Friday Night SmackDown takes place tonight at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will appear on SmackDown for the first time since his match against Logan Paul was made official. Reigns will defend his title against Paul at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia this November.
Reigns’ cousins The Usos are set to defend their Undisputed WWE Tag Team titles tonight. They’re taking on Ridge Holland & Butch of The Brawling Brutes.
On last week’s SmackDown, Holland & Butch won a four-way match against The New Day, Imperium, and Hit Row to earn the Tag Team title shot. The Brutes are also coming off a win over The Street Profits on Raw.
Plus, Braun Strowman will return to in-ring action for the first time since he came back to WWE. Strowman is facing Otis of Alpha Academy.
Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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Show Recap —
The entire Bloodline entered — including Solo Sikoa and Sami Zayn. They aired a clip of Reigns and Logan Paul at the press conference last week. Roman Reigns and the Usos held up their championship belts as fireworks went off.
(Michael Cole said the Usos defending against the Brawling Brutes is tonight’s main event.)
Reigns told Salt Lake City to acknowledge him. They did.
Paul Heyman referred to the locals as “Salt Lake C-idiots” and Zayn laughed uproariously. Heyman said not to feel bad for Drew McIntyre for losing on his home turf because WWE was Reigns’ turf. Now McIntyre had another bridge to “cross.”
Heyman said the elders sent Solo Sikoa. Sikoa got involved because Brock Lesnar took out Heyman himself and the Usos were busy. Everyone needed to stop blaming Reigns for his involvement. Solo was the new enforcer on the island of relevancy and now the Usos could focus on becoming immortal. Jimmy and Jey said they would retain their titles tonight.
Reigns told Sikoa that the elders may have sent him but he answers to Reigns now. He told Sikoa to acknowledge him. Sikoa responded, “I acknowledge you, my tribal chief.” They hugged. Zayn was happy.
Reigns’ music played and they were about to leave but Zayn wanted to say something first. He wanted to publicly acknowledge Reigns to show gratitude to the Bloodline for treating him like family.
Reigns told Zayn that he liked him but wondered why he was even speaking or why he was wearing their shirt. (Heyman looked concerned in the background.) Reigns told Zayn to remove the shirt. Jey yelled at him to take the shirt off. Zayn was upset and didn’t budge until Jey ripped the shirt off.
Reigns said he would never wear that shirt again — because he got him a new one. Reigns tossed him a shirt that read “SZ — Honorary Uce.” Zayn was pumped up and the crowd chanted for him. Zayn celebrated with the Bloodline — minus Jey Uso, who was not impressed.
This was a long segment but the stuff was Zayn was really good.
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Smackdown Women’s Champion Liv Morgan defeated Lacy Evans in a non-title match (8:36)
The announcers spent most of the match talking about the challenge Morgan faces in having to face Ronda Rousey in an extreme rules match and needing to show a different side to prevail.
I think this match was meant to show that Morgan could endure. Evans took 95% of the match until she decided to grab a kendo stick for some reason. Morgan ducked the kendo stick shot, hit a codebreaker and Oblivion for the pinfall win.
— Morgan showed her aggressive side post-match. She attacked Evans with the kendo stick and gave her a Russian leg sweep into the barricade.
This was followed by an insane spot. Morgan put Evans on a table outside the ring and put her through it with a senton off the top. (Morgan was limping but hopefully, she’s alright.)
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Hit Row, the Street Profits and Shinsuke Nakamura hung out backstage.
Elsewhere, Zayn told an employee that he should be able to get a vegan meal now that he’s an honorary Uce. Madcap Moss and Ricochet approached him and asked what happened to him. They said he’s obnoxious and unbearable, which was true before, but now it’s worse. Moss accused Zayn of having his head up Reigns’ ass.
Sikoa suddenly attacked them and shoved them into a garage door. He was all over them until Zayn pulled him off. Zayn also said he was just about to do that before Sikoa showed up.
