With the Draft out of the way, it is time for WWE SmackDown to forge ahead on its new home station on FOX. Part of this change in direction concerns Bayley, the SmackDown Women’s Champion who has completely abandoned her Hug Life approach to become more secluded and outspoken. Her attitude adjustment would be an important part of this latest episode of SD.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Shinsuke Nakamura (C) vs. Roman Reigns
Kicking us off, The Big Dog received an opportunity at Nakamura’s IC Title, with Sami Zayn at his side as usual. Zayn played a vital role early on with numerous distractions that allowed the pendulum to swing in Shin’s favour, though he was officially at ringside to join Michael Cole and Corey Graves on commentary. As he does, Roman fought back and scored some major near-falls, including turning a Kinshasa attempt into a huge Superman Punch. But as Roman was lining up Nakamura for a Spear, he was struck in the back of the head by King Corbin with a sceptre, causing a disqualification. Corbin joined Nakamura and Zayn in beating up Roman afterwards, only for Daniel Bryan to make the save for his new buddy Roman; however, while Bryan came out fighting, he was taken out with a knee to the back of the head by Shin. A tag team match pitting Reigns & Bryan against Nakamura & Corbin was later made for the main event.
Backstage, Tucker of Heavy Machinery tried to understand why Kofi Kingston (who was with The New Day, of course) remains upbeat despite losing the WWE Title to Brock Lesnar. Kofi noted how he has the Power Of Positivity keeping his spirits up, though it would be an interesting twist if Kingston slowly became angrier at himself and/or at Lesnar. Otis then joined the party and tried to consume a huge bowl of pancake mix as the others cheered along. Well, that was something that happened.
Shorty Gable vs. Curtis Axel
The renamed Chad Gable battled The B-Team’s Curtis Axel here, with Axel now in the role of Val Venis circa 2004-2007, whereby anyone who needs a win either for momentum or just to move a story along gets a transitional victory over him. And whilst Bo Dallas was at ringside, that proved to be the case again here as Gable made, erm, short work of Axel, submitting him to the Ankle Lock. In a post-match interview, Gable cut a speech about how one’s appearance shouldn’t hold a man or woman back, which was warmly received in Indianapolis, before officially taking another new name in Shorty G. This has caused fume online (then again, what doesn’t amongst wrestling fans these days?), but let’s see where this goes and if Gable’s profile makes a real climb as a result.
On a Skype interview, Hulk Hogan noted that there would be a replacement team captain for his Crown Jewel squad come the end of the night (Seth Rollins pulled out to focus more on The Fiend), and Hulk also mentioned how Shorty G and Ali are now on Team Hogan, as well as vowing to put Ric Flair down for good in Saudi Arabia. Hmm.
The New Day & Heavy Machinery vs. The Revival, Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler
This eight-man bout took place to promote the “biggest tag team turmoil match in WWE history” at Crown Jewel, with a Tag Team Best In The World trophy on the line that night. I find it interesting that we keep getting these “biggest in history” bouts particularly for shows in Saudi, because they can’t keep doing this otherwise we will get some truly ludicrous situations (such as a 17-on-15 handicap match for something). Anyway, this bout was the usual mixture of high spots, double-team work and comedy, and it certainly entertained the fans in Indy. Some amusing combos between Otis and Big E stood out the most. In the end, Otis lifted Scott Dawson up for a suplex, then passed him onto Big E’s shoulders so that he and Xavier Woods could hit him with a Midnight Hour for the win in a unique finish. I couldn’t imagine that either squad would turn heel, but a New Day vs. Heavy Machinery feud would be intriguing to see at some point.
Miz TV w/ Bayley & Sasha Banks
Next up, it was The Miz’s chance to quiz Bayley (and Sasha, who joined her for the segment) about her drastically new outlook. Initially, Bayley refused to speak, but Miz kept prodding with some good one-liners, including wondering if her lack of response was her way of channelling Brock Lesnar, with Banks as her Paul Heyman. Not amused, Bayley then spoke out at those who had always relied on her for hugs and thoughtfulness, only to refuse to provide Bayley with the same treatment when she needed it most. In hindsight, Bayley’s heel turn in early September, while occasionally feeling like a tweener move, was a false start, because we are now seeing the “real” villainous side of Bayley that few could have known ever existed. Bayley even reeled off Vince McMahon’s old “life sucks and then you die” line. At that point, we had interruptions from Nikki Cross, Dana Brooke and Lacey Evans (who also didn’t speak) ahead of the following month.
#1 Contender’s Six-Pack Challenge Match
Carmella vs. Nikki Cross vs. Dana Brooke vs. Mandy Rose vs. Sonya Deville vs. Lacey Evans
That would be this six-woman bout to decide who Bayley will next defend her SmackDown Women’s Championship against, with Charlotte Flair now back on Raw. This was given a fair amount of time, and the ladies made the most of it; there wasn’t anything particularly memorable about it, but it was a good showcase of what some of the less promoted females on the roster can do. Plus, it wasn’t obvious who would win, which meant that theoretically anybody could have earned the title opportunity against Bayley, who remained at ringside alongside Sasha. In the end, after a quick-fire exchange of big moves, Nikki polished off Mandy Rose with the Purge to earn the solo opportunity. Alexa Bliss wasn’t in attendance for this, but I assume that she will back up Nikki in the same way that (a possibly still-injured) Banks will be at Bayley’s side, probably leading to a tag showdown in the coming weeks, maybe as soon as next week.
Braun Strowman vs. Drew Gulak
The Monster Among Men prepared for his big showdown against Tyson Fury at Crown Jewel by facing the former Cruiserweight Champion here, who was making his SD debut. Gulak tried to prevent the inevitable from occurring by introducing a 345-slide PowerPoint presentation on how Strowman should approach the big fight with Fury. As it turned out, we didn’t even get to slide number two, as Braun cut him off and manhandled Drew in and around the ring, before finishing him off with a running powerslam. The build continues for a match that seemed like a fantasy just three weeks ago; despite his loss here, Gulak will be fine once he is pitted against opponents that share his size and ring style.
Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & King Corbin
During the introductions, Roman was officially made the new captain of Team Hogan for Crown Jewel, meaning that only Team Flair requires an additional member now to complete the line-ups (Nakamura and Bobby Lashley have quietly joined the squad recently). For some reason, they kept making a big deal of this being Bryan’s “first match on Friday Night SmackDown”, which is true for the FOX era but simply not true overall. That aside, this was a typically enjoyable main event; it felt like the last match of a house show, but with more vigour and excitement. Bryan struck Shin with a Running Knee to claim the win, and if we assume that Roman is going to feud with Corbin (since the King had stated on social media that he wanted a Roman apology for what The Rock did two weeks ago, hence his interference in the opening match), then a Bryan vs. Nakamura rivalry for the IC crown certainly has potential. A handshake between Reigns and Bryan to close the show seems to suggest that Daniel really has turned babyface, and I hope he has because SD has enough heels right now when you throw in Brock Lesnar as the WWE Champion. Or maybe they’re taking the long-term approach to setting up a Roman vs. Bryan match, who knows?
This episode of WWE SmackDown was surprisingly enjoyable when you consider that it was by far the least important edition since the move to FOX. It did have a bit of a 2015 feel to it, in that I’m not sure how much of the content will matter in a few weeks’ time, but it was an easy show to sit and watch, and the hope is that we are slowly seeing some major storylines develop that could allow SmackDown to become the must-see show for WWE. Next week already has appearances by Brock, Cain Velasquez, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair confirmed, so it will be fun to see what goes down next Friday and in the foreseeable future on the FOX-hosting SmackDown.
