Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from inside the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as many WWE Superstars are in the country for tonight’s show plus tomorrow’s premium live event, Night of Champions.
We start things off with a video package released to WWE’s social media accounts featuring Giulia and Zelina Vega talking about their Women’s United States Championship match. Giulia says her and Vega have been calling each other out since Vega became champion. Giulia says her hard work is evident and she doesn’t have to talk about it like Vega does. Despite the title meaning everything to Vega, to Giulia, it means nothing, seeing it only as a stepping stone.
Vega responds by saying that where she comes from, if you have a problem with someone, you take it to the streets and handle it. But not everyone’s made for the streets… that’s why they make sidewalks, for people like Giulia who like to make sneak attacks. She has suffered, starved, and sacrificed everything for the title. She may be small, but she has the balls of a 7-footer, so if Giulia wants the title, she is going to have to pry it from her cold dead body, because that’s the only way the words “And new…” will be heard. Much like Giulia intends to use her to assert her dominance, Vega will use her to prove why she’s the Women’s United States Champion.
The title match would follow, and pin attempts were frequent in the first minute or so. Shortly thereafter, Vega hit a moonsault to the outside, with Michael Cole mentioning that she may have hurt her knee in the process. Giulia quickly took control, with The Beautiful Madness stopping a 619 by grabbing Vega’s legs and additionally hitting her with a neckbreaker off the ring apron to the floor. Once both got back into the ring, Giulia would continue her assault by hitting a missile dropkick onto Vega for a near-fall.
After a commercial break, the champ took a risky move by hitting a Meteora on Giulia into the ring steps. Zelina remains in control back in the ring, getting a near-fall. The fight was back and forth between the two, with Vega starting to gain some momentum with some double knees to the spine of Giulia. Now going up to the top rope, Vega was caught by Giulia, but the champ would regain her footing and execute Code Red onto Giulia, who stayed in the match by putting her feet on the ropes. Frustrating Vega, a missed moonsault led to a running knee and two Arrivederci knees, with Giulia finishing it all off with a Northern Lights Bomb to win the match and become the new Women’s United States Champion. Vega looked irate as Giulia stood atop the turnbuckles to pose with her newfound championship.
Shifting gears now to the backstage area, Charlotte Flair walked in an unbothered mood until she ran into Alexa Bliss. Flair says that if Bliss wants to address the events of last week, she doesn’t want to talk about it. Bliss said that it seemed like Flair needed her help when she was attacked by The Secret Hervice. Flair reiterates that she doesn’t need friends, but Bliss says that while she’s not trying to be Flair’s friend, but it wouldn’t hurt for them to be on the same page, and to think of it as “allies of convenience”. The segment ends with Bliss encouraging Flair to think about it.
Team Blue commentator Wade Barrett stood in the ring to moderate a segment with Queen of the Ring finalists Jade Cargill and Asuka. Showing off the crown that will be given to the winner, he additionally mentions that both women are battling for a shot at their brand’s women’s champion at SummerSlam.
Welcoming both Cargill and Asuka to the ring, Barrett starts by asking Cargill what makes her so confident that she can defeat Asuka, with The Storm telling Barrett that when people see Asuka, they get nervous, but she sees an opportunity to show everyone exactly why she came to WWE. She doesn’t feel pressure, because she has purpose. At SummerSlam, she doesn’t plan on just taking the Women’s Championship, she’s taking the whole damn throne.
The Empress of Tomorrow gets her chance to talk, stating that Cargill is strong, but power isn’t everything. She’s already skilled and experienced, and no one is ready for Asuka. Jade responds and promises to do something when Naomi’s music interrupts her.
