying into the corner. We took a break with both men down in the ring.

Our match returned with Zayn being hoisted up by Cena for an AA attempt that the U.S. Champion just barely escaped. Cena turned Zayn’s attempt at a springboard move into a successful Attitude Adjustment, but could not pick up the three. As Cena recovered, Zayn tried to hit the Exploder Suplex, but that got turned around into a Kevin Owens-style pop-up powerbomb by Cena.

Both men struggled to get up on opposite corners as Cena charged at Zayn, but missed and ended up hitting the corner. Zayn missed on a Helluva Kick and fell victim to an Angle Slam courtesy of Cena. One, two…. NO! As both men got themselves up in the middle of the ring, they began to trade strikes until they took one another down with clotheslines, which took us to a second commercial break.

During the break, Cena once again paid tribute to Kurt Angle with an Ankle Lock on Zayn, who responded with an Attitude Adjustment on Cena. Once we returned we got a replay of what happened during the break, which was interrupted by Zayn hitting the Helluva Kick on Cena. One, two… Cena kicked out at 2.9999999!!!! Zayn dragged Cena to the middle of the ring before he headed to the top rope. Cena got up and hoisted Zayn up for a GTS, but that still wasn’t enough to earn him the U.S. Championship.

In the corner, Cena sized up Zayn and beckoned him to get up, as he hit an Edge-styled Spear on his foe. Zayn still kicked out of it. Cena attempted an RKO, but Zayn countered that. He then immediately put Zayn on the top rope and looked for an avalanche AA, which he connected with. As both men were left down and out after that, the music of Brock Lesnar interrupted.

Lesnar pulled the referee out before he hit an F5 on Zayn as he entered the ring. He then put Cena on his shoulders and delivered an F5 to him. He then grabbed Cena and hit one more F5 to his foe.

Sami Zayn vs. John Cena went to a No Contest

That was a fantastic match that was unfortunately ruined by a non-finish meant to build towards a match that honestly does nothing for me at all.

**********

– We learned that John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar will happen at Wrestlepalooza, as Nick Aldis was looking to address what was going on. Carmelo Hayes walked up to Aldis and wanted a U.S. Title match, but the Miz butted in and tried to get a WWE Tag Title Match for him against the Wyatt Sicks. Aldis said he’d take it under advisement as he walked off. Hayes seemed unhappy with Miz speaking on his behalf again, as Becky Lynch was seen arriving to the arena.

Damian Priest vs. Aleister Black

Black attacked Priest as he was making his entrance as things turned into a brawl at ringside. Black struck Priest with a knee to the face that drove him over the barricade.

As we returned to SmackDown, Priest walked his way back into the ring, but got kicked in the head by Black for his troubles. Now with both men in the ring, the match began proper. After Priest missed a punch, Black took over with another kick to the noggin. Priest recovered with a surprise headbutt to Black, who answered with a modified crucifix submission.

Black took Priest down with a top-rope Meteora for the two-count, as we took an oddly-timed commercial break just a couple of minutes into this one.

The action resumed as Priest had Black stunned on the top rope and hoisted high for a Razor’s Edge. Black escaped and got the spinning elbow, followed by a running knee on Priest for a near-fall. Priest struck Black from the corner with a pair of elbows of his own, followed by a fierce clothesline. Priest maintained momentum with a barrage of elbows that left the Dutchman reeling. Old School crossbody by Priest managed to send Black rolling to the outside.

Black was then slammed with a Flatliner on the apron as Priest set aside the announcer table covering. Priest lifted Black above him and threw him with a Razor’s Edge onto the table. In the ring, Black tried to beg off Priest, but was lifted for South of Heaven, but Black created a distraction via referee, which gave him the opening for Black Mass on Priest and the victory.

Aleister Black def. Damian Priest

That was a fairly decent, hard-hitting match, and the right guy did certainly get the win in this case. This Priest vs. Black feud has been good and I honestly want to see more of it.

**********

– We got a Twisted Tea-sponsored video promo where Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton exchanged words about one another ahead of their match on next week’s SmackDown. We also learned that Brock Lesnar will be on next week’s show, and that Tiffany Stratton will defend here WWE Women’s Championship versus Jade Cargill in a SummerSlam rematch.

– Jade Cargill was shown studying tape of that aforementioned first match as Nia Jax rolled up and talked trash to her.

– Becky Lynch was told by SmackDown GM Nick Aldis that there could not be anymore issues even as he knew that CM Punk was in the building.

Women’s U.S. Championship: Giulia (c) (w/ Kiana James) vs. Michin

Giulia and Michin didn’t waste anytime as they traded quick blows to start off. Michin seemed to get the better of Giulia in the exchange, with momentum maintained in the ring by way of a well-placed dropkick. The Women’s U.S. Champion stopped that cold as she caught Michin’s baseball slide attempted and turned that into an elevated neckbreaker to the outside.

We returned from the break with Giulia battering Michin with headbutts, but was met with a pair of German Suplexes by the challenger. Michin had Giulia stunned in the corner with a running cannonball as she set up Eat Defeat. Giulia escaped and delivered the sitout driver, but she couldn’t put this one away. Michin fought back with a sitdown powerbomb for the two. Kiana James got involved on the apron and found herself flattened by a legdrop from Michin. Unfortunately for the challenger, this left her open to Giulia’s Arrivederci knee for the three and the successful title defense.

Giulia def. Michin via pinfall to retain the Women’s U.S. Championship

An alright match, but I feel there wasn’t really enough time to let this cook, so to speak.

**********

– Charlottle Flair was lamenting about her knee injury at the hands of the Secret Hervice, when Alexa Bliss and “Dr. Lilly” showed up to assure her that the “power of friendship” will heal Flair’s pain.

Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch close out SmackDown

Seth Rollins made an unannounced arrival to the Allstate Arena, as he appeared in the crowd with a microphone in his hand. Rollins said that tonight we would be all witnesses to history, because the “legend” of Chicago’s hometown hero CM Punk would die for good tonight. And to do the honors with him, Rollins introduced his “sexy, brilliant, incredible Irish wife” Becky Lynch.

Lynch stood in the ring while Rollins remained in the crowd, and the “AJ Lee” chants grew louder and louder. “How dare you chant another person’s name while I’m standing in this ring!?” admonished Lynch, who boasted about being the greatest women’s wrestler of all time, and it wasn’t just her saying it. Lynch took some digs at Chicago’s sports teams for being terrible, just like CM Punk was.

Punk himself entered to a massive reaction from his hometown crowd, which he took all in as he made his way down to the ring. Punk said to Lynch that this wasn’t about her, but rather the cowardly husband that was hiding in a skybox. Lynch remained defiant as ever, as she asked how Punk’s pride was feeling after what happened on Raw this past Monday. Punk told Lynch that she would let the crowd chant AJ Lee’s name because we were in Chicago. Punk said that he could call in a favor to Bayley or Rhea Ripley to deal with Lynch, who once again antagonized Punk with slaps to the face and mockery.

“You’re an embarrassment to the city of Chicago, and that’s saying a lot,” said Lynch. Punk answered that this was a situation that he expressedly wanted to avoid because he never put his hands on a lady. Thankfully, though, there was someone he knew that would. AJ Lee’s music played as she made her entrance to a loud, loud reaction from the hometown crowd.

AJ skipped around in her usual manner before she entered the ring to confront Lynch. AJ went after Lynch with strikes off a Lou Thesz Press. Lynch tried to escape, but got a hard slap for her troubles from AJ. Punk challenged Rollins to face him before he entered the ring and gave his wife a hug.

The championship couple of Rollins and Lynch were left retreating as SmackDown faded to black with Punk and AJ standing tall.

**********

I will say ending SmackDown with the hometown heroes getting the upper hand and a big return for AJ Lee was the right call to make. Other than that, this show fell off a bit of a cliff for me after the disappointing non-finish to Cena vs. Zayn. That isn’t to say the show was terrible, just that nothing really stood out for me after getting robbed out of a good finish in that opening contest.

WWE SmackDown live results: Clash in Paris go-home show

Posted on by Markus Gronemann

Editor’s Note: This is a live results post for the WWE SmackDown on Netflix that will air at 8 PM Eastern on USA per normal. If you don’t want to be spoiled, you have been warned.

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown from Lyon, France, is the final stop before Sunday’s WWE Clash in Paris premium live event.

It will be the final appearance in Leon for John Cena as he prepares to take on Logan Paul as part of his retirement tour.

The show will feature two title matches as reigning United States Champion Solo Sikoa will defend against former Bloodline ally Sami Zayn while WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair will defend against The Secret Hervice following Piper Niven’s upset win over Flair last week.

