This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown on the USA Network emanated from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Tensions are running high in the women’s division on Team Blue. Friendships are beginning to strain for Tiffany Stratton, and after last week, could potentially spell trouble for Naomi. Two women in Chelsea Green and Michin fought over trash, while the top treasure in the division remains a point of contention for Nia Jax and Bayley.
The women’s action kicked off when officials brought out a big dumpster to the ring, which would only mean that the dumpster match between Chelsea Green and Michin was about to take place. After a commercial break, Alicia Taylor would explain the rules: there are no disqualifications and no count-outs, the only way to win the match is to throw your opponent into the dumpster and close the lid. Green would make her way out first, clad in sanitation-themed gear, followed by Michin, carrying with her a trash can and kendo sticks.
Michin would start by unleashing an assault on Green, hitting her several times with a kendo stick, a suicide dive, and a baking sheet. A Canadian Destroyer from Green would nearly lead to Michin losing, but she would not back down, and would cover Green with a trash can, before flying from the top turnbuckle and flattening the can with Green’s face still inside. With momentum continuing to build for Michin, she would take out a table and put it on top of the dumpster, but as commentary tried to decipher what her intentions were, out came Piper Niven in similar sanitation worker attire and attacking her. Green would get up and give her a kick, but Michin would block each of her attacks and would powerbomb her through the table that was perched on top of the dumpster, with her ultimately closing the lid and winning to loud fanfare from the crowd, while Green freaked out being covered in sewage.
Naomi was backstage prepping for her match with Tiffany Stratton when Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill showed up to announce to her that after speaking to Nick Aldis, the three of them will be hosting Bad Blood together! The trio squeals and starts to do a little celebratory dance when Bayley enters the shot, wanting to talk to her friend. The noticeably displeased tag champs leave and Bayley says to Naomi that she’s planning on going out to the ring to call out Nia Jax, reassuring her that when she beats Jax for the Women’s Championship, that she will be first in line to challenge her.
The Role Model enters the ring afterwards to cut a promo on her Bad Blood opponent. She’s in Nia Jax’s ring and she can even bring Tiffany Stratton! Needless to say, both arrive, and the Queen of the Ring winner lets her opponent know that if she’s got something to say, to say it to her face. Bayley says that for as long as she’s known Jax, she has never understood the significance and importance of the championship that rests on her shoulder compared to women like her, who grew up loving the business and desired to eventually be Women’s Champion among the likes of Molly Holly, Victoria, Beth Phoenix, Natalya, Trish Stratus, and Lita. To Bayley, the title was larger than life and its holders more than human, and that ain’t Nia. As much as it pains her to admit, none of those women got to have a dominant title reign like Jax has, and Bayley admits that she could be on her way to becoming one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant champion in all of WWE. But the facts are that there are two women in the company that can take that from her, one of them being Bayley. The other is Tiffany Stratton, and not because she’s good enough, but because she has the Money in the Bank briefcase and will cash it in when she gets tired of being berated and talked down by Jax.
Stratton interjects, questioning Bayley’s comments of her not being good enough and stating that she doesn’t need the briefcase to beat Nia. An offended Jax goes “Excuse me?”, flustering Stratton into recomposing herself and saying that instead of trying to break up their partnership, she should bow down to her queen. Bayley retorts and says that even if she doesn’t like the way Jax conducts herself, she can at least respect her and how dominant she has been, while she has zero respect for Stratton and would rather bow down to Jax than patronize a “stupid bitch”. Stratton tries to attack Bayley, but her and Jax battle it out, with the challenger hitting the champion with the Money in the Bank briefcase. Stratton gets up to hold the briefcase, confusing Jax as Naomi’s music hits.
Chelsea Green, still covered in sewage, is walking backstage with Piper Niven, who is trying to talk to her but is literally put off the smell of the sewage. Pretty Deadly, Austin Theory, Grayson Waller, Angel, and Berto also reacted negatively to the smell and walked off when encountering her.
Back in the ring, the match between Naomi and Tiffany Stratton would start with the two locking up. They trade blows for most of the contest, countering each other’s moves, with the match ending only as The Girl with the Glow caught the Buff Barbie hitting a cartwheel, which was reversed into a pinning attempt by Stratton, but would be countered by a roll up from Naomi for the victory.
After the match, Nia Jax confronted Stratton and told her that if she didn’t know any better, she would have thought Stratton was teasing her on a cash-in, with Jax stating that maybe she should focus on Liv Morgan‘s Women’s World Championship match tomorrow night, as it would be a cash-in she would actually survive, or tell her that she will never betray her queen. A nervous Tiffany says she would never.
Bad Blood takes place from Atlanta, Georgia’s State Farm Arena tomorrow night on Saturday, October 5th. Our women’s matches are as follows:
- Liv Morgan (c) vs. Rhea Ripley for the WWE Women’s World Championship; Dominik Mysterio will be suspended above the ring in a shark cage.
- Nia Jax (c) vs Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship
