SmackDown Live! comes to us from the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, Sacramento, as the WWE looks to build towards the TLC pay-per-view in the weekend with a stacked go-home show. How did the chips fall going into the explosive pay-per-view?
Let’s go over the highlights and all the action from the show.
Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss contract signing
The two premier women on SmackDown are out first to consummate their match at TLC, and Alexa dismisses Renee Young from the ring, telling her that she will call on her if she needs ‘bad fashion advice’.
That sets the tone for the rest of the segment as Becky and Alexa trade verbal barbs throughout. After an entertaining back-and-forth, the action finally breaks down into action as Becky looks to Superplex Alexa onto the table.
Alexa reverses and pushes Becky through the table, to end the segment standing tall over the SmackDown Women’s Champion! What a way to kick off the show!
Kalisto and Dolph Ziggler vs Baron Corbin and The Miz
Kalisto teams with perennial gatekeeper Ziggler to take on the functional heel unit of Corbin and The Miz, in what is a tag team match that is overshadowed by the inherent feuds between the respective members of each team.
The action starts off at breakneck speed, with Miz fishing below the ring to retrieve a ladder and Ziggler utilizing it against him to lay him out. He tags in Kalisto, who tees off on the Intercontinental Champion with his trademark high-flying, rapid offence.
The fight spills outside briefly with The Miz hitting Ziggler with a missile dropkick that sends him reeling onto the barricade. Maryse uses the moment connivingly to send a ladder crashing into Ziggler.
As Miz makes his way back into the ring, he is met with a Salida del Sol from Kalisto, whose pin attempt is broken up by a chair to the back from Corbin. The bell goes for disqualification, but tell that to Corbin as he walks away from the ring, leaving Kalisto in a world of hurt.
Sign of things to come?
Result: Kalisto and Ziggler def. Corbin and Miz via disqualification
Carmella and Nikki Bella segment
Carmella takes the microphone and goes after John Cena right away. She says she wants to publically apologise for what she is about to do to Nikki Bella at TLC. And I quote, “I’m going to take a chair and hit her Bella twins so hard that they are going to pop out of her back”. PG my a**.
Nikki has heard enough as she charges into the ring, spears Carmella, and starts laying a beating on her. Carmella retreats in a hurry in the face of an enraged Nikki. Wow. Carmella’s match never got started, but who’s complaining?
Can’t wait for their No Disqualification Match at TLC this weekend!
Ambrose Asylum with James Ellsworth
Dean Ambrose is standing in the middle of the Ambrose Asylum set, and invites his guest for the day and man of the moment – James Ellsworth – out to congratulate him on securing a SmackDown contract and future WWE Championship shot.
Ellsworth comes out and they start talking about who he is backing this weekend at TLC. Ellsworth says that as much as he would love to face Ambrose for the WWE Title in the future, he feels that he has AJ Styles’ number.
AJ has seen enough and comes out to confront the duo. As they get into an argument over how Ellsworth couldn’t have beat Styles without Ambrose’s help, AJ blows his fuse and goes after both of them.
After sending Ambrose crashing into the steel steps on the outside and laying him out, Styles turns his attention to teaching Ellsworth a lesson. And a ring replete with tables, ladders and chairs, is just the setting he needs. He sends Ellsworth careening over a table before socking him in a back with a chair.
The exclamation point is delivered with Ambrose looking on, as the Champion hits the Styles Clash to Ellsworth off the steel steps. Ouch. That looked nasty. AJ Styles made to look good with some monster booking leading up to TLC.
Luke Harper vs Kane
It isn’t pretty, but it is staple WWE. A battle of big men vying for supremacy. Luker Harper comes into the match embued with a sense of mission, as Bray Wyatt commanded him to send Kane back to hell.
Kane on the other hand, isn’t taking that trip lying down. They joust for supremacy with Kane coming out on top in the early exchanges. He hits a vintage uppercut followed by a sidewalk slam but that isn’t enough to put down Harper.
They fight towards the turnbuckles and Kane hits a powerbomb on the minion from the Wyatt family. 2 count! Kane tries to finish the job by reaching for a Chokeslam, but Harper retorts with a spinning sidewalk slam.
It’s Kane turn to be on the defensive now, as Harper looks to finish the job. Neither man is succesful as Harper resorts, in despration, to a high-flying move from the top of the turnbuckle. Kane intercepts him and hits a nasty Superplex.
He follows it up with a Chokeslam and there is no kicking out from that. 1-2-3! Kane wins!
Result: Kane def. Luke Harper via pinfall
Becky Lynch is shown backstage being interviewed, and she talks about her rib being injured in that segment with Alexa Bliss. The interviewer informs her the Bliss has challenged her to a Tables match at TLC and Lynch accepts.
It’s official! The SmackDown Women’s Championship match at TLC is a Tables match!
Tag Team No.1 Contenders match: Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton vs American Alpha
Orton starts the match against Jason Jordan, and they go back and forth, trying to out-wrestle one another. Orton hits a nasty elbow on Jordan’s face, but is swept twice with successive deep arm drags.
Orton tags in Bray but the Messiah of the Wyatt family is met with a double dropkick from the American Alpha. Wyatt manages to wrest control of the match against Chad Gable briefly before tagging in Orton again.
Gable goes to work, clasping on an arm bar on Orton that he barely gets out of, but the intermittent offence is all the American Alpha can muster as Orton and Wyatt work seamlessly in tandem to keep them down.
More of the same as Orton lands a nasty Superplex on Gable. They both make the hot tag as Wyatt and Jordan resume the hostilities. Just as he looks to be wrestling control of the match away from the Wyatts, the lights go out and come back on only to reveal Harper taunting Jordan from the outside.
Jordan gets distracted long enough for Wyatt to lock in the Sister Abigail. But before he can land it, Gable runs interference, requiring Orton to hit him with an RKO! Wyatt then makes use of the aid provided by the Viper to nail Jason Jordan with a Sister Abigail and pin him!
1-2-3! The Wyatt family will challenge Heath Slater and Rhyno for the Tag Team Championships at TLC!
Results: Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton def. American Alpha via pinfall
Backstage segment with AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose
As the Tag Team Champions contemplate what it would be like to face Orton and Wyatt at TLC, AJ Styles intervenes, ribbing them about how their titles are unimportant in the face of his WWE Championship.
Who is there to save the day, but Dean Ambrose. Ambrose and Styles go at it full pelt, upsetting the props in a room backstage, as they close out SmackDown live engulfed in a brawl. This sets up their match for TLC nicely.
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