A number one contender’s match for the WWE Tag Team titles will see Melo Don’t Miz (Carmelo Hayes & The Miz) vs. The Street Profits.

Our live coverage begins at 2 PM Eastern.

**********

We open with a shot of Lyon, France, which Michael Cole calls “the food capital of the world”. Having been to Lyon and having suffered some mild food poisoning from a restaurant visit there, I don’t know about that one. But then I guess Michael Cole, unlike me, did not frequent some questionable Chinese restaurant earlier in the day.

Solo Sikoa with his crew and Sami Zayn are seen arriving at the LDLC Arena. After a short interlude with Wade Barrett and Michael Cole at ringside, there is a recap video of the John Cena/Logan Paul in-ring confrontation from last week and the (re-shot) angle where Logan punched out Cena at the end of the show.

A black Mercedes arrives and Paul steps out of it. He enters the arena as his music starts playing and he walks down to ringside to a chorus of thunderous boos. He says that John Cena said he was a parasite and it seems the people here seem to think so to. He insulted the crowd for some cheap heat, saying he’d stick to English because he was American. He calls himself not a parasite but a disruptor. The crowd chants, “Shut the f*ck up!”, which the Netflix censors poorly try to silence. If they keep this up, I’ll check out the German version of the stream.

He says he made TKO 6.6 billion in 6 seconds and put WWE on Netflix and ESPN and that the W-W-E is becoming the W-W-Me. HE says Cena is the one that still represents the old, institutionalized version of WWE, then proceeds to insult the crowd in French.

He says he has an athletic phenom and will push Cena to his limits and calls Cena an imposter in French. He says wrestling is changing and he is wrestling and if you don’t go with the change, you will be left behind.

Cena’s theme then plays and he arrives to a giant pop, as the crowd starts singing along with the lyrics of his theme music. Not sure what is up with Netflix, but the quality of the stream looks worse than the early days of ROH PPVs on my end right now. Cena then got a full in-ring Introduktion by the ring announcer, I guess in order to cut a promo on Paul.

He calls Paul stupid and says he can not do it on his own and that they need the fans, who he says hold the keys to if Paul can join the family and have matches over the span of 25 years. Cena says that Paul claims he wants to raise the business to new levels, but does not put any effort into trying to understand what it is that they actually do here. Cena then calls himself the original disruptor and said he has been knocking people out with brass knuckles 20 years ago, but his said “Word Life”. Cena says Paul’s “influence” is not what it used to be and that Paul was not on a top 25 influencer list that Cena saw yesterday. Cena says that when Logan makes the front pages of the news now, it is for the wrong reasons and that Paul uses WWE to save his own ass.

He says the fans don’t fear change, they see through Paul. They chant “he’s an asshole”, as Cena speaks French (getting cheered), followed by Paul speaking French (getting booed). Cena says he will show Paul what respect “in our family” means, as he leaves the ring. He says respect means that people understand if you are mean to them that you were just having a bad day, then apologized to some kid in the crowd for having had a bad day in the past. The kid was too busy looking at his phone than look at Cena who was right there, which was hilarious.

Paul made fun of the segment, while Cena tells him he was 24 hours to whip himself into shape, otherwise he won’t be ruining wrestling but wrestling will be ruining him.

*****

The Street Profits and B-Fab are interviewed backstage and cut a promo on The Miz and Melo; Bo Dallas then walks up and cuts some creepy promo on them, leaving them confused.

*****

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair vs. The Secret Hervice never took place

Charlotte comes out, followed by Alexa Bliss, but gets attacked from behind by Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre, who take out her knee as we head to commercial.

Alexa Bliss vs. Chelsea Green

Back from commercial and Alexa and Green are in the ring with Alexa in control, as this was turned into a singles match. We see Charlotte got escorted to the back in a split screen. Chelsea takes control and slams Alexa’s head into the turnbuckles repeatedly. Bliss throws Chelsea out of the ring, as Alexa hits a somersault from the apron. This gives Chelsea another chance to attack from behind and attempt a pin after some ground shots. Chelsea stays in control and throws Alexa out of the ring once more, giving Alba Fyre another chance to attack behind the referee’s back.

Chelsea bounces Alexa’s face off the announce table, but Bliss turns things around and throws Green into the ringside barrier. Both women make it back into the ring at the count of 8. Bliss hits a few shoulder tackles and a shotgun dropkick, followed by a snap takedown.

Chelsea escapes an attempt at Sister Abigail, but catches another dropkick in a tree of woe position. Bliss goes up top, but has to fend off Fyre first, allowing Green to get her knees up at a twisting splash by bliss. They trade reversals for a few seconds, before Bliss manages to roll up Green for the pinfall victory.

Result: Bliss pins Green by rollup

Post-match, Alba Fyre attacks Bliss as she leaves the ring, prompting Charlotte Flair to hobble out on one leg. Fyre manages to overwhelm Flair and it ends with the tag team champions left laying after an Unprettier by Chelsea on Charlotte and the Gory Special by Alba on Alexa.

*****

Sami Zayn is being interviewed backstage before his match with Solo Sikoa later tonight and says he feels confident like when he main evented WrestleMania and won the Intercontinental title. He speaks French to the crowd.

They show the social media post by Brandi Rhodes announcing the birth of her and Cody Rhodes’ daughter, followed by a clip from WWE Unreal.

Back from commercial, Aleister Black cuts a creepy promo on Damian Preist. I guess he went to the trouble of setting up a dark room full of candles somewhere in Lyon for this. Damian Priest then is interviewed and said he will teach Aleister a lesson and a lot about pain. He says he will be smiling and will be enjoying all the pain he will bring to Black.

*****

Michin vs. Kiana James (w/ Giulia)

James looks to attack with her purse, Michin ducks, rolls her up and wins in less than five seconds.

Result: Michin pins James by rollup

Post-match, Giulia and James attack her and Giulia hits her with a knee to the face, then throws her into the barricades at ringside. Giulia then drives Michin’s face into the ring steps.

*****

Drew McIntyre is seen walking backstage. He will address Randy Orton after the break.

He comes out to the ring as a video recap of the attack by Randy Orton from last week plays. He asks a production guy if Randy is hiding behind a table and asks Michael Cole about a medical update on Cody Rhodes (which he does not have). McIntyre then calls out Orton, so that “the people can sing his song”. The crowd obliges, as Orton saunters out, signs a few autographs, and bakes a soufflé or two for all I know. Just a few short hours later, he enters the ring to finally address McIntyre.

McIntyre asks Orton to indulge him for two minutes and says he will see things his way. Drew disses Cody Rhodes and calls him a politician, liar and “nobody’s friend”. He says he was sure that Cody was on the phone with Orton all the time during his recovery from back injury, but that was not friendship, it was Cody gathering intel. He reminded Orton that Cody just knew how and where to attack Orton’s back at the King of the Ring finals, while Orton hesitated to punt him in the head, because Cody “was his friend”.

Orton says he did not drop McIntyre last week for Cody, but because McIntyre was a prick. Drew then hit a Glasgow Kiss and measured Orton up for the Claymore, but Orton ducked and McIntyre missed. Orton hit a draping DDT and set up for an RKO but a number of people ran out from the backstage area to stop him. Orton dropped all of them, including Shane Helms with RKOs and went to punt McIntyre in the head, but he had recovered enough to roll out of the ring.

*****

Miz and Melo have a conversation backstage and talked about having to be on the same page. Bo Dallas walks up and says some more Bo Dallas things about there being perceptions and perceptions not being reality and asked if they could handle that. No idea what he was talking about.

Nick Aldis complains about Orton’s behavior and him attacking security. Orton is nice enough to product place some American flavored whisky in Aldis ‘ hand,w hich she just happened to have on him. R-Truth pops up and asks if Aldis was drinking that to which he replies that, after the day he’s had, he would.

*****

WWE Tag Team Championship #1 Contenders Match: Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford w/ B-Fab) vs. Melo Don’t Miz (Carmelo Hayes & The Miz)

Ford and Miz started out and Miz quickly gor dropped on his face due to some double-team action yb the Street Profits. Melo is in, Miz assists with some outside interference and Melo hits Nothing but Net on Dawkins, which gets him some chants from the French crowd.

Miz is back in and hits some abysmal Yes kicks on Dawkins, but quickly gets rolled up for a two-count. Miz and Melo wear Dawkins down with double team moves and quick tags. Melo blind tags in, which seems to confuse Miz, but he is OK with it, as long as they are in control.

The audio briefly dropped out for no apparent reason, unless the crowd chanted something in French that the censors felt was not appropriierte.

