31th July Edition Of The Friday Night Smackdown & Wrestling News

Before we get into the SmackDown show though, we would like to send the condolences to the family and friends of legendary British wrestler Mark “Rollerball” Rocco, who passed away yesterday at the age of 69. A true legend, and one the wrestling world will sorely miss.

The show kicked off with my new favourite thing - everyone cutting a brief promo at the start of the show! And this time it actually was everyone! This immediately led into a Firefly Funhouse promo, where Bray Wyatt mentioned how Braun Strowman was still lost in the swamp, and unfortunately for him, The Fiend wants something he has, and until he gets it, no-one is safe. Ordinarily I take these statements of “no-one is safe” with a pinch of salt because they often lead to nothing. This time however, it brilliantly foreshadowed what was to come later.

But before that was the first of two championship matches on this show - Gran Metalik challenging AJ Styles for the Intercontinental Championship. This was a solid match, although Metalik didn’t get too much of a chance to show what he can do as AJ was comfortably in control for the majority of the match. After chop blocking Metalik out of the air, Styles locked in the Calf Crusher for the submission victory, and just to assert dominance, he also hit a Styles Clash on Lince Dorado. Just in case you thought he might be turning face after shaking Matt Riddle’s hand two weeks ago.

Shorty G was seen backstage next, watching the finish to the match, before King Corbin walks in, and I immediately got Vietnam flashbacks. Not the Corbin/Shorty G feud please. Anything but that. Corbin was ultra friendly to Gable, and says he’s been overlooked and he deserves more opportunities, oh and just as a reminder, the King’s Ransom on Riddle’s head is still on, just throwing it out there. Subtle, Corbin. Real subtle.

After a recap of the Bar Fight between Jeff Hardy and Sheamus, which was essentially the whole match but with the boring bits cut out, Hardy came to the ring to cut a promo about overcoming his demons and how beating Sheamus reminds him he’s on the right path. But it’s time for King Corbin again, because why the hell not. Screw it. Corbin complains about Hardy overcoming his addiction, because apparently all the heels in WWE are actually evil people, rather than just people who use underhanded tactics to win wrestling matches. This brings out Drew Gulak, who has a scheduled match with Corbin next. The match itself is fine, before Matt Riddle comes out to try and interfere, allowing Gulak to almost roll up Corbin. But Corbin kicks out, immediately hits the End of Days and picks up the win. Riddle rushes to the ring and starts wailing on Corbin, and looks like he’s setting up for the Final Flash, before, from outta nowhere, Shorty G comes in, and hits a Chaos Theory german suplex on Riddle! Shorty G is turning heel! I...did not see that one coming. Is it a smart move? I can’t tell right now, but if it means we get Shorty G on our screens some more, that’s always a good thing. Gable made it very clear it was all about the money, so...Corbin and Gable as a tag team? I’m not overly against it. I think.

But now from a tag team being formed to a tag team member going solo, Big E had a match against The Miz next. This match went a little while and told a pretty good story: don’t get on the wrong side of Big E. John Morrison frequently got involved, even at one point allowing Miz to hit the Skull Crushing Finale, which Big E kicked out of. Eventually, Morrison got involved a bit too much, and the ref ejected him from ringside. Big E then locked in the Stretch Muffler and The Miz submitted. That’s win number one for Big E. He’s got five weeks left until Kingston is back.

SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Nakamura are backstage, probably lamenting the fact they have nobody to actually feud with, before Lucha House Party walk in and...don’t say anything other than Lucha. Lucha. Lucha. Cesaro then scares them off with a party blower? Huh? That was a...weird segment. But it’s good Cesaro and Nakamura have some people to feud with now!

Sheamus cut a backstage promo next saying exactly what you’d expect him to say. Hardy was on his home turf in the Bar Fight, it was basically a handicap match, he should be applauded for making it as close as it was etc etc etc. But, thankfully, he says that Hardy isn’t his problem anymore, which is a shame for the rest of the SmackDown locker room.

Lacey Evans vs Naomi came next, and I previously stated that Naomi had to win this match, and decisively, for there to not be backlash. Well Naomi did win, but it was with a shock rollup after Evans had been in control quite a bit in the match, looking quite dominant. If this is leading to an extended build for Naomi, I’m okay with this small first step for now.

