Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from inside the MVP Arena in Albany, New York with important implications as it pertained to this year’s WarGames match.
After the show’s opening video package featured the brawl between The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane), Nia Jax and Lash Legend, and Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss from this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY walked out to the ring for a promo.
Ripley says that since she’s been out with a broken nose, The Kabuki Warriors have been causing a little bit of chaos, and now that they’ve managed to get their hands on the Women’s Tag Team Championships (which Asuka and Kairi won prior to Monday night’s brawl), they think they’re untouchable. When they add Nia Jax and Lash Legend into the mix, it creates an obvious numbers advantage. What Ripley finds funny about numbers is that you just end up with more enemies.
SKY then takes the mic to say that there is nowhere to hide at WarGames, and since The Genius of the Sky and The Eradicator aren’t going it alone, they introduce two of their partners for the match, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. The now-former champions come out and Bliss has a microphone in hand, stating that if the Kabukis want to play dirty, that’s fine. It’s great if Nia and Lash want to jump in there too, and as there is now an opportunity to get all four women in the ring, they are so on, as the heels were the ones who started the fight, while the babyfaces will be the ones to end it. The very second Ripley yelled out “WarGames!” on Monday, Bliss knew her and Charlotte would be in.
While Flair looked just as excited as Bliss was, once it was her turn to talk, she told Bliss that she couldn’t do it, and can’t pretend anymore. Walking up to Ripley, Flair says she doesn’t like her, doesn’t trust her, and thinks she’s a snake, but Ripley probably doesn’t like or trust her and likely thinks she’s a snake too, which Flair can’t blame her for. There’s too much history and bad blood between them (having fought at WrestleMania 36 and 39 for different titles), and just because they have the same enemy now doesn’t change anything in the past, being unable to look past it all. While Flair considers “Lexi” her friend and understands her involvement in the match, count her out of it. Flair then leaves the ring and walks her way to the back, confusing the other three women still in the ring.
Alba Fyre, wearing a curler, and the new Women’s United States Champion Chelsea Green, dressed in a bathrobe with both of her titles, interrupted a conversation Nick Aldis was having with R-Truth. As Fyre was doing Green’s makeup, Green said that she doesn’t know why she didn’t get pyro for beating Giulia and winning the U.S. title again last week, but switches gears to ask him when her celebration will be happening. As Aldis is close to uttering words, Green says that he canceled it when she had already prepared a dress. She goes on to say that the “injustice system” that is WWE management will be forgiven if he gives her a celebration next week with pyro. Aldis can make that work, as long as Green does one thing for him: hold the balls containing the names of two men that will be participating in John Cena’s Last Time is Now tournament.
Backstage, Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY were trying to discuss Charlotte Flair’s whereabouts with Alexa Bliss. Bliss said she didn’t think Flair would just walk out of the ring the way she did. She has tried calling and texting her since, but isn’t responding to her. Ripley knows that Flair and her had beef in the past but she thought The Queen could put it aside for one night, something Ripley was willing to do, and now she must find two other women to fill spots on their team. The three are then quickly ambushed by Asuka, Kairi Sane, Nia Jax, and Lash Legend, who attack them and throw them into the boxes surrounding their area. Officials rush in to stop the fighting and tend to the babyfaces as the heels all walk off.
Note: Same video, but starting at 2:29 for the Jade Cargill/B-Fab match.
Jade Cargill’s match with B-Fab took place afterwards. The match started with The Fab Female hitting a flurry of kick-based attacks, but it didn’t take long for Cargill to fight back with a fallaway slam and a kip-up. Hitting The Fab Female with not one but two powerbombs, The Storm taunted her opponent and set B-Fab up for Jaded, which led Cargill to win and ended the match in short fashion. Michin came out to tend to her friend, but Jade remained cocky and nearly got in the face of The Hardcore Princess, pushing her to the mat. Cargill then left the ring in a boastful mood as B-Fab and Michin, still in the ring, watched on angrily.
Zelina Vega lastly appeared in a vignette with Aleister Black. Initially mentioning their issues with Damian Priest, Vega said that her and her husband would force Priest to break his code and corrupt him, and she believes they did exactly that. Black says that him and Vega have their eyes set on greater things, with Black teasing a potential feud with Undisputed World Champion Cody Rhodes after him and Vega interrupted him at the start of last week’s episode.
Friday Night SmackDown airs next week from inside the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado with the following set to take place:
- Chelsea Green’s championship celebration?
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s episode of SmackDown in the comments below.