Friday’s “SmackDown” felt like a “reset” episode, where big moments and plot points occurred with different WWE superstars — a launch pad for new things coming. We saw a new champion crowned, a returning talent, and the world title picture turned at least half a page (or progress further than just Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre). The U.S. Championship open challenge continues to be a lot of fun and we have new challengers for the Women’s Tag Team Championship.
The march to Survivor Series: War Games on our “bridge” to Wrestlemania season is hitting one of the final chapters before Royal Rumble season truly takes over.
Ilja Dragunov def. Johnny Gargano to retain the United States Championship
Nia Jax def. Charlotte Flair
Chelsea Green def. Giulia to win the Women’s United States Championship
Talla Tonga def. Rey Fenix
Cody Rhodes vs. Aleister Black ends in no-contest (non-title match)
The match between Rhodes and Aleister Black ended in a no contest after McIntyre (who Rhodes said he’s moving on from earlier in the night) hit the referee with a Claymore. “SmackDown” general manager Nick Aldis promptly suspended McIntyre as a result — a sequence of events that probably removes him from the title picture for now … unless we get a Fatal 4-Way in the near future, as Damian Priest also joined the party at the end.
Black is an interesting challenger for Rhodes, even if not one that I believe would defeat him for the championship right now. Zelina Vega being in the mix makes me wonder if WWE runs a “husband and wife” match back (given the success of Seth Rollins/Becky Lynch vs. CM Punk/AJ Lee) and we see the return of Brandi Rhodes.
The U.S. Championship open challenge does have its own personal challenge. Because it’s contested every single week, it needs wrinkles to keep it fresh and interesting. With Sami Zayn and then Ilja Dragunov as the anchors it has delivered great matches, and for the past couple of weeks, Tommaso Ciampa has been angling for a match. Last week he was a competitor too late, and on Friday, Dragunov flat-out ignored him, choosing to face Johnny Gargano instead. The match was a lot of fun, something to be expected with these two high-octane students of the game. I feel like the Ciampa-Dragunov drama has a couple of more weeks left in it.
Jade Cargill had a very short promo — just a few words — and it was perfect. She doesn’t need to say much — her actions say more than enough. She’s already a star. Any filibustering would only bring diminishing returns to her aura. The segment backstage with Cargill, who interacted briefly with Chelsea Green and B-Fab (which set up a match next week on “SmackDown”) were fine, but it wasn’t needed to buy into Cargill as a dominant athlete. I liked the moment shared in the aisle between Cargill and Charlotte Flair, which surprisingly didn’t end in fists. I like Cargill eventually vanquishing the most decorated women’s champion of all time and adding that to her résumé.
Lash Legend returned to “SmackDown” to help Nia Jax defeat Charlotte Flair, and the former WNBA player looks to be aligned with Jax, with whom she battled in NXT. Jax dismissed any animosity between the two after the match in a backstage interview, saying the pair are friends. Jax and Legend as challengers to the Flair and Alexa Bliss’ tag titles is very interesting.
Chelsea Green defeated Giulia to regain the Women’s United States Championship. This adds to her AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship she won with Ethan Page, who is also the NXT North American Champion. This is a smart and logical move as the pair can now “own” North America. It reminds me of when Lance Storm won multiple WCW titles and renamed them all in honor of Canada (except I don’t think Page and Green, despite both being Canadian, will do that with their titles). Green is highly entertaining, especially on the mic. Page has been ready for the big time. This is a great pairing.
After Talla Tonga defeated Rey Fenix, Solo Sikoa asked Tonga to pick Fenix up to attack him further, which brought an still injured and uncleared to compete Sami Zayn to make the save. Michael Cole noted in commentary that a lot of superstars, including Shinsuke Nakamura and the Motor City Machine Guns, have issues with MFT, which screams Survivor Series match to me.