Friday Night SmackDown aired this week on the USA Network from the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. After last Saturday night’s Bad Blood PLE, Nia Jax retained her Women’s Championship over Bayley, and Tiffany Stratton once again held herself back from yet another attempted Money in the Bank cash-in. Both women must now look onward to next month’s Crown Jewel event, where Jax will face the Women’s World Champion of Monday Night Raw, Liv Morgan. That won’t be the only time the women of Team Blue will battle it out with another brand, as Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend, the female half of NXT’s Meta-Four, would challenge the Women’s Tag Team Champions, Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair, on tonight’s episode. The champions themselves also have to worry about facing IYO SKY and Kairi Sane of Damage CTRL for the titles this coming Monday on Raw.
A vignette for our challengers, the self-proclaimed “Meta Girls”, aired to start off the women’s action. Lash introduces herself with the nickname “The Boujee Bully” while Jakara demands to be addressed as “Miss Jackson”. For those that want to underestimate them, they’ll show exactly what they’re all about against Belair and Cargill – all about that action.
Commentary mentioned Bayley visiting the Harvest Hope Food Bank in Greenville as part of WWE’s community initiatives in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The Role Model helped out staff and volunteers in providing emergency food aid to those affected by the storm, and posted a picture with them to her Instagram account.
Lash and Jakara would make their entrance, but it would unfortunately be Kevin Owens who would stop the two in their tracks. Owens, already in the ring, cut a promo mentioning that he was told not to show up this week after attacking Cody Rhodes following the conclusion of Bad Blood. Officials would come out to ringside as it was obviously not Owens’s time to talk, ending with him getting involved in a scuffle with Randy Orton before the show went to commercial break.
Fights notwithstanding, the match between the Meta Girls and Bianca/Jade was still on. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven joined the commentary desk, not sitting but standing. During the break, Green and Niven would confront Belair and Cargill in gorilla position about the champions “throwing title shots” around but not throwing it “their” way (i.e., Green and Niven getting to challenge them). Cargill claims it’s because Green stinks, but Niven defends her friend and says it’s fishy that they keep ducking them. Unfortunately for the heel duo, the champions have work to do and the only way they’ll get close to a title shot is by watching the match.
The challengers begin by hitting Cargill and Belair. Cargill is thrown out of the ring by Legend while Belair gets double-teamed by Jackson and Legend. Three attempts to cover Belair were not a charm for the Meta Girls as Cargill broke up the third pin. Legend punched her back to the outside and directed Jackson to grab Belair right next to the desk. Green’s rooting for the challengers didn’t go over well with the former “Lashing Out” host, who kicked her into the commentary desk and hitting Michael Cole, who gagged and retched as she is seemingly the worst-smelling woman in the world. Belair was able to fight off the attack, get back in the ring, and tag in her partner, with them now taking control of the match as they double-teamed Jackson to successfully retain, to the displeasure of Niven and Green.
WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton came out for the queen to cut a promo inside the squared circle. Jax says that as the Women’s World Champion, she has a very busy agenda. She is here to give credit to Bayley, who put up one hell of a fight at Bad Blood to the point that she broke a sweat. She’s a very worthy contender, and just like every other contender that’s faced her, she ended up on her back realizing that nobody can beat her, especially not Liv Morgan.
Referring to Morgan as a “little girl” who wants to face the Women’s Champion, Jax says that she’s going to annihilate her at Crown Jewel, just like she’s annihilated everyone else. When she’s finished with her and becomes the WWE Crown Jewel Champion, it’ll be Tiffy Time and Tiffany Stratton will cash in on Morgan. Jax announces this by forcefully putting Stratton into a headlock. Naomi makes her presence known and says that her and Jax know the only reason she is still champion is because “that broke down Barbie of yours” helped her again and claims that Jax cannot win without her sidekick, who in Naomi’s eyes, is not a very good sidekick as she pinned Stratton last week just like she pinned Jax three weeks ago… or does Jax not remember?
Jax does remember, countering that it didn’t take one woman to pin her, it took two. But Naomi doesn’t need anybody help her beat Jax, especially when she could beat her right there in the ring. Jax requests a referee, and one does end up arriving, but another woman arrives in the form of Liv Morgan, with Raquel Rodriguez and Dominik Mysterio of The Judgement Day. Morgan taunts her blue brand counterpart and says that the trio will be watching her lose her match. Jax angrily pushes Naomi in response before the show cuts to commercial.
After the break, the match was now underway with Naomi utilizing her speed, but Jax quickly gained the upper hand with moves that would assert her physical dominance. The Girl with the Glow would regroup with a kick to Jax’s midsection and a leg drop on the champ, sending her to the timekeeper’s area, with Naomi becoming the victim of a Samoan Drop to the floor.
Naomi would continue to try putting Jax down after yet another break, but not even a crossbody was able to put her away for good. The two once again fought at ringside, where as Jax found her way back to the ring, Stratton would kick Naomi without the referee’s knowledge. Stratton’s use of the Money in the Bank briefcase would backfire as it was grabbed by Rodriguez. Naomi refocused and inside the ring once again, was nearly the victim of an Annihilator before Morgan hit Jax’s leg with the briefcase, resulting in Naomi winning the match.
The Judgement Day’s glee was wiped off their faces by the entrance music of Rhea Ripley, who would attack Raquel, Jax, and Morgan. Where Naomi went in the midst of all this ruckus, who knows, but it does raise this question: Was she really able to beat Jax without interference?
Elektra Lopez appeared with Legado Del Fantasma as Santos Escobar confronted general manager Nick Aldis, wondering why he wasn’t getting any opportunities at the United States Championship and raising the question of Los Garza and Lopez getting title opportunities. Aldis gave Angel and Berto a match against a hand-selected tag team next week. But what about Elektra? Nothing, seemingly.
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