Dawkins finally hot tags Ford, who immediately hits a cross body on Miz, followed by a back suplex and standing moonsault for a two-count. Miz hist a DDT and goes for for the Skull Crushing Finale, but Melo blind-tags him again. Ford hits a huge splash on Miz from the top, but Melo, who is the legal man, immediately follows up with a splash on Ford. Melo goes from a springboard move but he and Ford crash in mid-air.

Miz wants the tag, but the Wyatt Sicks come out, which distracts Miz, allowing Dawkins to throw him off the apron. The Street Profits then hit the Revelation on Melo to become the #1 contenders and face the Wyatt Sicks at Clash in Paris. The Wyatt Sicks then get into the ring to face off with their challengers.

Result: The Street Profits beat Melo Don’t Miz after hitting Revelation on Hayes

*****

Tiffany Stratton is in the back and is being confronted by Jade Cargill who tells her that Nick Aldis just confirmed that she is the #1 contender for her championship. They bicker back and forth and Cargill tells her she will beat her.

Solo Sikoa is outside with the rest of the MFT and says it takes just one Samoan Spike to the throat to beat Sami Zayn tonight.

*****

WWE United States Championship: Solo Sikoa vs. Sami Zayn

Solo is in control early and wears down Sami with strikes. Sami briefly fights back, but immediately gets taken down again. Sami fights back from his back during some ground and pound, but is quickly outmaneuvered again. Sikoa hits a running hip attack as Talla Tonga is repeatedly shown at ringside being tall.

Sami finally throws Solo out of the ring and hits his somersault plancha. Tonga Loa and JC Matteo pull Sami out by the legs as he is getting back into the ring and attack him outside. Solo meanwhile hits a Spinning Solo in the ring for a two-count.

Jimmy Uso runs out to even the odds, followed by Jacob Fatu, who clean house on MFT and brawl out of the arena. Sami is ready to hit the Helluva kick, but Solo rolls out of the way and to the outside, where he promptly smashes Sami into the announce table with a Spinning Solo, then follows up with a second one shortly after.

Sami makes it back into the ring at about 9.75. They end up on the top turnbuckle, battling for position when Sami hits a sunset bomb for a two-count. Solo hits a Samoan Drop, then climbs up top to hit a big splash for a two-count of his own. Sami evades a Samoan spike and rolls up Solo for two, then hits an Exploder into the corner. He wants to follow up with the Helluva kick, but gets hit with a superkick instead. He hits the Helluva kick into the other corner, followed by a second on for the pin and the title victory.

Sami celebrated with the belt as fireworks went off in the arena.

Result: Sami Zayn pins Solo Sikoa after two Helluva kicks to win the WWE United States championship

Final Thoughts: The main event was fun, once MFT was driven off. The Lyon crowd got what they came for, which was some greatest hits by Cena, Orton and appearances by stars like McIntyre, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Solo Sikoa and Sami Zayn. Plus they go a “moment” with a big title win by a French Canadian, so hardly anyone in attendance will have reason to complain. As a television show from top to bottom, it was a pretty average episode of SmackDown.

WWE SmackDown live results: John Cena returns to Dublin

Posted on by Marc Quill

Editor’s note: This is a live post for the international airing of WWE SmackDown on Netflix. If you do not want to be spoiled before the U.S. airing at 8 p.m. Eastern, you have been warned.

WWE goes global on the road to Clash in Paris as SmackDown heads to Dublin, Ireland’s 3Arena for tonight’s episode.

Ahead of his match with Logan Paul at the August 31 PLE, John Cena will be in the house for his final Dublin appearance as an active wrestler.

The feud between WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss and Chelsea Green’s Secret Hervice continues as Flair battles Piper Niven in a singles match.

After a backstage skirmish last week, the Motor City Machine Guns go heads-up against Melo Don’t Miz (Carmelo Hayes & The Miz).

In more tag team action, The Street Profits take on two members of The MFTs.

The announced lineup is rounded out by Aleister Black vs. R-Truth.

**********

– The voice of lead commentator Joe Tessitore set up the night ahead from the Three Arena, as Logan Paul, the Street Profits, Solo Sikoa’s M.F.T.s, Charlotte Flair, and the Secret Hervice were shown arriving at the arena.

– From inside the arena, we saw Tessitore and Wade Barrett discuss the night before they announced that they were starting off SmackDown with a hometown superstar. That hometown superstar was, of course, current Women’s Intercontinental Champion, Becky Lynch.

Becky Lynch’s Irish Homecoming

Lynch entered the ring to a massive reception from the hometown Dublin crowd, who chanted her name and cheered her on.

“Look at us, lads! We’re on the telly!” Lynch started off as she talked about how this was the first-ever live televised WWE event from Dublin, Ireland. The crowd chanted “we deserve it” in response. Lynch said that she remembered coming here as a fan and how Randy Orton made eye contact with her at one of these events. She noted how that experience made her life and always dreamed of being here. Lynch said that now that this was happening, she noted that the crowd did not deserve it at all. She claimed that she petitioned to get this show cancelled.

The crowd loudly chanted for Lyra Valkyria, but Lynch protested because that since Valkyria lost against her, she’ll no longer get a chance at her Women’s Intercontinental Title. Lynch complained about the lack of media coverage she received in Ireland, because she was the hero of the Irish people. She talked about how she was immensely let down by the Dublin crowd because of their lack of appreciation as she put over her accomplishments like winning the first women’s main event of WrestleMania and being a New York Times best-selling author, and having a “very hot American husband” (Seth Rollins, to be exact). Lynch mocked the crowd’s “CM Punk” chants towards her, stating that “nobody wanted to see that old ass”.

Lynch continued to complain about getting off her jet, and Irish heroes like Katie Taylor, Barry Keoghan, and Bono. Before she could continue her tirade, the WWE Women’s Champion, Tiffany Stratton, interrupted to loud cheers from the crowd.

Stratton said that she couldn’t understand how Lynch could be ungrateful to Dublin, Ireland, and how she was on the wrong show. She talked about how Dublin understood that it was “Tiffy Time” before she told Lynch that she could either leave, or she’d make her leave.

Stratton’s old rival, Nia Jax, decided to interrupt at this time. Jax asked Stratton why she had to worry about Becky so much before she ran down the Dublin crowd. She declared that Stratton had bigger problems right now, and she was standing in front of her. Jax attacked Stratton, as Lynch joined along until Jade Cargill made the save. Cargill took out Jax with a pump kick as Lynch attempted to sneak up for an attack. Jax tried to get into the ring, but was met by a dropkick from Stratton that sent her to the outside.

Nick Aldis appeared on the ramp and announced that it’d be Lynch & Jax versus Stratton & Cargill in our main event tonight.

A hot opening segment to set up our main event match tonight, and Becky heeling it up on her hometown crowd was kind of funny.

**********

– Carmelo Hayes was walking backstage when Fraxiom talked to him. Nathan Frazer and Axiom gave credit to his efforts last week, but they noted how the Miz tried to steal his thunder last week. The Miz himself appeared and tried to stir up trouble, but Hayes seemingly had nothing but kind words for his partner as the two headed off for their match.

Melo Don’t Miz (The Miz & Carmelo Hayes) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)

Miz and Hayes argued a bit about who’d start off until the former WWE Champion took charge. That was until Hayes tagged himself in and ended up being the one to get this going against Sabin.

Sabin and Hayes got it going with a series of lockups until Sabin took over with a pair of armdrags. Hayes dodged acrobatically over Sabin as Miz blind tagged himself into the match. The MCMGs showed great tag team acumen as they took both Hayes and Miz out to the ring. Stereo baseball slides were followed by a suicide dive by Sabin that knocked both Hayes and Miz down as we headed to a break in the action.

We resuumed with Shelley as the legal man trying to get to his corner and doing so as he tagged Sabin back into the match. The tag veteran went to work on Miz with a diving tornado DDT that only got a count of two. Sabin sized Miz up in his team’s corner as the Machine Guns rattled Miz with a modified Magic Killer. Hayes dove in at the last minute to save the match for his team.

Sabin and Shelley dropped Hayes with a double team drop kick as they looked for the Skull and Bones. Miz escaped and looked to have the Skull Crushing Finale, but Sabin reversed it. Hayes tagged in and had Sabin dead to rights for Nothin’ But Net, but Miz once again tagged in. Hayes took out Sabin with the Lungblower, but got clotheslined by Shelley to the outside.

A vulturous Miz snuck in and got the pin on Sabin for the win.

