Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The show immediately kicked off with WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax making her way to the ring for her promo battle with Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan. The two champions face off tomorrow at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia, with the winner being crowned the Women’s Crown Jewel Champion. Jax says that right now, there is only one thing on her mind: the Women’s Crown Jewel Championship. She wants it, and she always gets what she wants. Last time she was in Saudi Arabia, she wanted to become Queen of the Ring and she did. At SummerSlam, she wanted to become WWE Women’s Champion and she did. Anything and everything that comes in her way gets annihilated, which is what is going to happen to Liv Morgan tomorrow. She attempts to taunt Morgan but is interrupted by her entrance music.
The woman that comes out though is Raquel Rodriguez, flanked by Morgan and Dominik Mysterio. Morgan says that Nia keeps bragging about her accomplishments as if she’s special, but she’s not, as Morgan also walked out of King and Queen of the Ring successful, retiring Becky Lynch and becoming the greatest Women’s World Champion of all time, all thanks to a little help from Dominik, who in her words is the “most gorgeous man in the whole entire world”. Adding on to her point, King and Queen of the Ring was in May, months before SummerSlam, and Morgan has actually held on to the Women’s World Championship since, so she thinks she knows what it takes to become the Women’s Crown Jewel Champion. She also beat Nia the last time they fought, so if she were her, she would stop dreaming, because if anyone’s going to become the very first ever Women’s Crown Jewel Champion, it’s her.
Tiffany Stratton’s music then hits, with her saying that the two can argue all they want because at Crown Jewel, it’ll be Tiffy Time! Stratton plans on taking her briefcase to cash it in and become the new Women’s World Champion. This enlightens Jax, who reminds Morgan that she doesn’t have just one woman to worry about on Saturday, but Stratton interrupts, politely warning her to not get too comfortable, because she can potentially cash in on her title too. Liv uses the warning as a way to remind Nia that unlike her, at least she has people she can trust in Rodriguez and Mysterio. But Morgan shouldn’t get too excited, because Stratton hasn’t made her decision yet, and the two of them are starting to piss her off, so tomorrow, she’ll be cashing in on one of those titles, but there is one thing that could help her make that decision a little bit faster, and asks Liv that if she wins her title, does that mean Dom comes with her too? After all, Stratton could use a little “Dirty” in her life. This angers Morgan, who tries to clap back by alluding to the Buff Barbie’s problems with her bestie as having enough “dirty” in her life, resulting in Stratton retaliating by throwing a punch to Morgan, who escapes the ring, but asks for a referee.
The show returned from a commercial break with Morgan throwing hands with Stratton, the match having already been made official and clearly still offended by her words regarding her boyfriend. Jax got up on the apron to try and distract the referee, sliding Stratton’s Money in the Bank briefcase into the ring to try and hit Morgan with it, but it would be reversed into a roll-up, hooking her opponent’s tights and quickly winning the match. Morgan wasn’t done however, as she hit Stratton with the briefcase, but her Judgement Day cohorts would be chased out of the ring as Jax hit the Annihilator on Morgan.
B-Fab appeared managing The Street Profits as usual for a match with Pretty Deadly. Noticeably wearing more ring-appropriate attire than normal, the fab female gave Elton Prince a bodyslam at ringside, and her charges would end up victorious.
Backstage, Nia was confused by Tiffany’s words about potentially cashing in on her, but Stratton rebuffs, saying that she only wanted Liv to think she would cash in on her, which is all part of her plan. Naomi and Bayley enter the shot, with The Role Model questioning if that was Stratton’s legitimate plan. Zooming in on Naomi and Jax staring at each other, the Girl with the Glow reminds the Irresistible Force to keep that Women’s Championship warm for her.
Naomi and Bayley made their entrances for their tag team match with Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell. Hartwell and LeRae start by respectively attacking Bayley and Naomi. Hartwell and Bayley would trade blows, with LeRae hitting Bayley outside the ring before a commercial break. They remained in control of the match as the show resumed. Michael Cole explained on commentary as this was going on that Bayley and Candice had a match together many years ago, with the Women’s Speed Champion believing it would be her night to shine. Bayley was discovered that night and would of course go onto superstardom. The moment has stuck with LeRae, who believes she is a role model to people around the world.
Bayley eventually tagged in Naomi, who went at it with LeRae and fended off an attack from Hartwell. Eventually, after all four competitors got involved, Naomi would finish the match off for her team with a Rear View on LeRae for the win.
Note: News of Indi Hartwell departing WWE was announced today before Friday Night SmackDown went on the air. She still appeared for this match as tonight’s episode was taped immediately after last week’s episode concluded.
The women’s action kept on coming with IYO SKY of Damage CTRL entering the squared circle for a fatal four-way match ahead of the four-way tag team match for the Women’s Tag Team Championship at Crown Jewel. With Lash Legend and Piper Niven already in the ring, the show cut to the backstage area where Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill were getting ready to make their entrance. Bianca says that ever since the two have won the titles, they said they would defend it against anybody that wanted an opportunity, whether they were from NXT, SmackDown, or Raw. Jade interjects as luckily for them, they have some contenders who want to step up to the plate. Bianca says that tonight will be a preview of what’s going to happen at Crown Jewel, because they always stay on business.
The match then began with all four women brawling with each other. This kept going for most of the match, as it was obvious that each team wanted to get an early head start. Legend almost got the win as she tried to pin Belair, but Chelsea Green would pull her leg to make sure the referee wouldn’t be able to count to three. This led to an altercation at ringside with Jakara Jackson, who fought off Green and Kairi Sane, but got kicked by Jade Cargill. Cargill would then have a stare down with Legend, setting the Meta-Four member up for a KOD, but IYO SKY would hit a moonsault out of nowhere. Seizing the opportunity as Legend was laid out, SKY covered and got the victory.
Crown Jewel takes place tomorrow on Saturday, November 2nd. The following times listed below are for United States viewers watching on Peacock:
- Countdown: 11 a.m. Eastern Time / 8 a.m. Pacific Time
- Main show: 1 p.m. Eastern Time / 10 a.m. Pacific Time
The post-show will air following the conclusion of the main event.
The following matches will be taking place at the event:
- Liv Morgan (c) vs. Nia Jax (c) for the Women’s Crown Jewel Championship
- Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill (c) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven vs. Damage CTRL (IYO SKY and Kairi Sane) vs. Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend
Share your thoughts on tonight’s episode of SmackDown in the comments below.
