This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown aired as a pre-recorded episode from inside the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Charlotte Flair walked up to general manager Nick Aldis, having heard about a potential championship opportunity. Believing that Tiffany Stratton would come to her senses and pick her as her Evolution opponent, Aldis says that he instead she would be getting a different kind of title opportunity, by teaming with Alexa Bliss in a #1 contender’s triple threat match against the duo of Michin and B-Fab and The Secret Hervice to earn a shot at the Women’s Tag Team Championships at Evolution. While Flair isn’t pleased, Bliss reminds her that they’re not friends nor does she want to be her friend, but they should be tag team partners. Flair says that she’s known to not like sharing the spotlight with others, but Bliss continues to take shots, mentioning that she hasn’t been in the spotlight for a long time and is trying to give her the opportunity to get back into it. Aldis butts in and tells Flair that maybe sometimes, she doesn’t know what’s best for herself, with The Queen choosing to give in when realizing that this could be another opportunity at gold.
The triple threat match was then underway, with Flair tagging herself in to start. Michin took control in quick fashion by throwing punches at The Queen and aiming a kick at Piper Niven, leaving Slaygent P dizzy, capping off her offense with a suicide dive to Flair and Bliss on the floor. Niven herself would then hit a cannonball onto Michin and B-Fab, leaving the competition laid out.
Niven seemed poised to keep up the good work after commercials, but missed an elbow drop that allowed Michin to tag B-Fab into the match. Trying her best to strike quickly, both Flair and Niven took several knees courtesy of The Fab Female; she also avoided a Figure Eight, which hit Flair into the turnbuckles, but allowed her to tag Bliss into the match. Thankfully, a Sister Abigail attempt on B-Fab was stopped by Michin, who fell victim to a Canadian Destroyer from Alba Fyre. Flair appeared to do well on her own as she speared Niven and hit a moonsault on both her and Fyre, but not without patting the head of Bliss (much to her chagrin) and kicking a distracting Chelsea Green off the ring apron. Bliss would perform Twisted Bliss on Fyre in order to win the match, with her and Flair now representing SmackDown in the Fatal Four-Way Tag Team Match at Evolution on Sunday, July 13th. A team from Raw and a team from NXT must still be found, however.
In the aftermath of the match, Flair would happily run to Bliss and give her a hug, only to quickly hold back afterwards. Perhaps a partnership isn’t so bad for The Queen after all.
A vignette aired with the new Women’s United States Champion, Giulia. Now that she beat Zelina Vega for the title last week, The Beautiful Madness says in Japanese that she knows what the title means, and one by one, opponents will come to her – and all of them will fall. She goes on to state that she didn’t win the title by luck, but rather by her own power. Blue flames don’t flicker, but they do burn everything down, and she plans on taking the title where no one else has dared before, and she will do it her way with fire and fury – no mercy, no doubt, and no fear. She lastly warns whoever is next to step closer, because they are about to feel the heat of The Beautiful Madness.
Note: Same video, but starting at 0:57 for the Tiffany/Jade/Trish segment.
After that, the WWE Women’s Champion, Tiffany Stratton, makes her way out. She says that since becoming champion, she has realized that she has a target on her back, and Nia Jax’s revenge was not going to stop her from becoming the last woman standing in Saudi Arabia last week. Her sights are now set on SummerSlam, where she will be defending her title against this year’s Queen of the Ring winner Jade Cargill. The Buff Barbie continues to speak and states that just like she is ready to beat Cargill at SummerSlam, she is also getting ready to defend her title at Evolution. With the Women’s World Champion IYO SKY being able to choose her opponent at Evolution in the form of Rhea Ripley, Stratton would have the opportunity to choose hers tonight.
Jade Cargill’s music stopped Stratton’s words, and once she entered the ring, took the mic to tell Stratton that she respected her performance against Jax, but she was barely standing as Cargill crowned herself the Queen of the Ring by defeating one of the best in Asuka. Tonight, Stratton has a choice to make; choose wrong and she won’t be at SummerSlam. In all honesty, it doesn’t matter who Cargill faces, she will come out with the title always.
Stratton says that she is so happy Cargill is out here, because she has a surprise for everyone: the signature laugh of Trish Stratus then played as the Hall of Famer and past ally of Stratton walked down the aisle. Stratton mentioned that with their team up at Elimination Chamber earlier this year and thinking to herself what Evolution would be without some Stratusfaction, she would like to offer Stratus the opportunity to face her for the Women’s Championship on July 13th. Before Stratus can say anything, Cargill says that while Stratton’s choice of opponent was fine, it wouldn’t matter to her if she faced either woman at The Biggest Party of the Summer the weekend of August 2nd.
Stratus now gets to talk and said that she did not expect the offer, but thanks Stratton, and says that the first Evolution event in 2018 holds a special place in her heart, representing what the women of her era had to fight for, like having even a single women’s match on a card, and now at the second Evolution, there is going to be a card full of incredibly talented women. She’s always said that careers are made of moments, and Stratton gave Stratus one of her most special moments by allowing her to wrestle live in front of her kids, who got to see her in the ring, but her kids have never seen her be a champion, and “8-time champion” has a nice ring to it.
Stratton says that she would like to make one thing perfectly clear: their match is not going to be easy as it’s not the Attitude Era anymore. Stratus doesn’t mind, as she wants a good fight, because she’s been known to evolve. Stratton finishes off by saying that whether she’s up against Stratus at Evolution or Cargill at SummerSlam, the two women will realize that the WWE Universe runs on Tiffy Time.
After commercials, Stratus and Cargill run into each other once more backstage, with Cargill saying that she loves that Stratus will be facing Stratton at Evolution, but Cargill knows that if Stratus ends up winning the Women’s Championship, they’ll be seeing each other at SummerSlam. Cargill looked on briefly as Stratus walked away, but she would get clocked from the back by Naomi with a custom-made Money in the Bank briefcase. Naomi told her that she should have proceeded with caution, rubbing it in by cackling maniacally. Nick Aldis ran up to her, with Cargill angrily telling him that she is tired of Naomi’s behavior and to make a match between them, with Team Blue’s head honcho complying with her request, mentioning that she needs to be taken to the trainer’s room.
Both the Women’s Championship match and Jade Cargill vs. Naomi were confirmed to be taking place by Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett before the main event.
Friday Night SmackDown will air live next week from inside the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. It will feature the final build to Evolution, which will air Sunday, July 13th at 7 p.m. Eastern Time / 4 p.m. Pacific on Peacock in the United States. The following matches have been confirmed for the event:
- Women’s World Championship: IYO SKY (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
- Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Trish Stratus
- NXT Women’s Championship: Jacy Jayne (c) (with Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx) vs. Jordynne Grace – winner will face Masha Slamovich at TNA Slammiversary for the NXT Women’s Championship and the TNA Knockouts Championship.
- No Holds Barred: Jade Cargill vs. Naomi
- Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal Four-Way: Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez (c) vs. Alexa Bliss and Charlotte vs. a TBD tag team from Raw vs. a TBD tag team from NXT
- Battle Royal: Winner will get a title shot at Clash in Paris on Sunday, August 31st.
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s episode of SmackDown, and drop your current thoughts and predictions for Evolution, in the comments below.