Melo Don’t Miz def. Motor City Machine Guns via pinfall

Kind of a sloppy tag match to start the show, but this story of Miz stealing Carmelo Hayes’ glory for himself and stringing him along with it is at least interesting.

**********

– Jimmy Uso was interviewed backstage about the announcement his wife Naomi made on Raw this past Monday. Sami Zayn congratulated the soon-to-be parents as he hugged Jimmy. Solo Sikoa and the M.F.T.s rolled up and said that Jimmy and Naomi’s newborn will have plenty of new family members to welcome them into the world. Jimmy gave an emphatic “no yeet” to that. Zayn then told Sikoa that he wouldn’t be facing “the underdog”, but rather, “WrestleMania main eventer” Sami Zayn when it came time for the U.S. Title to be defended.

Piper Niven (w/ Chelsea Green & Alba Fyre) vs. Charlotte Flair

Flair entered to the match without tag partner Alexa Bliss to the match, who was stated to have been not cleared to appear due to the attack from the Secret Hervice last week.

Niven slammed Flair down to the match and whipped her across to the corner. Flair got herself onto the apron and warded Niven with a boot as she then headed up top with a diving crossbody. As Flair tried to head up to the top rope again, Chelsea Green got on the apron to cause a distraction. This gave Niven the opening to hit an Abyss-style Black Hole Slam to gain the upper hand as we headed to the break.

SmackDown returned as Niven crushed Flair in the corner with a running hip attack, but couldn’t get the fall on her foe. Niven ascended to the top and looked for a Viper Bomb, but Flair dodged at the last second. The former WWE Women’s Champion then teed off on Niven with repeated chops, a clothesline, and a big boot. Flair taunted Green as she headed to the top and connected with the moonsault. One, two… not quite.

Niven escaped Flair’s Figure Eight attempt, but got felled by a Spear. That wasn’t enough for the win, however. As Flair locked in the Figure Eight, Alba Fyre created a distraction, which allowed Green to rake Flair in the eyes. In the end, Niven got the upset win on Flair with a Michinoku Driver for the duke.

Piper Niven def. Charlotte Flair via pinfall

Chelsea Green and the Secret Hervice getting the upper hand two weeks straight on the Women’s Tag Champs is a nice change of pace from them being the usual punching bags, so that’s at least nice to see.

**********

– Kiana James and Giulia were discussing business until Michin interrupted and called her shot. James said that Michin had to go through her before she could get a shot at Giulia’s Women’s United States Championship. Michin was more than happy to oblige her on that challenge.

John Cena returns to SmackDown

The star of Peacemaker made his way to the ring to a loud ovation from the Dublin crowd, who proudly sang his entrance theme. Cena ran down in his usual manner and looked like he had a spring in his step once he finally got into the ring. We got the “Never Seen 17” introduction for Cena from ring announcer Mark Nash before Cena got right down to business.

However, before Cena could even utter a word, Logan Paul interrupted and sauntered his way down to the ring. The fans chanted “f*** you Logan”, which prompted Paul to tell the crowd mockingly that they were getting muted on TV. Paul taunted the crowd and threatened to spit in each and everyone of their faces. He put himself over as allegedly “the person we came to pay to see”. Paul called Cena an “actor who knew how to wrestle”. As the crowd once again chanted “shut the f*** up”, Paul complained that their chanting would get the sound muted on TV with their cussing.

Paul put himself over as a guy who works harder than everyone at the back, and told Cena he was a corporate pawn who’d do everything he was told to do. Paul kept rambling as he asked to play a game called “Who’s the Imposter?” He asked whether the guy who stayed to be himself or the guy who went away to pretend to be someone else was the imposter. Paul yelled that this was “his house” now.

When Cena finally spoke, he called Paul an undeniable presence, tremendous athlete, and a future WWE Champion. He said those things that he believed to be true, and that it made him upset. He said that there was one term that was stuck on Paul for years: “Outsider” (or as the Dublin crowd said instead, “wanker”.) Cena called Paul a “disappointment” instead. He said that Paul was using WWE as a branding opportunity to buy another Pokemon card, as he tipped over the PRIME bottle display at ringside.

Cena blasted Paul for claiming that he “put his life on the line” for a total of 23 matches, which he found insulting. Cena talked about how he did the same, but for a total of 23 years through a multitude of live and televised events, including matches against Sheamus in 2010 in Dublin. Every time Cena stepped in the ring, whether he had 100 moves or 5 moves or 1 move, he said that he only had one question to himself: “what could he give to this business”. In Paul’s case, that question, according to Cena, was “what could he take?”

Cena then said that Logan Paul wasn’t an outsider, but he was a parasite. Cena put over deserving stars that he could’ve been facing like Dominik Mysterio, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, The Usos, and Jacob Fatu, just to name them all. Cena said he was wasting his time entertaining Paul’s challenge, but he was a man of his word and Paul got lucky by being first in line. Cena told Paul knew about hustle, but nothing about respect.

“As for your co-habitation agreement, I read the news, homey, you’ve got plenty of legal trouble,” said Cena. The 17-time World Champion then told Paul that he’d either understand what it meant to give yourself up for this business at Clash in Paris, or Paul would get the ever-loving shite beaten out of him.

Thing’s got physical when Paul shoved at Cena, which led to him getting dropped with an Attitude Adjustment.

Cena was in his element with this promo tonight, as he certainly brought down the hammer on Paul as only he could with a classic “fine speech” takedown promo.

**********

– Jade Cargill and Tiffany Stratton discussed strategy backstage as they looked to be on a united front against Becky Lynch and Nia Jax.

– An angry Logan Paul was confronted by Drew McIntyre, who bluntly told him that he was scared of the mystique of John Cena. He said that Paul was going to make this right tonight, whatever it took.

The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) (w/ B-Fab) vs. Tonga Loa & J.C. Mateo (w/ The M.F.T.s)

It is said that the winners of this match would face Melo Don’t Miz next week on SmackDown for a shot at the Wyatt Sicks’ WWE Tag Team Championships.

The Profits had the upper hand early on as Ford dropped Loa with a standing moonsault. Mateo entered the match and took over with strikes on Ford in the corner for a bit. Ford recovered and hit the Famouser on Mateo and looked to have a dive from the apron locked and loaded. However, Loa tripped Ford up and sent him right into the outside ringpost shoulder-first, which led to a break.

Our match returned from the break with Mateo hitting Ford with a clothesline, followed by a standing moonsault of his own. Ford dodged out of the way of Mateo’s running strike as Loa got himself into the match with a tag. Ford managed to throw Loa out of the ring as Dawkins got the hot tag. The big man of the Street Profits went to work with a running shoulder block on Mateo, followed by a flapjack on Loa.

Dawkins lifted up Mateo on his shoulders, but couldn’t get the Electric Chair drop down. Loa broke up the pin after a Street Profits double team move. Ford, now the legal man, wanted to head up top for a move, but Solo Sikoa’s distraction allowed Talla Tonga to intervene. This let Mateo deliver the Tour of the Islands on Ford. That wasn’t enough to secure the win for the M.F.T.s, however.

Jimmy Uso ran up and hit Talla with a chair as they began to brawl in the crowd. While Sikoa was up on the commentary table, Sami Zayn tripped him up and hit a modified Helluva Kick. The finish saw Mateo get pinned after a a Montez Ford frog splash.

The Street Profits def. The M.F.T.s via pinfall

A decent tag match, and the crowd did come alive for Sami Zayn and Jimmy Uso running in to take out the M.F.T.s members at ringside.

**********

Aleister Black vs. R-Truth

R-Truth appeared and said that he wasn’t going to be able to make it tonight, stating that he wouldn’t make it because he ended up in Dublin, Georgia instead. However, Truth said he’d made a call to one of his good friends.

Out came Damian Priest, who was looking to get some revenge after having his jaw broken by Black three weeks ago. After a short skirmish, a vanguard of referees and security ran in to break things up. After some effort, the fight was broken up.

Aleister Black vs. R-Truth never happened

**********

Drew McIntyre demands answers regarding Cody Rhodes

While the commentary discussed Cody Rhodes’ condition, Drew McIntyre appeared and once again angrily asked about a medical update on Rhodes. McIntyre said that he had an update of his own: “Cody Rhodes is a little bitch”. He said that he did Rhodes a favor and gave him more than enough time with the Undisputed WWE Championship. While McIntyre continued to talk, Randy Orton snuck up behind him and hit an RKO out of nowhere on McIntyre.

Randy Orton’s return is certainly going to be used to set up a match with McIntyre at Clash in Paris while the title match between McIntyre and Cody Rhodes will be likely taking place at Wrestlepalooza next month.