Otis & Mandy are backstage next - Otis where is your Money in the Bank briefcase? - before Mandy outlines their plans for the night and says she’s off to get ready. But unfortunately for her, Sonya Deville has other plans, including beating the everloving piss out of her, and, in another shocking moment on the show, cutting off some of Mandy’s hair with some scissors. She goes to grab a razor to shave Mandy’s hair off, but is stopped by referees and producers. If this is leading to a hair vs hair match, that sounds great, but the problem is I could see Mandy winning that match, which I don’t think she should. Sonya is an absolute star in the making, and I think she should be protected at all costs. Though I do think Sonya would absolutely rock a buzzcut.

Finally, the main event of the show was Bayley vs Nikki Cross for the SmackDown Women’s Championship in Nikki’s continued obsession to be champion. The match itself was short but quite fun, with a nice spot where Banks sneakily gave Bayley one of her boss knuckle duster jewellery things, but Cross spotted it and threw it at her instead. After Banks had gotten involved and Bliss had equalized, there were a bunch of rollups back to back to back to back to back to back, before Bayley rolled right into her weird knee facebuster thing she does and pinned Nikki for the win. Bayley and Banks continue to be dominant and Nikki continued her mental implosion, looking absolutely distraught after the match, pushing Alexa to the ground and storming to the back. But as Alexa was left all alone in the ring - the lights began to turn off. Oh yes, The Fiend is here, who kneels next to Alexa, who looks absolutely terrified, and he very, very slowly raises his hand, to which Alexa very softly is just mouthing ‘no’. The Fiend then locks in the Mandible Claw on Alexa Bliss to end the show as the lights go out. Well. I didn’t see that one coming. After the fantastic foreshadowing at the start of the show, this really paid off. I’m really curious to see where this goes from here - as of course Alexa was seen in the Swamp Fight as Sister Abigail, taunting Braun. So what beef does The Fiend have with her? So that was the show, and this was a very shocking show. With Shorty G turning heel, Sonya cutting Mandy’s hair and The Fiend attacking Alexa Bliss, a bunch of stuff happened on this show I didn’t expect. I can’t tell whether any of this is good or bad right now, but for the pure shock factor alone, this show gets a SmackTastic 4/5.

Wrestling News

One of the waiting feelings of dread for advancements, for example, WWE and AEW is that the state where they're right now shooting, Florida, could at any second guideline that they are no longer permitted to do as such due to COVID-19 guidelines. This is an improbable situation given past occasions, with a great many dollars changing hands among WWE and the state as Linda McMahon's Super PAC, and WWE being deemed an “essential business”. As indicated by Dave Meltzer, Vince McMahon has Florida Governor Ron DeSantis "by the balls." So that is decent. But according to the Wrestling Observer, WWE has several backup plans in place in case this does happen. One of WWE's reinforcement recording areas is the WWE TV studio over in Connecticut, near WWE's HQ in Stamford. This is in certainty where the Firefly Fun House coordinate between The Fiend and John Cena at WrestleMania 36 was recorded, and it is accepted they'd have the option to make a comparable set up to the Performance Center in Orlando. The main significant issue with the Connecticut scene is that WWE would not approach any contracted grapplers to use as group individuals, which right now is a key commodity. And speaking of contracted wrestlers, AEW has just added another name to its roster. If you watched last week’s episode of AEW: Dynamite, you will have seen the excellent debut of former Impact, NWA, and Ring of Honor star, Eddie Kingston, who answered Cody’s TNT Title Challenge, and cut an incredible promo that made everyone watching cream their pants just a little bit, god it was so good, and then had an awesome match to top it off. AEW announced that Kingston has officially signed with AEW on Twitter, making him the second person to be signed by AEW shortly after answering Cody’s open challenge, after former NWA star Ricky Starks joined the roster a few weeks ago and is now aligned with Taz and Brian Cage. I might just answer the challenge myself next week if there’s a chance I could get an AEW deal. On June 25, 5 days before her contract was due to expire and just a few weeks before she was due to defend the Impact World Championship at Slammiversay, Tessa Blanchard was fired by Impact Wrestling. Since then, due to Blanchard being one of the world’s biggest free agents, there has been a lot of speculation regarding her next career move. Of course the two names leading the pack to sign her are AEW and WWE. Her dad Tully fills in as an on-screen character for AEW, and Tessa has recently worked in WWE, so she has connections to both. However, according to Tom Colohue, many people within WWE are “chewing Vince’s ear off”, asking him to sign Tessa. Do you think WWE should sign Tessa Blanchard? Let us know in the comments.