Upon the arrival of Ms. Money in the Bank, Naomi mentions that having the briefcase means that while the two of them can fight over the crown, she has all the power and can do whatever she wants. Maybe she’ll cash in after Tiffany and Nia destroy each other in tonight’s Last Woman Standing match. Aiming her verbal attacks at Cargill now, Naomi says that Cargill hates the fact that no matter what she does, Naomi is the one with the power to take it all away, just like she took away the tag titles, months of her career, and The Big 3. It brings her pure pleasure when she thinks about how sweet it would be to ruin the biggest night of Cargill’s career. About to enter the ring, Naomi warns Cargill to proceed with caution when The Storm decides to throw a punch at her, pushing Asuka down to the mat in the process. The Empress kicks Cargill in response, as Naomi rubs it in to Cargill that she holds the briefcase, smiling at her being laid out.
SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis and Raw general manager Adam Pearce met together in the office of Aldis to discuss the state of the Women’s Tag Team Championships, with the two agreeing that action needed to be taken quickly. Unfortunately for them, Aleister Black and Ron Killings had some urgent matters, so it’s still up in the air as to what will happen with them with Liv Morgan being injured and Raquel Rodriguez having no partner.
Byron Saxton interviewed The Street Profits ahead of their Tag Team Championship defense against The Wyatt Sicks. When the interview was over, B-Fab walked up to them and told them she had their back. We’ve seen Candice LeRae and Nikki Cross get involved in the rivalry between every tag team on the blue brand, and considering The Fab Female’s history with Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins, perhaps it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that she might find herself involved as well.
The Women’s Championship match between defending title holder Tiffany Stratton and challenger Nia Jax was underway with a Last Woman Standing stipulation. The Irresistible Force charged after Stratton, removing the turnbuckle padding and throwing the Buff Barbie into the ring post right out of the gate. Stratton sent Jax into the outside and hit her with a baseball slide, trying her best to take the fight to her. Jax held Stratton in a Samoan drop, leaving her to land on the commentary desk. Grabbing a kendo stick from under the ring, Jax was ready to aim at Stratton, who got up and threw punches to stop her, with the two grabbing the stick and hitting each other with it.
The carnage continued with Jax throwing Stratton into the barricade, but the champion wouldn’t give up and kept swinging at Jax with the kendo stick, leading to a crossbody and Swanton bomb inside the ring on her. Stratton went up top, but ended up on the shoulders of Jax and would get dropped face first onto the exposed turnbuckle. Referee Dan Engler began counting with Stratton on the mat struggling, but she would get up at around 8. Sent out to the floor, Jax put her on a table that she had organized earlier in the match and performed a splash from the apron, with Jax’s weight crushing onto Stratton. At this point, perhaps the match was Jax’s to win, but the champ pulled herself up to the barricade at 9.5. Now setting up another table, Jax was fended off by another kendo stick war with Stratton, taking them to the entrance ramp. Having reached the stage, Stratton pushed an equipment case to Jax’s knees, causing The Irresistible Force to fall.
With the match spilling back into ringside, Stratton grabbed a steel chair out of the timekeeper’s area, taking several shots at Jax, but the challenger would take the chair and use it against Stratton, ramming it into her midsection, before hitting two Annihilators, with the second one involving the chair and having a noticeably harder impact. Jax set up another table, climbing with Stratton on her shoulders, but before she could hit the Samoan drop, The Center of the Universe would slip free and powerbomb her through the table.
With the two banged up, Naomi re-emerged, running out to the ring for what appeared to be an attempt at cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase, but Stratton grabbed it before anything could be made official, using it as a weapon and hitting a Prettiest Moonsault Ever on both of them. Jax gets up, but Stratton sends her Jax through the two tables situated outside the ring and remained motionless on the ground as the referee counted to ten, meaning that Stratton retained her Women’s Championship and was the last woman standing.
Night of Champions emanates from inside the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time for viewers in the United States on Peacock. Here’s what to expect at the event:
- Queen of the Ring Tournament Final: Asuka vs. Jade Cargill
- Street Fight: Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Rodriguez
Next week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown will be taped this coming Monday (June 30th) from the PPG Paints Arena after the live broadcast of Raw on Netflix and will be reverting back to its original two-hour length when the episode airs next Friday on July 4th.
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s episode of SmackDown and drop your predictions for Night of Champions in the comments below.