**********

Next Week on SmackDown

  • United States Championship: Solo Sikoa (c) vs. Sami Zayn
  • Tag Team Contender’s Match: Melo Don’t Miz vs. The Street Profits
  • WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss vs. The Secret Hervice

Becky Lynch & Nia Jax vs. Tiffany Stratton & Jade Cargill

Lynch and Stratton started off with strikes in the ring before she took down Jax and Lynch with a dive to the outside. While Stratton tried to get into the ring, she was being held by the leg by Lynch as Jax hit a leg drop on her. We then went to the final break of the evening.

When SmackDown returned, Cargill and Lynch re-entered the match and faced off. Cargill unleashed a flurry of strikes on Lynch, followed by a spinebuster. Lynch tried to go up top, but was caught by Cargill, who hit a Fallaway Slam on her foe. A stunned Lynch was blasted with a superkick from Cargill, followed by a tilt-a-whirl sitout powerbomb. Lynch managed to kick out at two. Jax got the tag as she snuck up on Cargill while Lynch ran off.

Cargill avoided the Annihilator, as she turned it into a powerbomb instead. Stratton and Cargill ended up getting the victory in our main event after hitting a combination of moonsaults on the fallen Jax.

Tiffany Stratton & Jade Cargill def. Nia Jax & Becky Lynch via pinfall

– Before we ended our night truly, John Cena was seen walking out of the arena, as SmackDown GM Nick Aldis told him he had just heard from Brock Lesnar. Before we could hear what that was, Logan Paul hit Cena with his punch and ran off.

**********

A weirdly paced main event that felt very much a victim of things getting rushed. In fact, a lot of the evening felt like things were strangely timed, as if a segment might’ve ran too long. That ended up affecting the majority of the show.

All in all, a nothing-to-write-home edition of SmackDown, other than the great John Cena verbal takedown of Logan Paul, Becky Lynch’s opening promo, and Randy Orton’s return. Just nothing really stood out to me from what we got tonight.

WWE SmackDown live results: Drew McIntyre addresses attack on Cody Rhodes

Posted on by Marc Quill

Following last week’s SmackDown main event, Drew McIntyre sent a message to WWE Champion Cody Rhodes by attacking him and hitting a Claymore kick through the side of the commentary table.

McIntyre will appear on tonight’s SmackDown to address his attack and perhaps stake his claim for a future title shot ahead of Clash in Paris.

Alexa Bliss takes on Piper Niven of the Secret Hervice after Bliss’s partner and co-Women’s Tag Team Champion Charlotte Flair defeated Chelsea Green last week.

“Melo Don’t Miz” will reunite tonight in tag team action as Carmelo Hayes and The Miz take on Fraxiom. Last week, Hayes was seeking a singles championship, but got roped into a tag match by Miz who had supposedly spoken to SmackDown GM Nick Aldis about it.

The Street Profits & DIY will renew their rivalry when they face off. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa have blamed the former WWE Tag Team Champions for letting the SmackDown tag division fall into chaos after losing their titles to the Wyatt Sicks.

Join us for live coverage starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

**********

– Following the WWE signature and flyover over Boston’s skyline, we got shots of Drew McIntyre arriving at the arena, as well as a recap of the damage caused by the surly Scotsman after he hit a nasty Claymore kick on Cody Rhodes through the side of the commentary table last week.

Solo Sikoa and the M.F.T.s open SmackDown

The United States Champion and his “family tree” arrived on the scene to open our show. Once Sikoa and his group entered the ring, he said that the M.F.T.s. were in the building to remind everyone that he and his group ran SmackDown. And if anyone didn’t like that? Too bad.

Last week, Sami Zayn came out and tried to show up on SmackDown, and that forced Sikoa and the M.F.T.s to show up on Raw to, in his words, “stomp his ass out”. Sikoa declared that Zayn was stomped out, alongside Jimmy Uso and Jacob Fatu. He once again challenged anyone to come out from the back to face him, but the music of Sami Zayn cut Sikoa off, and out came the man himself. Zayn walked to the ring alone and stopped on the apron, with mic in hand.

Zayn said that he was just out here to talk. He asked Sikoa if he could just talk with him. The U.S. Champion told his M.F.T.s to back off as he stood face to face with Zayn. The Montreal native said that this past Monday, if he had beaten Rusev, there was a possibility he could’ve been fighting for the World Title at Clash in Paris, and now that wasn’t going to happen thanks to Sikoa’s group. He noted how he felt furious, but after some long thoughts, Zayn noted that he was finally liberated. Zayn had been so focused on chasing the World Title that he hadn’t had time to focus on other things in WWE, and for that he wanted to actually “thank” Sikoa.

Zayn said that there was one title that he hadn’t held in WWE aside from the World Title, and that was the United States Championship. Sikoa taunted Zayn that he would never win the U.S. Title and yelled at him to get out of “his show” as he didn’t want to see him ever again. In actuality, it turned out, Zayn was now officially a member of the SmackDown roster. Sikoa took something away from Zayn, and now the Canadian was going to take the U.S. Title away from Sikoa.

As Sikoa tried to strike at Zayn, we had ourselves a skirmish. The M.F.T.s stepped in and delivered a numbers game-enhanced beatdown until Jimmy Uso ran in for the save. The M.F.T.s’ advantage was still too much until Jacob Fatu made the save. As the M.F.T.’s forces were sent to a retreat, Talla Tonga saw himself sent outside by a triple superkick from Zayn, Uso, and Fatu.

Nick Aldis stepped in and made it official that our main event tonight would be Zayn, Fatu, and Uso versus any three of the M.F.T.s in a six-man tag match.

Moving Sami Zayn to SmackDown was a good lateral move, even though it pulls him into the so-called “Bloodline Vortex” once again. That said, I think I’m ready for him to be the next U.S. Champion.

**********

– Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett welcomed us to the show as they tossed things over to Byron Saxton, who was standing by with Chelsea Green and her Secret Hervice. Green was asked, in her words, how we got here. Green claimed she could’ve been severely injured after getting a faceful of cake last week, as Piper Niven and Alba Fyre promised to “confiscate” Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss of their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.

Alexa Bliss (w/ Charlotte Flair) vs. Piper Niven (w/ Chelsea Green & Alba Fyre)

The ring and ringside LED displays were adorned with a King of the Hill logo, to promote the recently-released reboot of the beloved animated series.

Bliss asked for a moment prior to the match as she put her Lilly doll aside. Niven pounced on the attack with stomps on Bliss as she pointed at Lilly. Green tried to take it from outside the ring, but Charlotte backed her off. In the ring, Bliss jumped on the back of Niven and tried to apply a sleeper hold to ground her larger foe. Niven used her power to break the hold successfully as she had the physical advantage on Bliss at this point in the match. She floored Bliss with a textbook Black Hole Slam as we headed to a commercial break.

SmackDown returned with Bliss taking advantage after she avoided a Niven cannonball during the commercial break. She hit Niven with repeated running moonsaults, but those weren’t enough to secure the three count. Niven regained momentum with a headbutt, which finally allowed her to hit Bliss with the corner cannonball. Bliss avoided possible calamity by dodging the Viper Bomb. As Bliss tried to head up top, Green got on the apron to provide a distraction, but Flair stopped her. Fyre then got on the apron, but got kicked away by Bliss. In the end, Bliss got the rollup victory on Niven.

After the match, the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions found themselves on the wrong end of a three-on-two attack from Green and the Secret Hervice.

Alexa Bliss def. Piper Niven via pinfall

Kind of a nothing match, if we’re being honest. But, it’s at least nice to see Green and her stable actually look credible for once with their post-match beatdown.

**********

– Tiffany Stratton and Jade Cargill were arguing backstage as Nick Aldis tried to bring some peace to the situation. Nia Jax soon appeared, and was told by the WWE Women’s Champion to simply “bring it” if she wanted another shot at her.

Melo Don’t Miz (Carmelo Hayes & The Miz) vs. Fraxiom (Axiom & Nathan Frazer)

Axiom & Hayes started us off in this match until Miz tagged himself in, much to his partner’s annoyance. Joe Gacy of the Wyatt Sicks was shown standing in the crowd, which got Axiom’s attention. Gacy’s tag team partner Dexter Lumis was shown lurking in the crowd as well.

Axiom and Miz got themselves into a battle of flipping attacks until the former NXT Tag Champion used his speed to escape, as Frazer entered the match. Miz was flummoxed by Frazer’s speed as he decided to let Hayes handle him. Frazer flipped across the ring and caught Hayes with an enzuiguiri. Fraxiom used their high-flying double team attack to rattle Melo Don’t Miz with an all-out dive assault. We went to a break at this point.

