Friday Night SmackDown emanated from the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee with major developments as it pertained to the women’s Money in the Bank match.
Things kicked off with the blue brand’s hometown hero, Bianca Belair. Entering the ring and in spite of her fingers still being bandaged, The EST of WWE took the mic and remarked how good it felt to be in Knoxville. After dancing in the ring to some cheer music with the chanting of the crowd, Belair continued to say that this city is special to her, and not just because it’s her hometown, but because it’s her safe space. She has the love and support of her family, and the fans who show up and show out for her. She wanted to come back to her safe space after everything she’s gone through from suffering her first loss at WrestleMania, getting injured, losing the Women’s Tag Team Championships, and losing her friends in Naomi and Jade Cargill. She had to come back to Knoxville to heal, and while she is not 100 percent just yet, she is doing everything she can to get back in the ring so she can continue to show people why she is The EST of Tennessee and The EST of WWE. As she welcomed the fans to the show, Naomi’s music interrupted her, and Belair’s face went from elated to displeased.
Naomi, now donning red hair, came out in a happy mood, glad that “B” is finally back on SmackDown, but Belair said that right now was not the time. Naomi tells her it’s been way too long and not a day has gone by where she doesn’t think about what happened to their friendship, and she just wants to talk to her, but Belair questions what there is to talk about as the fans boo Naomi and tell her “you suck”.
Clearly upset, Naomi states that she just wants Bianca’s forgiveness and is begging her for it. She knows their friendship has been off the rails lately, but she’s here because she wants to fix it and she can’t. Months have gone by and Naomi has been trying to communicate with her to let the past be the past and move forward, sending her text messages and voicemails without a response. In fact, even when she landed in the city, she went by the house of Bianca’s parents to try and get a hold of her, surprising The EST and confusing her mom and dad, who were in the crowd. Unfortunately for Naomi, no one was home, so she just let herself in. She mentions that she looked at Bianca’s photo album – the one that sits on the coffee table – and in those photos, she just looked so frickin’ happy that it reminded Naomi of how it was when they were together as tag team champions.
Belair has to do a double-take and says that she’s going to make one thing perfectly clear: the two were best friends and Naomi betrayed her trust. She took Jade Cargill, threw her onto the windshield of a car, and lied about it to her for months. Bianca said she was done with her, said what she said, and if she ever comes near her family again, promises Naomi that what she did to Jade will be nothing like what Bianca is going to do to her. Naomi remains tearful for a moment, but her expression turns to anger, adding that it wouldn’t be good for Bianca and her mother to both be in a wheelchair, laughing happily, but she would hate for something to happen right here and right now. As the two had a staredown, Jade Cargill’s music began to play as she made her way out, attacking Naomi before Nia Jax arrived.
The triple threat match that would determine Team Blue’s final entrant in the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match was already underway once the show returned from commercials. Naomi aimed her offense at Cargill, trying to pin her near the turnbuckles, but it was Jax who made the lasting impact on Cargill via a hip attack. Jax herself was sent out of the ring via Naomi’s modified piledriver on the apron. Cargill began to regain her fire as she hit a fallaway slam on Naomi, with an attempt at putting her arch-nemesis away being broken up by The Irresistible Force, who demonstrated her dominance by headbutting Naomi, performing a Samoan drop on Cargill, and hitting two leg drops: the first on both women, and the second on Naomi after throwing Cargill out of the ring. During picture-in-picture ads, Cargill pushed Jax out of the ring, but would be the recipient of a double team takedown from Jax and Naomi, who hit their best shots and insulted her throughout, but the association dissolved when Naomi tried to pin Cargill even though Jax was at a close distance; predictably, the pin was broken up.
Cargill gained momentum, throwing punches to Jax and an uppercut to Naomi. After Jax inadvertently ran into Naomi, Cargill hit three superkicks and a spinebuster on The Irresistible Force. The three began to fight for survival at this point, with Naomi trying a running knee for a cover, but Cargill would reverse that into Jaded, which nearly punched her ticket to Los Angeles until Nia broke up another pin. Jax followed it up by hitting a double crossbody from the middle turnbuckle, but it just wasn’t enough for both women to give up yet. Ensuring there would be no way for Naomi to win, Jax tried another Samoan drop, this time from the top turnbuckle, but Cargill would come with a splash just in the nick of time.
A “This Is Awesome!” chant broke out as the match began to enter its final moments. Cargill had run into a big boot from Naomi. Jax hit a superplex on both women, who were on the top turnbuckle, and once they were flat on the mat, was primed to execute the Annihilator, but Naomi rolled out and dodged, with Cargill still feeling the move’s impact. Taking advantage of Jax’s post-move incoordination, Naomi rolled her up for the victory as the fans in the front row booed.
Naomi now joins Alexa Bliss and Giulia, finally rounding out SmackDown’s participants in this year’s women’s Money in the Bank ladder match alongside Rhea Ripley and Roxanne Perez of Monday Night Raw. The red brand’s final entrant will be determined when Liv Morgan, Ivy Nile, and the show’s newest female Superstar from NXT, Stephanie Vaquer, battle it out this coming Monday on Netflix.
