Friday Night SmackDown aired this week as a pre-recorded episode from the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The first woman to make her presence felt this week was Zelina, who appeared in a vignette with her husband Aleister Black as they went over their feud with Damian Priest. She names The Judgment Day, Rhea Ripley, and R-Truth as people Priest poured his time into, but claims that all they did was take from him. With Black referring to himself and Vega as “the ones dressed in black”, they are not here to save or guide Priest, but to remind him of what he buried. As Black goes on to explain, man does not descend into violence, he returns to it. For six months, they stripped him down, made him unpredictable, made him hateful and violent, made him want them – and they feel he still doesn’t get it. Zelina lastly says that Priest wasn’t hiding from the truth, he simply couldn’t carry it; if creation can’t understand its purpose, it doesn’t get a second chance.
Byron Saxton interviewed the WWE Women’s Champion, Jade Cargill. Asking Cargill how she sees her issues with Michin coming to an end, she responds by saying that it ends with the champ stomping a hole through her chest. Michin couldn’t meet her face-to-face; she had to come at her with a kendo stick, and that told Jade everything she needed to know. She’s scared, and she should be, just like B-Fab and the whole locker room are. She doesn’t need weapons when she is the weapon. Cargill finally warns Michin to bring the kendo stick, because she’s going to need it, and walks off to end the segment.
B-Fab was watching the interview backstage, when Michin walks in. The Fab Female tells her friend that she knows she is trying to stick up for her, but doesn’t want her to get hurt. No one is scared of Jade, but being smart and cautious is not dumb; a situation like this could get bad really quick.
Michin replies that Jade thinking they’re scared is something the two of them can use to their advantage. Jade is getting that detail confused because Michin and B-Fab are not scared, they just don’t respect her, with The Hardcore Princess citing that she isn’t a locker room leader, has a horrible attitude, and thinks that because she has big muscles, that she’s better than the rest of the roster and can walk all over them. Michin feels that Jade needs to get humbled, and with or without the kendo stick, next week, class is going to be in session, and Michin is intent on humbling her. The segment ends with the two giving each other a fist bump, a sign that they are on the same page.
Lash Legend and Charlotte Flair, accompanied by their respective teammates Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss, squared off in the first of two women’s matches on tonight’s show. The two started by locking up, although Legend soon began to utilize some arm drags against Flair. Legend continued to show off her power throughout, her offense including two knees to the gut of Flair, a bodyslam onto the mat, a clothesline, and sending Flair face-first into the turnbuckles. The Queen still had energy left in her, but that didn’t matter, with Legend finding a move at every turn and taunting her in the midst of an incoming bodyslam, by shaking her around in between the ropes.
Another bodyslam followed but Flair kicked out of the resulting pin attempt. The Boujee Bully then put Flair in a headlock, refusing to let go even as the crowd was in clear support of Flair and cheering her on. Thankfully for the fans, Flair finally started to gain some momentum, hitting some forearms and a kick the way of her opponent, keeping it up with a crossbody and some chops to the chest. Legend fought back with a big boot, but failed to put Flair away.
The end of the match occurred as Flair reversed a powerbomb attempt by Legend into a sunset flip. Legend took a boot to the face, but got Flair in position for the Lash Extension; Flair again reversed it into a DDT. With Legend laid out on the mat, Flair hit a moonsault that Legend kicked out of at 2. Now focusing on Legend’s knees, Nia Jax got up on the ring apron to stop her, but got off when instructed to by the referee; Alexa Bliss still jumped on her back, and the commotion was enough to distract Legend into being pinned by Flair for the count of 3 and losing the match.
Bliss held Flair’s arm up in the air while Legend was upset at what is her first loss since debuting on SmackDown almost two months ago.
Halfway through the show’s second hour, Flair and Bliss were backstage, with Bliss stating that after last week, it was nice to see Lash lose. Flair agrees, as long as they do that to every team every week and bring the Women’s Tag Team Championships back. Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY from Monday Night Raw walk in and happily greet them, although Ripley notes that they seem very confident and feels the need to remind them that IYO and her have a tag team championship match coming up. The Genius of the Sky adds that once her and Ripley win, the titles are going to stay with them.
Lash and Nia now enter the shot, protesting Lash’s loss earlier and getting into it face-to-face with both teams. This brings the situation to the attention of general manager Nick Aldis, but the confrontation also brings in Asuka and Kairi Sane, The Kabuki Warriors and Women’s Tag Team Champions in question, who show off their titles.
Aldis has had enough and says that the chaos has gone far enough, so here’s what he’s going to do: next week on SmackDown, there will be an 8-woman tag team match, so they can all face off before the big tag title match in Brooklyn, New York’s Barclays Center on the January 5th episode of Raw, with Aldis believing that each team can get their intense dislike for each other out of their systems. Ripley tries to grab at Sane’s hair, which only continues the fight as the segment ends.
Candice LeRae appeared very briefly when an angry Johnny Gargano attacked the newly crowned United States Champion, Carmelo Hayes, in the process interrupting an interview between him and Cathy Kelley. The Poison Pixie restrained her husband in an effort to try and get him to calm down.
After what could be best described as a cat-and-mouse game between champion and challenger in recent weeks, the Women’s United States Champion, Chelsea Green, teamed up with her Slaygent, Alba Fyre, against Giulia and Kiana James. The match began with James and Green locking it up, with the two pulling at each other’s hair and pushing each other. Green would slap James and try to get a quick roll-up for the win, but James kicked out and responded with a failed roll-up of her own.
Now twisting the arm of Green, James tagged in Giulia, but the champion made a rapid dash from one corner of the ring to the other to tag in Fyre. The Beautiful Madness had no interest in taking on the redheaded Secret Hervice agent, trying to take a swing that Green ducked out of by jumping to the floor; even then, Giulia angrily told Green to shut up. James was then tagged in, and immediately reversed Fyre’s attempt at a Tornado DDT, running head-first into Fyre’s abdomen at the turnbuckles.
After a few seconds of focusing on Green, Fyre hit James with a boot to the face and was finally able to execute the Tornado DDT. Fyre then tagged in Green, who put James in a headlock and taunted Giulia by blowing a kiss at her. Green soon got distracted giving the fans a salute, but James took advantage to tag in Giulia, at which point Green tried to run away but took two snapmares for her troubles. Punching Fyre off the ring apron, The Beautiful Madness hit a running knee and followed it up with a missile dropkick, both moves aimed at Green. Fyre, trying to intervene, was thrown over the top rope and onto the floor by Giulia, who finally hit the northern lights bomb on Green to earn the victory for her and James. Green and Fyre walked away from ringside afterwards.
Friday Night SmackDown airs next week from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York, with the show returning to a three-hour time slot, from 8 to 11 p.m. for the first time since last June. The following is set to take place:
- Jade Cargill vs. Michin – non-title, Michin earns a title opportunity if she beats Jade
- 8-Woman Tag Team Match: The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane), Lash Legend, and Nia Jax vs. Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Rhea Ripley, and IYO SKY
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s episode of SmackDown in the comments below.