SmackDown returned with Hayes having a resthold applied on Axiom, as he then hit a superkick on him. Axiom countered an attempted powerbomb with a hurricanrana that got a near fall. Hayes finally connected with that powerbomb, but could not put Axiom away. Hayes tried to get at Frazer, who avoided the attack. Axiom took advantage and hit a kick to the face of Hayes. Frazer got the hot tag as he made off with supersonic speed to floor Miz with a moonsault.

Frazer looked for the Phoenix Splash, but Miz rolled out of the away as he hit Frazer with a big knee. Hayes tagged in and tried for a springboard attack, but Frazer met him at the rope and hit an inverted Spanish Fly instead. Hayes somehow kicked out at two. On the top rope, Hayes tried to head up top, but Axiom stunned him with a kick. This opened Hayes up for the Spanish Fly/Phoenix Splash combo from Fraxiom. Miz broke up the count by stepping onto the back of Frazer, followed by a DDT afterwards.

On the top rope, Frazer hit Hayes with a jumping kick and looked for a jumping Spanish Fly with Axiom. However, Miz stopped Axiom with a DDT on the apron. Back on the top rope, Hayes countered Frazer with an amazing top rope cutter. As Hayes was looking for Nothin’ But Net, Miz selfishly tagged himself in and stole the win with a Skull-Crushing Finale, much to Hayes’ chagrin.

The crowd was hot for this match, and the story of Miz trying to steal the glory of Hayes is at least interesting, and presuming that this leads to a tag title match with the Wyatt Sicks, the supernatural faction will surely take advantage of Miz’s duplicity to defend their tag team gold.

Melo Don’t Miz def. Fraxiom via pinfall

**********

– Tiffany Stratton was approached by Kiana James, who offered her services of being a client of hers, which included benefits such as a custom pink World Championship. Stratton refused James’ services as she walked off. Michin then appeared and stated that she had Giulia next. James said that this was “under advisement”.

Drew McIntyre addresses his attack on Cody Rhodes

The Scotsman stepped into the ring and talked about people asking why he did what he did last week to the Undisputed WWE Championship. He asked for the clip to be played again, which brought a smile to a face. McIntyre asked us to listen closely, as he said that apparently did “not” attack Cody Rhodes. He then accosted Joe Tessitore about a medical update on Rhodes. He ranted about how that management was hiding Rhodes’ medical condition.

McIntyre said that he wasn’t mad at Rhodes, that he instead felt sorry for him because of how much he put the weight of the fans and the WWE management on his shoulders. McIntyre noted that he was once in Rhodes’ position, but he moved on afterwards. He noted that Rhodes was nothing without “his story”, as he boasted that McIntyre didn’t attack Rhodes… he was attacked instead.

McIntyre walked us through what happened and put his own spin of the events that transpired last week. He noted that he defended himself, and that while Rhodes was good at pissing people off, McIntyre said he was good at taking people out. He declared himself the “real nightmare” as he walked off.

Uninterrupted McIntyre segment here, which presumably will lead to a Clash in Paris title match, and likely to give Cody Rhodes a break while filming his Street Fighter role, or at least prepare for it.

**********

– The Street Profits were confronted by Solo Sikoa and the M.F.T.s just before their match against #DIY. As the Profits left, Sikoa asked Talla Tonga what he was looking at, as something in the distance caught the big man’s attention. We got a glimpse of who exactly Talla was looking at after the M.F.T.s walked off, and it was a faraway Erick Rowan lurking menacingly.

#DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) (w/ Candice LeRae) vs. The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) (w/ B-Fab)

As the bell rang, Ford caught Ciampa with a dropkick, but found himself hit with a boot that sent him to the #DIY corner not long after. Gargano & Ciampa blasted Ford with a tandem of running boots into the corner.

Ford avoided a chop block from Ciampa as he then tagged Dawkins. The titanic Dawkins used his strength and speed to keep the #DIY duo cornered. Outside the ring, LeRae got herself in the way of Dawkins, which allowed Ciampa to hit him with a kick. Gargano, Ciampa, and LeRae sat on the apron and did their happy clap, which took us to the break.

The action picked up from commercial with Gargano and Dawkins down on the mat after a slam from the latter. Both men tagged in their respective partners as Ford soared with a high crossbody from the top rope on Ciampa. He countered Gargano with a Famouser, followed by a jumping neckbreaker on Ciampa. Ford leapt up with a splash on Ciampa for the near-fall.

The Profits showed great teamwork with an assisted double team back suplex on Ciampa. As Ford headed up top for the Blockbuster, B-Fab was sent to the steps by LeRae outside the ring. This created a distraction and allowed #DIY to hit their superkick-into-Fairy Tale Ending. Dawkins slid in the last second to break up the count. Ford avoided a superkick from Gargano as he sent him into Ciampa instead. While Ford was on the apron, LeRae took him out with a leaping hurricanrana, In the ring, Gargano hit Ford with his slingshot DDT, and the action turned to chaos. Outside the ring, LeRae got smashed with a knee from B-Fab, and in the end, the Profits secured victory after a high-flying frog splash from Ford on Ciampa and the three.

The Street Profits def. #DIY via pinfall

Just a fun tag match. The Street Profits are always reliable for fast-paced tag action, and pitting them against #DIY is a recipe for some exciting tag team action.

**********

– Carmelo Hayes tried to ask Nick Aldis for a singles shot at the United States Championship when the Miz once again tried to speak for his partner’s behalf. Chris Sabin of the Motor City Machine Guns taunted Hayes by asking if he was “Him” or if he was “His” (as in belonging to Miz). This led to Aldis scheduling the MCMGs versus Melo Don’t Miz for next week’s show.

– We got a recap of John Cena and Logan Paul’s encounter from last week’s show, which led to a match between the two to be booked for Clash in Paris.

– R-Truth was asked about John Cena’s recent “attitude adjustment”, to which he seemed overjoyed about. Before he could get further, Aleister Black confronted him. He wanted to know which Truth he was getting, as Truth got serious and stepped up to Black. “There he is, Mr. Killings,” said Black as he told Truth to see him next week.

– Backstage, Sami Zayn wondered if Jacob Fatu was going to be cool with them teaming up together in our main event. Fatu told Zayn to stay out of his way, as he walked off with a “yaddamean”, which confused Zayn.

Next Week on SmackDown

  • John Cena returns
  • R-Truth vs. Aleister Black
  • Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) vs. Melo Don’t Miz (Carmelo Hayes & The Miz)

The M.F.T.s (Solo Sikoa, Tanga Loa, J.C. Mateo) (w/ Talla Tonga) vs. Sami Zayn, Jimmy Uso, Jacob Fatu

We got things going with Mateo and Uso as our legal men. Mateo backed Uso into the corner and clubbed him with strikes. Uso escaped and stunned Mateo as Zayn tagged in and tried his best to maintain momentum. Mateo used his strength to run Zayn into his corner, as Tanga Loa entered the match with a tag. Tanga threw Zayn outside and caused a distraction for Talla Tonga to kick Zayn with a big boot, which took us to the final break of the evening.

SmackDown’s main event returned from commercial with Sikoa pummeling Zayn near the M.F.T. corner. The feisty Quebecer tried to fight back, but Sikoa asserted control and brought Mateo into the match. Zayn avoided a running splash in the corner from Mateo, and looked for a tag. Sikoa punched Uso away and taunted Fatu as he continued to attack Zayn.

As Zayn was on the top rope, he roared back and hit a tornado DDT on Sikoa, which created some much-needed separation for him. Finally, Jacob Fatu was tagged in as he unleashed his wrath on Tanga Loa. Fatu struck Tanga with repeated headbutts, followed by the running hip attack. Mateo got sent over the top rope with a clothesline by Fatu, as a flying dive from Uso to the outside left him out cold. In the ring, pop-up Samoan Drop by Fatu was not enough to end the match as Tanga kicked out.

Fatu headed to the top rope as Sikoa stopped him long enough for Tanga to get the knees up on the moonsault. Sikoa tagged in and hit a diving splash on Fatu. One, two… not yet! Fatu and Sikoa traded superkicks until a double-down clothesline from the two took one another out. Zayn entered the match with a tag and a Blue Thunder Powerbomb on Sikoa. Mateo broke up the count and ate a superkick from Uso as result. Fatu superkicked Tanga before he sent Talla Tonga over the announce table with a suicide dive to the outside.

In the ring, Sikoa’s Samoan Spike was reversed into an Exploder Suplex by Zayn, followed by the Helluva Kick for the one, two, three in our SmackDown main event.