General manager Nick Aldis was walking to his office when Chelsea Green and The Secret Hervice came to pester him as usual. After suffering a nose injury during her match against Zelina Vega at Saturday Night’s Main Event last week, Green is now wearing a face mask, but is too embarrassed to show it, with Piper Niven using a life-size cutout of Green’s face to cover her up. When Aldis requested that she speak to him without the cutout, Green told him her injury was a deliberate attempt at a hit job put on by “crooked Zelina”, demanding that Vega be suspended and stripped of the Women’s United States Championship and that the title be given to her. Aldis says that no one is getting stripped or suspended, and while the two can talk about a title match in the future, she needs to be medically cleared to compete first. Niven questions why Vega isn’t getting reprimanded, and Alba Fyre says that if he won’t do anything, her and Niven will. Chelsea says that Alba should face Zelina, and Aldis likes the sound of that, so they will have a match later on tonight as long as they leave him alone.
Byron Saxton interviewed Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton, asking her how she’s handling the pressure of knowing this year’s winner, whoever it is, may cash in on her. Stratton says that she cannot wait to see who wins Money in the Bank because she’s going to be handling the pressure by being prepared. Having the title makes her the number one threat in the women’s division, but being honest, she’s always been a girl that everyone is obsessed with, so whoever tries to cash in on her would be making a big mistake. Naomi walks into the shot and tells the Buff Barbie that if she thought Nia Jax was a problem, she hasn’t seen nothing yet. She is going to win Money in the Bank and cash in for the Women’s Championship where she wants and when she wants, and in case “Little Miss Tiffy” forgot, when she was fighting for the championship, she stayed in Naomi’s way, and you know what happens when people play with her? Just ask Jade.
Rolling her eyes and minding her business, Stratton then locked eyes with Alexa Bliss, who said she wouldn’t be too worried about Naomi winning Money in the Bank, and that Stratton should be worried about her winning Money in the Bank.
A short excerpt of the new What Do You Wanna Talk About? podcast hosted by Cody Rhodes was shown featuring his wife, former ring announcer and wrestler Brandi Rhodes. Talking about Cody’s return to WWE at WrestleMania 38 in 2022, Rhodes said that she was super excited about his comeback, but also remembers Cody dealing with nerves and anxiety over the “what if?” of fans potentially booing him, and she knew they wouldn’t, as it was WrestleMania. Describing the moment of sitting alongside The Undertaker and Stephanie McMahon as it was happening, she said that everyone lost their minds as soon as the words “American Nightmare” hit the screen.
The show is another recent foray by WWE into podcasts, with Brandi serving as the special guest for the “season premiere” episode. The show is available on WWE’s YouTube channel in a video format plus Apple Podcasts and Spotify in an audio format.
Candice LeRae made her presence felt alongside #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa) in a segment featuring the tag team division. Referring to the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) as “losers”, the Poison Pixie said that they have been given a million chances at the WWE Tag Team Championships and called out Nathan Frazer and Axiom for just recently debuting on SmackDown. Chris Sabin would retort, citing LeRae’s involvement in his match with Ciampa last week and telling her to do everyone a favor and shut up. Johnny Gargano took her microphone, defending his “beautiful wife” and saying that their reason for bringing her into the fold was to even the odds against the other tag teams. Just like last week, the Wyatt Sicks appeared to ambush all the teams, and LeRae was yet again spooked by Nikki Cross, leading to a brief catfight.
Women’s United States Champion Zelina Vega was in the ring for her non-title match with Alba Fyre. The redheaded agent immediately pounded on Vega to start, but the champ wouldn’t let up, reversing Fyre’s attempt at a sidewalk slam into a headscissors. While trying to set her up into the 619, Green attempted to distract referee Charles Robinson, allowing Piper to trip Vega to the mat while he wasn’t looking. After a commercial break, the show returned with Fyre trying to pin Vega, who kicked out, but stayed down as Fyre put her in a headlock. Vega got up and fought back with a series of punches, clotheslines, and a Meteora that Fyre kicked out of at 2.
Vega countered a vertical suplex attempt from Fyre and was in position to hit a moonsault, but missed it. Fyre hit a Swanton bomb that Vega kicked out of before she rolled out of the ring. Green took off her face mask and had Piper Niven hold Vega, intending to hit her with the mask, but Vega dodged and it hit Niven instead. With Green trying to chase after Vega, the commotion distracted Fyre, who was hit by a Code Red for Vega to win the match.
A vignette was shown for SmackDown’s most recent female addition, “The Beautiful Madness”, Giulia, featuring footage from her short yet impactful run in WWE so far. Narrating the vignette, Giulia says that throughout her entire career, even when she started in Japan, she had one goal, and it wasn’t to “be the best”, feeling that such a saying is hollow and empty because every wrestler says that. Her goal is to be indisputable.
You can love her or hate her; admiration or disgust, it means nothing to her, but she is impossible to deny. Her opponent doesn’t matter because she only views them as an opportunity to build upon her legacy. Warning the other women on SmackDown, she states that she will hit harder, move faster, think sharper, and conquer everything, just like she’s always done. The question isn’t who is going to let her, it’s who is going to stop her, lastly saying in Japanese that “If you can stop it, stop it.”.
After the vignette, Zelina Vega was walking backstage, looking exhausted following her match as she drank some water before running into Giulia. The Beautiful Madness says that she sees her, but she sees “that title” – the Women’s United States Championship – more. It’s clear that Giulia is gunning for success right out of the gate.
Friday Night SmackDown airs next week from inside the Dignity Health Arena in Bakersfield, California. As of this writing, no matches or segments are currently advertised for the women.
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