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There was a video package putting over the length of the Usos’ title reign narrated by Heyman. He mentioned that the Usos were now only behind Demolition and New Day for the record.
There was a clip of Shawn Michaels winning the 1995 Royal Rumble. They plugged tickets for the 2023 show.
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I forgot to mention early that Lacy Evans didn’t get an entrance. Maximum Male Models didn’t get one here either.
Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods defeated Maximum Male Models (w/Maxxine Dupri & Max Dupri) (2:28)
The models got more offense than you (me) might have thought but they spent too much time posing so Kingston took out Mace with a dropkick and Woods rolled up Mansoor for the pinfall win.
Max Dupri was pissed at them for posing and losing the match. He screamed at them and left.
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There was a video hyping up Otis and Braun Strowman. The ring crew reinforced the ring for their match.
[SECOND HOUR]
Hit Row’s backstage gathering is now a party with more attendees, including Drew Gulak, Sonya Deville, Natayla, and Xia Li. Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo tried to hit on B-Fab but they were kicked out.
Braun Strowman defeated Otis (w/Chad Gable) (5:28)
This was pretty much exactly what you’d want from these two. There was a tale of the tape before the match and the announcers treated Otis like a real threat.
Strowman had the early advantage but when he tried to run over Otis outside the ring, Gable distracted him. That allowed Otis to push Strowman into the barricade and take over.
Strowman fought back and ran over both Otis and Gable outside the ring before tossing Gable over the barricade. However, Otis caught him with a World’s Strongest Slam for two, followed by a Vader Bomb for two.
Otis tried a flying headbutt but Strowman moved and hit a powerbomb for the pinfall win. The crowd popped big for the win.
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Kayla Braxton interviewed the Brawling Brutes. They were pretty confident they would win tonight. Sheamus also announced that he was getting a rematch against Gunther in two weeks on Smackdown’s season premiere.
Sheamus said tonight was not about him, it was about Ridge and Butch and it would be another banger. They chanted “banger” over and over and Butch randomly ran off as the other two kept going.
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Drew McIntyre/Karrion Kross/Scarlett segment
McIntyre entered with a leather strap in his hand. He said everyone should know by now that if you had an issue with him, he’s more than ready to fight you. He insulted Karrion Kross for attacking him from behind but congratulated Kross on getting his first big match. It would be a match where Kross can’t run or hide — a strap match at Extreme Rules.
Scarlett entered and the screen went black and white. Kross tried to attack from behind (the colour returned) but McIntyre saw it coming and chucked him shoulder-first into the ring post. McIntyre tied the strap to Kross and booted him before repeatedly hitting him with the strap.
Scarlett stepped in front of Kross so that McIntyre would stop. McIntyre stopped, then she shot a fireball in his face. It actually missed and Corey Graves acknowledged that it missed. It didn’t really matter though because McIntryre gave Kross a spinebuster anyway.
Scarlett gave McIntyre a low blow and he sold it like he got shot in the dick. They were about to leave but Kross put him in the Kross Jacket. As held the submission, Kross yelled that this was exactly what they wanted and Drew fell for it. He kept telling McIntyre, “let it go.”
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Raquel Rodriguez defeated Tag Team Champion Dakota Kai (w/Bayley & IYO SKY) (1:20)
Kai took control thanks to a distraction by Bayley but Shotzi ran out and attacked both Bayley and SKY. Rodriguez took advantage of that distraction and rolled up Kai for the quick win.
A post-match brawl ended with Rodriguez and Shotzi standing tall in the ring.
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Humberto and Angel barged into the party to hand out superkicks to Hit Row before they bailed.
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Smackdown next week in Winnipeg:
- Shotzi vs. Bayley
- Hit Row vs. Los Lotharios
- Sami Zayn & Solo Sikoa vs. Madcap Moss & Ricochet
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Tag Team Championship match: The Usos (w/Solo Sikoa & Sami Zayn) vs. Ridge Holland & Butch (w/Sheamus)