As SmackDown ended, Fatu finally showed respect to Zayn as the two embraced and celebrated with Jimmy Uso to end the night.

Sami Zayn, Jacob Fatu, and Jimmy Uso def. The M.F.T.s via pinfall

**********

A solid TV main event match that did its job of establishing Sami Zayn as a credible threat to Sikoa’s U.S. Title as well as solidify him as a top face along side Jacob Fatu. It was also rather nice to get a clean finish to the match after the last two episodes of Raw & SmackDown gave us inconclusive DQ finishes and beatdown segments to end them.

All in all, a fairly decent episode of SmackDown that did its best to fill two hours without stars like John Cena or Cody Rhodes to carry the bulk of the show. If there is a downside, I think it’s with how the WWE Women’s Championship feels kind of shuffled off to the side, as champion Tiffany Stratton only had two backstage segments and the fact that Nia Jax & Jade Cargill are being teased as challengers again does highlight how small the main event scene of the SmackDown women’s division is. Hopefully that’s something that’s to be addressed in the near future, and Bianca Belair’s return, whenever that is, should help alleviate that somewhat.

WWE SmackDown live results: SummerSlam fallout

Posted on by Marc Quill

At SummerSlam, Cody Rhodes reclaimed the WWE Championship in a hard-fought street fight against “the real” John Cena that saw the two men show tremendous respect for one another following the match. Rhodes is scheduled to appear tonight in Montreal’s Bell Centre to address his championship victory and potentially find out who his first title defense will be against.

Meanwhile, Cena will kick off SmackDown to not only discuss his defeat at SummerSlam, but also being attacked post-match by a returning Brock Lesnar.

Motor City Machine Guns will face Talla Tonga and JC Mateo of the MFTs in tag team action. The team of Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley were one of five teams who came up short in dethroning the Wyatt Sicks in a hotly contested TLC match at SummerSlam.

The MFTs are coming off a mixed night at SummerSlam where Solo Sikoa retained the United States title against Jacob Fatu inside a steel cage — but Fatu and Jimmy Uso left Mateo and Tonga Loa laying after.

Join us for live coverage starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

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– SmackDown opened with a recap of the SummerSlam Sunday main event between Cody Rhodes and John Cena, as well as the Brock Lesnar return after the match.

John Cena opens SmackDown

We didn’t waste any time as John Cena opened SmackDown, with his usual babyface entrance back in full force after SummerSlam. The Montreal crowd responded with a loud cheer for Cena as he addressed the camera, telling Stu the Cameraman “let’s go to work” before he ran down to the ring, full of vigour.

Ring announcer Mark Nash did the introduction for Cena, but added that the “Last Real Champion” was here to celebrate with all the fans.

“Man, we have come a long way,” began Cena. He said for the longest time, WWE was afraid to come to Montreal because they thought the audience would hijack the show. Cena said that he wasn’t afraid of that possibility because he knew that the audience was the show. If we watched at home, we could see the crowd go and wish we were there. Cena noted that the Montreal crowd was so loud that he could barely hear himself talk.

For the crew in the back, Cena said that it could get scary if the crowd started singing. “Some performers might get scared,” but Cena said that he might’ve been afraid, but the crowd helped him through it by letting him embrace and enjoy every single second. He said that it didn’t last forever, unfortunately, as the crowd chanted “Thank you, Cena”.

He said that he’s been coming here for over two decades, and that he had shared many valuable moments in this ring, and that all he had to say was: thank you. Cena reminded the crowd that after tonight, he has 11 dates left before retirement. Cena admitted that every time a day goes by, he gets more and more afraid, and he thanked everyone for that.

Cena said that no matter how much he gave to the crowd in the little amount of time left, that it wouldn’t be enough. Cena continued by saying that he was also afraid that after he was gone and WWE moved on without him, he’d be forgotten as a result. Cena finally addressed Brock Lesnar, stating that there’d be no universe ever that he’d back down against Lesnar’s challenge.

Cena said that he’s afraid that Brock Lesnar has just gotten a “John Cena problem”, and that everyone in the locker room has also got themselves a “John Cena problem”. Cena declared that he was ready to go down guns blazing, because the last time was now. “If you want some, come get some!” challenged Cena.

The music of Logan Paul heralded the arrival of the so-called YouTube influencer to the ring. As the crowd booed, Paul said that this version of John Cena made him sick. Paul noted how he once respected Cena, but no longer as he “switched up” in his eyes.

As Paul entered the ring, Cena told him that he might’ve made the biggest mistake of his life. Paul claimed that the people didn’t know who John Cena was, and that he did WWE better than any professional wrestler. Cena responded by calling Paul the “biggest dumbass he had ever seen in his life”.

Paul called Cena a liar as he wanted to face him in a match, if Cena was in the mood for giving matches. Paul said that we would see this match in a beautiful French-speaking country… Paris, France. As Paul rambled on, Drew McIntyre snuck up on Cena and helped Paul ambush him. Cody Rhodes ran in to make the save to help Cena clear the ring of Paul and McIntyre.

Cena accepted Paul’s challenge for Clash in Paris, but it was clear that Paul and McIntyre wanted a fight. He then threw down the challenge for Paul and McIntyre to take him on and Rhodes for a tag match tonight. “The Champ is Here!” declared Cena, referring to our new Undisputed WWE Champion in the form of Cody Rhodes.

A rather interesting opening segment that seemed more centered on Cena’s final goodbye than directly addressing the Brock Lesnar/SummerSlam fallout, as well as giving us a match for Clash in Paris with Cena vs. Paul. The promo itself was back to a usual Cena babyface one, and it’s honestly good to hear it again, because Cena is a natural at these types of promos as opposed to the ones we got during his recently-wrapped heel run.

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– The Motor City Machine Gunes were asked backstage about their chances against Talla Tonga and J.C. Mateo of the M.F.T.s. They said that their road to the top began with this match.

– Rhodes/Cena vs. Paul/McIntyre was made official for later tonight.

The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) vs. Talla Tonga & J.C. Mateo (w/ Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga)

Mateo and Shelley opened the match as the two traded offense until Shelley and Sabin used a double team attack to floor Mateo and send him to the outside. Sabin took down Mateo with a five-hole suicide dive as the MCMGs did a number on Talla Tonga.

Tama Tonga got on the apron, which caused a distraction and gave Talla the time to pick Sabin off the apron and throw him into the barricade, which sent us to a break in the action.

We returned to the match as Talla had Shelley locked in a bearhug before he slammed the tag veteran to the mat. Shelley found a way to create separation as he elbowed Mateo before he got the tag on Sabin.

Sabin attempted to take down Mateo, but had to hit multiple superkicks before he did the job with a springboard DDT for a near-fall. The Machine Guns then attempted a double team on Mateo as they took Talla down from the apron. This gave Mateo time to recover and slam down Sabin. The cover, but Shelley broke it up.

A double superkick from Sabin and Shelley stunned Mateo, but Talla got involved and prevented the Skull and Bones with a boot to Shelley on the top rope. He then chokeslammed Sabin to pick up the victory for the M.F.T.s.

Talla Tonga & J.C. Mateo def. Motor City Machine Guns via pinfall

An okay match. Nothing really much to say, but does seem to set up Talla and J.C. as challengers for the Wyatt Sicks. Not sure what that will look like, but it’s at least worth keeping an eye on.

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After the match, Solo Sikoa got on the microphone and declared that he and his M.F.T.s were what greatness looked like. He said that we were looking at the soon-to-be WWE Tag Team Champions and the most dominant United States Champion. Sikoa said he was feeling good and ready for a fight, but the problem is that nobody was wanted to fight him. He said that this was the last place that he wanted to fight so he was ready to celebrate.

SmackDown GM Nick Aldis interrupted him and that he found someone who was also ready for a fight. That someone being a person that Sikoa knew all too well and one that Montreal knew well. Sami Zayn then entered to a raucous ovation from the hometown crowd.

Solo Sikoa vs. Sami Zayn

The match officially kicked off after a commercial break as Zayn and Sikoa stared down one another across the ring. The crowd broke out in an “ole ole ole” singalong as this was happening. Zayn and Sikoa finally locked horns in the middle of the ring as the latter forced his opponent into the corner. Sikoa tried to beg off Zayn by throwing up the Bloodline ones, but got a slap in the face for his troubles.

Zayn responded with punches in the corner before Sikoa regained control with a running shoulder block. The United States Champion chopped at Zayn in the corner before he struck with some punches of his own. Zayn escaped and once again hammered away at Sikoa in the corner. Zayn sent Sikoa to the outside with a clothesline and sized him up for a dive. He soared over the top rope with a dive that took down Sikoa, but soon found himself surrounded by the M.F.T.s by the commentary table.

