Smackdown Thread

Absolution - Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville have been drafted to SmackDown

Jey Uso vs Harper: Jimmy & Rowan battle on the floor, Jey delivers a Superkick to Rowan, but Harper with the Rolling Lariat as Jey lands on the apron, he drags Jey back in for the win

The beating continues after the match, Rowan throwing Jimmy into the steel steps and both Bludgeon Brothers ramming Jey into the apron! They collect their hammers but Naomi comes down to plead with them to stop! She checks on Jimmy and Harper shows some compassion and backs Rowan off, collecting the tag titles and taking their leave

vignette announcing SAnitY’s imminent arrival on SmackDown!

Daniel Bryan is walking backstage when he rolls into an interview. He says he helped AJ Styles because he respects him. In the three years he was out, he made a list of superstar he wanted to wrestle to motivate him, and AJ was at the top of that list. He wanted to prove to himself and everybody else that he hadn’t lost a step, but unfortunately Shinsuke Nakamura ruined that.

But in any case, he’s proud to fight alongside AJ tonight, because he knows he’ll get another chance to fight him later. Bryan turns around and Big Cass is there, doing a double take at their relative heights and asking if Dan is what the fuss is about and calling him “little man.”

Carmella makes her entrance for her championship celebration. The ring is decked out in leopard print and she sets her title down on a pedestal and begins, saying everybody wants to hop on the bandwagon, but if you didn’t support her before she was champ she doesn’t need your support. She’s not just the Princess of Staten Island anymore, and from now on you can call her the moonwalking, trash-talking Princess of SmackDown Live.

She says she waited for the perfect opportunity, for 287 long days before she seized the moment and took her rightful spot atop the women’s division. She then has a good laugh about beating Charlotte Flair, you know, one of the greatest female superstars in WWE history, and she did it all on her own! Flair beat Asuka’s streak, and she beat Flair!

And all she had to do was wait for her to be blinded by her own ego. Like Charlotte says, to be the woman, you gotta beat the woman, and learn to love it because she’s the woman. And that’ll go down as the biggest moment in all of women’s history, so she wants to keep the celebration going by paying tribute to herself with a video package covering her journey to the title.

She says she’ll miss Frankie (her briefcase), but 287 days is nothing compared to how long she’s going to keep Cleopatra (the title), and she said it before and she’ll say it again, Mella is money and now--

Enter Charlotte Flair. She says it seems like her title reign is a lot like her memory, short. Her highlight reel is missing some big pieces of history, and the only reason she has the briefcase is because of James Ellsworth, and the only reason she cashed in successfully was because of Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, but Charlotte’s not mad because her dad was the dirtiest player in the game and game respects game.

So congratulations, but it’s much harder to stay on top than it is to get to the top, and she has something of hers.

Enter the Iconics. Billie Kay questions the idea of blaming them for her problems and asks Peyton Royce to do her Charlotte impression, which consists of mocking her for losing the title as if she were a baby that needs a diaper change. Kay asks what she’s crying about, last week she asked for magic and they gave it her, disappearing her title from around her waist.

That’s a moment that will last forever, and it’s all because of them, and they claim they’re the future. Flair takes her robe off and looks back and forth between the Iconics and Carmella before deciding to attack the Iconics! They get the better of her and put boots to her against the barricade... BECKY LYNCH MAKES THE SAVE!

The Bar get a handcam promo putting over all their accomplishments on Raw, including their four reigns as Raw Tag Team Champions before wondering how they’d fare against SmackDown’s tag teams, and they announce they’re coming to SmackDown!

New Day are walking backstage, Big E riding piggyback on some poor soul for some reason when they roll up on R-Truth. Tye Dillinger shows up and there’s a tense moment before he and Truth share a secret handshake. R says he’s happy they’re all together on Monday Night Raw but Xavier Woods points out it’s Tuesday and this is SmackDown.

Truth says it’s his bad and he’ll see everybody tomorrow. Dillinger asks if he’s gonna be okay and New Day don’t think so.

Commentary then recaps tonight’s Superstar Shakeup results before tossing to another handcame video...

ANDRADE “CIEN” ALMAS IS HEADED TO SMACKDOWN! Zelina Vega cuts a promo about how they’re gonna take over and then Almas chimes in in Spanish!

Miz makes his entrance and gives the crowd a minute to be quiet before raising his hand and insisting. He launches into his introductory spiel and says that SmackDown is the A Show now that he’s back and bringing the ratings. But something is missing, and that something is a title. A title that was relinquished three years ago by his guest tonight, a title that he’ll win for a record ninth time at the Greatest Royal Rumble when he beats Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and Samoa Joe.

He’s talking about the Intercontinental Championship, of course. He introduces his guest as a man who threatened to punch him in the face, and a man who demanded that he come to SmackDown to confront him and quite frankly he’s surprised. Just under a month ago he welcomed his daughter Monroe Sky into existence and when she opened her eyes the first time and he was her first impression of this cruel world... he can’t even explain it.

He knew he had to be a better man, and from that moment, all the anger and bitterness he felt towards Daniel Bryan melted away. He’s shocked Bryan didn’t feel the same after Birdie Joe was born, and he says they have a lot in common, they both have reality shows, they’re both masterful in-ring technicians, but the difference is when Miz became a father, he knew he had to change and be better.

So if Bryan wants to punch him in the face, he wants him to come on down and punch him in the face. Moments pass... and no Daniel Bryan. But instead, Big Cass! Cass takes his sweet time, putting a jacket on to finish his suit and making sure he’s all set up straight and proper before making his way to the ring. He wants to be interviewed in lieu of Daniel Bryan and Miz is hesitant.

Cass says nobody cares about Daniel Bryan. He had a career-threatening injury sure but Big was on the shelf for seven months working 24/7 to come back, and the day he’s cleared, who else is cleared? Daniel Bryan. Nobody was talking about Big Cass, and he’s living in the shadow of that ordinary little man. Miz says he appreciates that but if Cass is out here to help, he doesn’t need his help.

Big says not everything is about Miz and the A-Lister drops the “who do you think you are” AND the “do you know who I am” before running his accolades down and asking Big what he’s done lately besides hobble around on a bum knee. Cass offers to shut him up for good, and Miz begs off saying it’s not about them, but about the Daniel Bryans of the world.

Big agrees, suggesting people like Bryan should be picking up his garbage every day instead of spewing trash at the crowd, but they crowd are never achieving their dreams. And he knows what it was like to be Daniel Bryan because he was small until he was 16 and guess what, it sucks. He got bullied and pushed around until he grew and grew and grew to be seven feet tall.

When he got to be seven feet tall he went back and beat the hell out of them, and they deserved that beating the same way he deserved his beatings, and Bryan reminds him of himself when he was a little guy and he despises him for it. Here he is in WWE and he didn’t have to work the indies or Japan and why? (That's a lie a bold-faced lie, the first company Cass worked for was Johnny Rodz's World of Unpredictable Wrestling - WUW promotion in 2010 under the ring name Big Bill Young with the gimmick of a cowboy) Because he’s tall, he’s educated, and he’s damn good looking.

That makes him valuable, it makes him a star, and it makes him money, but still he lives in the shadow of the American Dragon. Not for long, though, because he’s gonna send Bryan back to where he belongs, on the shelf beaten, battered, bruised, and retired. And he’ll never cast a shadow over Cass or anyone else ever again. Big mocks the “YES!” chants before dropping the mic and walking off, leaving an impressed Miz in his wake

Asuka and Becky Lynch walking along when they run into Daniel Bryan, on the floor in pain and being checked on by 5-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce and referee Jason Ayers. They call for a medic and we go to break

Vignette for Andrade 'Cien' Almas & Zelina Vega coming soon to Smackdown

The Usos are chatting in the locker room when Naomi rolls up to talk with Jimmy. He wants her to promise she’s not gonna come down last week, but she’s not having it. She trusts him, he says they’re alright and goes for a kiss but she continues and says she loves him with all her heart but when she looked Harper and Rowan in the eyes last week she saw nothing and she has a bad feeling about this tonight.

He makes light of it telling her she looks good when she’s worked up, but gets serious at her insistence, saying they’re gonna get their tag titles back on Friday but tonight he’s taking care of Rowan. They share a moment and he leaves but she’s clearly still concerned

Renee Young is in the ring to kick our contract signing off.

SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella is the first one out and she yanks the mic away when Renee goes to introduce Charlotte Flair. She accuses her of being disrespectful before yelling at the crowd and complaining about being introduced first as champion. But before she comes out and makes everything about her, Carmella wants to address something.

That’s that she’s our champion, and we’ll never know what it’s like to be a champion like her. Last week she gave us a Mellabration, played a beautiful highlight reel of all her incredible accomplishments, but when it was over she didn’t get a standing ovation, and again she complains of disrespect. So since she kinda makes the rules around here, she’s gonna play the highlight reel again except this time when it’s over she expects the ovation she deserves.

She does not get her standing ovation after the video plays.

Carmella says that’s not good enough and says she’s going to play it again and this time for real, stand up and cheer. The video package plays again...

...and this time Charlotte Flair’s entrance interrupts it. She takes a seat as Carmella waves the title in her face and struts but remains unmoved. Renee repeatedly insists the champion be professional and take her seat and eventually, she does. A smile slowly dawns on Flair’s face as she turns and signs the contract before dropping a “Wooo!” and smashing Carmella’s face into the table!

She flips the table over on the champion and kicks some dust at her to boot!

We go backstage to Shinsuke Nakamura’s dressing room, where Aiden English answers an interview request by declining it