Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from inside the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. With much to take in from Tiffany Stratton’s big cash-in moment during the show’s first three-hour episode last week, what did the Buff Barbie have to say about the circumstances behind her title victory, and how did the other ladies of Team Blue react? Let’s get started and find out!
Chelsea Green was made to defend her Women’s United States Championship against Michin in a match booked by SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis earlier today. The match eventually began with Michin throwing some punches and kicks Green’s way. The champ eventually sent The Crazy One into a barricade at ringside, but Michin would quickly get back into the ring and was hit with some pounces from Green in an attempt to keep her down. Green would remain in control throughout the commercial break, with Niven even getting some offense in on the outside while the referee was distracted.
The show would return from the break with Green having Michin in a headlock, eventually losing her grip as Michin hit a back suplex on the champ in what would be a moment of redemption for her, hitting a hurricanrana and sending Green into the corner before transitioning into a Long Back Attack and a cannonball, but she wasn’t able to put away the dazed Green. Niven tried to get involved again but got her glasses knocked off by Michin for her troubles. With Michin ready to perform a crossbody, the move was reversed into a quick roll-up by Green to retain her Women’s United States Championship, but Michin wasn’t done, grabbing her archenemy by the leg, which would result in Piper beating her down and helping her friend escape.
After a shocking moment last week where Tiffany Stratton turned on both Nia Jax and Candice LeRae to cash in her Money in the Bank contract and win the WWE Women’s Championship, Jax was seen standing backstage in the women’s locker room with an angry look on her face. LeRae walks in to let her know that she just saw Tiffany headed towards the ring. Jax tells her that she wonders what she’s going to say. In fact, Jax will go congratulate her herself… although based on her tone and body language, it looks like there will be a lot more than just congratulations.
The moment everyone waited for finally came as Lilian Garcia introduced the newly crowned WWE Women’s Champion, Tiffany Stratton, who would finally address the elephant in the room regarding the nature of her title victory last week. With Stratton now in the ring with Byron Saxton, the Buff Barbie began by mentioning that less than a year ago, she made her WWE main roster debut on SmackDown and in no time, she became Ms. Money in the Bank, and at the young age of 25 years old, she is already better than all of our favorites.
When Saxton tries to ask Tiffany about Nia’s bullying behavior towards her throughout the past year, Stratton says that Nia didn’t bully her – she befriended Nia and got Nia to trust her. Nia thought Tiffany was stupid, but Tiffany loudly proclaims, “Who’s the stupid one now?”. Nia thought Tiffany was naive and a dumb blonde, but she thought that because Tiffany let her think that, which resulted in Nia letting her guard down. Stratton stole Jax’s most prized possession – the WWE Women’s Championship, and now she is at the Tiffy Top of her game. When demanding that respect be put on her name, Jax’s music began to play.
With an angry grimace and a mic in hand, The Irresistible Force called her an “ungrateful little shit” and said that right now, she could kill her, adding that Stratton would be nothing without her. Jax congratulates her on rubbing up two brain cells together to come up with what occurred last week. Stratton finally took advantage, and it took her long enough. Now she’s having her moment, and it’s Tiffy Time! But for Jax, time’s up, wanting Stratton to give her the championship back or she’s going to take it from her.
Bayley then makes her presence felt, telling Nia to shut the hell up and commending Tiffany, stating if that was her plan all along, then she definitely got Bayley as even the Role Model had believed the champ was a little stupid, but she knows Nia is stupid. Nia took Tiffany under her wing, and yet Tiffany still outsmarted her.
While Bayley knows that this is supposed to be Tiffany’s moment of glory, she doesn’t want her to forget that the only reason Nia became Women’s Champion was due to her help at SummerSlam last year, and the only reason Nia kept her around was to make sure that wouldn’t change.
Women’s Tag Team Champion Naomi‘s music then started playing with both her and fellow Women’s Tag Team Champion Bianca Belair coming out. The Girl with the Glow says that everyone knows she had Nia beat last week and that if it wasn’t for “little miss Tiffer”, she would be holding two championships right now, so if anyone wants to fight Tiffany for the Women’s Championship, it should be her first. Jax confronts Naomi, saying that nobody cares about her, and the two have a staredown that rapidly descends into a brawl among all four women, with Bayley, Bianca, and Naomi ganging up on Nia before Stratton could hit the Prettiest Moonsault Ever onto all four challengers. As Stratton walks away from the scene, Nick Aldis makes his way out to book a fatal four-way match involving Nia, Bayley, Naomi, and Bianca, with the winner becoming the number one contender to Tiffany’s Women’s Championship.
As the show had gone to a commercial break after the fatal four-way was booked by Aldis, the show was back with the match finally getting underway. Jax threw Bayley out of the ring and asserted her dominance by reversing a suplex that Naomi and Bianca struggled to hit on her. Bayley returned to the ring with her and the tag champs continuing to gang up on Jax, who then left the ring to regroup. With the remaining three still in the ring looking for an opportunity to lock up, Jax would pull The EST’s leg to remove her from the equation and throw her into the barricade. Bayley and Naomi then began to battle it out, but then Bayley was also taken out of the ring by Jax. Now focused on Naomi, Jax almost got a near fall on her that was broken up just in time by Bianca. Belair’s arsenal seemed intended to distract The Irresistible Force, but it nearly backfired when Jax hit a powerbomb for yet another near fall, this time broken up by Bayley. Bayley and Jax continued to fight, with Naomi and Bianca performing a powerbomb that sent the two of them from the top turnbuckle to the mat.
After ANOTHER break for ads, the blue show was back on the air with only Naomi and Nia in the ring. The match remained highly competitive, with Nia serving as the obstacle for the others to overcome as each and every pinfall attempt continued to fail in finishing both her and the match. As the three tried to collectively pin Jax for themselves, out came running Candice LeRae, who tended to Jax at ringside as the Women’s Tag Team Champions worked on Bayley and sent her out of the ring yet again, which meant Bianca and Naomi were in the ring by themselves. Naomi looked optimistic and ready to go while Bianca seemed hesitant owing to their close friendship. The two then decided to go after Bayley and Nia outside the ring, as both were starting to get up.
The action began to wrap up as Candice chose to tug on Bianca’s braid, and by tugging on it, ended up making Bianca accidentally hit Naomi with it. Bianca immediately feels remorseful but gets pulled out of the ring by Nia and they brawl into the commentary desk. Meanwhile in the ring, Bayley took advantage of Naomi’s pain from the braid attack by hitting a Rose Plant for the victory and becoming the number one contender to the Women’s Championship.
Bayley is now backstage where Byron Saxton walks up to her for an impromptu interview, revealing that with her victory in tonight’s match, she will be facing Tiffany Stratton for the title next week. When asked how she feels about her chances, Bayley says her whole career has been off chances and taking advantage of opportunities. Having grown up in the business, she has known people like Tiffany Stratton her whole career, and she has wrestled Tiffany Stratton all last year. If there’s one thing about Tiffany, she’s never beaten Bayley.
Here’s what’s set to take place next week on Friday Night SmackDown, which will be airing from inside the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California:
- Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Bayley