In the ring, Sikoa provided a distraction, which allowed Tama Tonga to hit Zayn with a clothesline from the apron, which took us to a break in the action.

We came back from the break with Zayn connecting on a sunset flip powerbomb to Sikoa from the top rope for a close near-fall. Zayn followed that up by attempting to lift Sikoa up, but to no avail. An attempted Blue Thunder Bomb was met by a Spinning Solo from the United States Champion. One, two… Zayn just managed to kick out.

Sikoa sized Zayn up for a Samoan Spike, but Zayn got a boot up and threw him in the corner for an Exploder Suplex. Zayn locked in and looked like he was about to hit a Helluva Kick, but Tama Tonga provided the distraction. Another Exploder was followed by an attempted Helluva Kick, but J.C. Mateo this time provided a distraction. Talla Tonga got up on the apron and faced off with a defiant Zayn, but this opened him up for a superkick from Sikoa. The U.S. Champion looked to have this won with a Samoan Spike, but Zayn turned that around and got the surprise rollup pinfall win to a huge ovation from the hometown crowd. Zayn immediately rolled out of the ring to avoid an M.F.T. beatdown as Sikoa looked stunned at losing in such shocking fashion.

Sami Zayn def. Solo Sikoa via pinfall

This was a nice little match, and Sami getting the hometown hero win was a good change of pace.

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– We got a promo from the Wyatt Sicks. Uncle Howdy said that the Sicks would never lead us astray, and that when they spoke, they only spoke the truth. The Sicks said they woke the SmackDown tag division up to their true reality. This was clear that this was about something bigger than the Tag Titles, and that there were more lessons to be learned.

– Backstage, the Street Profits and #DIY got into an argument, with Tommasso Ciampa calling the Profits a bunch of “motherkillers” for what happened to Candice LeRae. The bickering continued until Nick Aldis interrupted. He said that the TLC match didn’t keep everyone in check, but that would start next week with #DIY vs. the Profits next week on SmackDown.

Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair’s Championship Celebration

The new WWE Women’s Tag Champions had themselves a Championship Celebration, which happened to fall on Bliss’s birthday. In the ring, was a cake that said “Congratulations Charlotte! – Alexa”, which Flair tried to pass off as a birthday gift to Bliss.

Flair said that if Bliss and her were tag partners, then Lilly the doll needed a tag partner of her own. Flair then unveiled “Charlie”, a doll that looked quite similar to Lilly. Bliss thanked Flair for the appreciation, but it wasn’t enough. Flair said that she needed something and Montreal needed something. And that something was a hug. Bliss said she didn’t know if that was necessary, but Flair beckoned her partner to give her a hug.

Chelsea Green and the Secret Hervice interrupted before we got a hug. Green said that while she was a proud Canadian, seeing the Montreal crowd cheer for Bliss and Flair made her want to turn her passport in. She dissed the Montreal Canadiens and then said that the we should be celebrating her homecoming instead.

Flair said that she had one more gift for Bliss: kicking Chelsea Green’s ass tonight. As Green tried to back away, Nick Aldis appeared with a referee who wore a bowtie. The referee was apparently a “birthday gift” for Bliss as Aldis then made Flair vs. Green official, and we’d see that match after the break.

– Backstage, Carmelo Hayes tried to pay a visit to Nick Aldis, but was met by The Miz instead. Hayes was upset that Miz ignored him for two months and he wanted to get a shot at the United Staes Championship. Miz said that he supposedly got a tag team match for him and Hayes next week. Hayes tentatively agreed and left. Nick Aldis appeared and it was clear that Miz had not spoken to to the SmackDown GM about this supposed tag match.

Charlotte Flair vs. Chelsea Green

Flair had the advantage early on as she forced Green out of the ring for the time being. Green got the upper hand in the ring with a boot to the face. Green then slammed Flair’s face on the turnbuckle, but got countered and hit with a chop to the face.

On the apron, Flair fended off Alba Fyre and Piper Niven before she took the top rope and hit a diving crossbody for the near-fall. The Secret Hervice provided a momentary distraction, that didn’t provide any sort of advantage for Green. A rollup attempt by Flair was turned into a moment of opportunity for Green as she pushed her into the middle turnbuckle. That took us into an oddly-placed ad break.

We returned to the match and we found out that the birthday cake from the birthday celebration for Bliss was placed outside the ring while the match was in progress.

Flair blased Green with chops followed by a walkover clothesline and a high-angle German suplex on the Canadian. Flair then connected with Natural Selection, but Green kicked out at two. As Flair tried to run at Green, she was met with a big boot. Flair quickly recovered and tried to head up top. Green stunned Flair and landed a superplex for the close near-fall. A flustered Green motioned to the Secret Hervice to bring the birthday cake to her, as Fyre and Niven slid it into the ring.

On the outside, Bliss took out both members of the Secret Hervice with a dive. In the ring, Green set Flair up for a Un-Pretty-Her on the cake, but Flair reversed it and delivered an Un-Pretty-Her of her own on Green instead. In the end, Flair made Green submit to the Figure Eight for the win.

Charlotte Flair def. Chelsea Green via submission

A fun little segment and an entertaining match afterwards with a funny finish to the proceedings.

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– Tiffany Stratton was interviewed about what was next for her. She said that she’d just keep on doing what she had been doing for the past 216 days. Jade Cargill interrupted and promised that it’d be different next time she and Stratton faced off. Stratton said that it’d be a different story, but with the same ending: her winning out. As Stratton left, Cargill was confronted by Kiana James and Giulia. Cargill said that she’d go after Giulia’s Women’s U.S. Title on her own time. Finally, Michin showed up and offered to help Cargill out against Giulia and Kiana.

– We got a video from Aleister Black, where he said that he was granted the power to use violence to stop a greater violence being committed. Black said that he is an eye for an limb and and an eye for a life kind of guy. Black took credit for giving Damian Priest a hairline fraction in his jaw following his attack on last week’s SmackDown.

– John Cena was walking backstage and was met by Ron Killings/R-Truth, who seemed happy that the “real” Cena was back. Cena played along and acted like Truth had turned heel for the past five months and only since turned back face. Cena gave Truth an appreciative pat before he walked off for our main event up next.

Cody Rhodes & John Cena vs. Logan Paul & Drew McIntyre

Rhodes and Paul started off our main event with a tie up in the middle of the ring, as Rhodes took him down with a running shoulder block. Paul responded with a standing headlock that he failed to keep on as Rhodes fought back with his signature drop down slap to the face. After a suplex, Rhodes tried to tag Cena, but Paul rolled him up and dragged the Undisputed WWE Champion back to the his corner as McIntyre tagged into the match.

McIntyre failed to get any momentum as Rhodes slammed him with a running powerslam. Meanwhile, Paul ran a distraction, which gave McIntyre the chance to blast Rhodes with the Glasgow Kiss headbutt. In the ring, McIntyre provided a distraction of his own as Paul hit Rhodes with a clothesline at ringside, which took us to the final ad break of the night with about 7 minutes to 10:00pm.

We returned to our main event with McIntyre attempting to prevent Rhodes from making the tag to Cena. Rhodes managed to create some needed separation as he avoided a shoulder charge from McIntyre, which sent the Scotsman crashing into the corner. This allowed Cena to get the hot tag as he unleashed his Five Moves of Doom on legal man Paul. The Montreal crowd was on fire as Cena delivered the Five Knuckle Shuffle, followed by the Attitude Adjustment. McIntyre made the save by breaking up the pin. McIntyre tried to target Cena for a Claymore Kick, but Rhodes intervened.

In the ring, Cena was hit by a low blow from Paul to cause the DQ finish. After the match, Paul and Cena brawled to the back while Rhodes and McIntyre continued to mix it up at ringside. The fight took a turn as McIntyre smacked Rhodes across the face with the Undisputed WWE Championship. With the Champion prone next to the edge of the commentary table, McIntyre delivered a particularly vicious Claymore Kick that managed to break the bottom of the commentary table entirely to end our night.

Cody Rhodes & John Cena def. Logan Paul & Drew McIntyre via Disqualification

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Kind of a hard reset of sorts, particularly with the past five months for John Cena as he abruptly turned back face. Main event was fine, and the post-match extracurriculars set up the already-announced Cena vs. Paul match and a presumed Undisputed WWE Championship match (and presumably writing Cody Rhodes off until Clash in Paris so he can film Street Fighter).

All in all, an average SmackDown at best.