Smackdown Thread

Michael Cole has a sitdown interview with Kofi Kingston.

Kofi rewrites his intro New Day-style before getting into the meat of it, saying it’s simple-- when he became WWE Champion, he promised to be a fighting champion, and Lesnar is just another champion. He doesn’t think you can prepare for Brock, but he’ll tell you he thinks he’s at the top of his game and he’s beaten everybody from Samoa Joe to Daniel Bryan.

He always feels pressure, always trying to be the best champion he can be, but he feels like this is an amazing opportunity for WWE and Fox and for him to be at the forefront of it all. People think Brock’s gonna come in and have his way, but he’s worked too long and too hard to let go of the title just yet.

Charlotte Flair & Carmella w/R-Truth vs The Boss & Hug Connection:

Carmella with a Lariat on Sasha for a 2 count, Bayley works over Carmella on the announce table then sends her back in for a 2 count, Queen's Boot to Sasha then lights up Bayley with Chops, Inverted Backbreaker then The Queen's Boot, Figure 4, but Sasha breaks it with a Running Meteora, Lungblower blocked, Figure 4, but Banks kicks her into the turnbuckle, Carmella with a Princess Kick, Sasha sends Carmella into the corner, but she lands on the turnbuckle, she leaps over Banks head and lands on the mat, Princess Kick, but Bayley breaks the pin, a Princess Kick to Bayley, Tilt-a-Whirl rollup, but Sasha counters into The Bank Statement & Carmella taps out

Truth carries Carmella away before she can be swarmed by the 24/7 hunters

Charlotte is left in a 2 on 1 situation, she strikes first, but the numbers is too much, Lungblower, BECKY LYNCH MAKES THE SAVE! Sasha bails, Bayley sticks around, and Becky destroyes both of ‘em! Bexploders all around to send Bayley out, Dis-Arm-Her on Banks but, Bayley pulls her to safety

Rowan & Harper vs Reigns & Bryan at Hell in a Cell is official (Roman's taken the bait hook, line & sinker. Now the trap is set)

The New Day vs The B Team:

Axel with a DDT on Xavier, Bo into the cover for a 2 count, E chases Bo, Xavier with a rollup for a 2 count then they finish Bo with The Midnight Hour for the win

Shane McMahon and his lawyery friends make their entrance and he calls Kevin Owens to the ring.

Owens makes his entrance and paces on the other side of the ring as McMahon introduces his legal team and says they’ve been going over KO’s frivolous wrongful termination lawsuit and he has a proposition for him. Option 1 is Shane keeps him in court for years and makes him spend millions of dollars out of his own pocket with no job, appeal after appeal after appeal.

Or, Option 2, which is that Kev drops the lawsuit and McMahon personally reinstates him on the spot and also drops the $100,000 fine and start over with a clean slate. Shane offers his hand and Owens considers it before calling McMahon a real idiot. Shane doesn’t get it, he says, this lawsuit stuff, the thought of the courtroom and lawyers makes him sick and the only thing that makes him sicker is the thought of McMahon in the locker room because he doesn’t belong there.

KO can’t stand the thought of ever being in the same locker room with him, and that’s what the suit is about, not the money. It’s about getting under Shane’s skin and getting what everyone’s wanted for so long, and that’s to see his ass get fired. He proposes one final match, wherein if Shane wins, he gets what he wants, Kevin Owens gone forever, but if Owens wins, Shane is gone from WWE.

There’s no catch, but Owens doesn’t want a regular match. He wants a match that gives him a chance to hurt Shane and gives McMahon the same chance in return. The situation’s been hanging over his head for so long, so he wants the documents written up in a briefcase and he wants to have it as a ladder match! Shane agrees!

Becky Lynch is interviewed backstage and says Sasha Banks better hope Hell in a Cell gives her an advantage, because without an advantage--

SASHA BLINDSIDES HER AND THEY BRAWL! Back and forth, throwing each other into road cases, windmilling punches, Banks grates Lynch’s face against a chain link fence and slams it against her prone body as referee Dan Engler and a road agent try to pull her away.

I would've thought so, but apparently not since the hunters were still chasing Carmella & Truth, I guess the 24/7 stip was waived for the Tag Match? It's all kind of confusing really

The show opens with Vincent Kennedy McMahon making his entrance, flanked by Stephanie McMahon.

She welcomes us to history and to Fox, and Vince welcomes us to Friday Night SmackDown.

The new intro video follows.

Becky Lynch makes her entrance and commentary team Michael Cole and Corey Graves welcome us, yeah looks like we're back to a 2 person booth.

Becky begins, talking about how good it feels to kick off the first SmackDown on Fox and says this show is in her blood, where she smashed through glass ceilings and changed the game. So she wants to repay us by kicking someone’s ass and start things off right.

Enter King Baron Shithead.

He asks if Becky’s listening to herself, saying everyone knows who should be starting the show off, namely him. She tells him he’ll find out if she’s still the man if he takes one more step. He takes one more step...

(If you smell...)

The Rock is here, as previously advertised.

Rocky gets in the ring and shakes Lynch’s hand but brushes right past Corbin to pose for the crowd. He gets on the mic and says many, many moons ago he uttered a phrase to some jabroni that changed the world forever, when he said he was going to lay the smack down, and since then, the word SmackDown has become an institution. He calls Baron a “broke-ass Burger King on crack” and says we’re all here live on Fox waiting for him to do the “Finally...” bit.

So he does the bit, and then Baron cuts him off and says he needs to make a correction-- this isn’t Rock’s home anymore and he’s no longer the Great One, and in fact, Corbin is the Most Electrifying King in Sports Entertainment. He tells Rocky to know his role and shut his mouth, and Rock asks Becky permission to take charge. She assents, and Rocky calls Baron a 35-year-old virgin hanging out at ComiCon before pointing out that he needn’t be so literal with the gimmick.

After all, Becky doesn’t carry around a pair of testicles. She says if she did, they’d be bigger than Baron’s, to which he says his testicles are in fact perfectly adequate. Rocky makes sure Baron is saying he’s superior to everyone, and that’s a setup for Lynch to deliver the “it doesn’t matter what you think!” line. He puts Corbin over as a badass, a super tough dude, which leads to an “STD!” chant, which Becky says will stick to Baron for life.

The Rock sees embarrassment and anger in Baron’s eyes, but that’s what happens when you insult the Man, the people, and the Rock.

Becky and the Rock start unloading punches on Corbin, Lynch hits the leg drop (he had that coming since that End of Days at Extreme Rules), Rocky lines him up... PEOPLE’S ELBOW! ROCK BOTTOM!