With the King and Queen of the Ring PLE taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia tomorrow from the Jeddah Super Dome, tonight’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown was held from the same venue as the WWE Superstars have been in the country for the past few days.
Triple H made the announcement earlier in the week that the Queen of the Ring winner, as well as the King of the Ring winner, would receive title shots at this year’s SummerSlam PLE.
The semifinal match in SmackDown’s Queen of the Ring would then commence, with Bianca Belair facing off against Nia Jax. Lyra Valkyria, who will be representing Raw in the finals of tournament tomorrow, was seen sitting in the crowd. Clad in bodysuits, Belair dished it out on Jax, gaining the upper hand before the first commercial break.
Returning from the break, Jax was relying on her size and strength to give Belair trouble. The EST’s injured knee seemed fine and went without mention until she hit a crossbody on the Irresistible Force. She continued to push through, but a powerbomb attempt by Belair, who was surprisingly able to hold Nia’s body, did not get her the win. Going back to the knee, Jax was able to take advantage of it and ended the match by hitting a Banzai Drop on Belair to take her to the finals.
Kayla Braxton joined Nia for an in-ring interview. Jax calls out Lyra and threatens her opponent, noting how she has buzzed through women like Bianca, Becky Lynch, and Rhea Ripley, and that she will do so to Lyra the same way tomorrow. Mark her words: by SummerSlam, she’ll be queen AND champion.
Now backstage, Bianca Belair was getting checked out in the medical area. Tiffany Stratton interrupted to tell her, “Better luck next time, loser.” Byron Saxton came in for an interview, but as Bianca expressed her disappointment in not winning the match entered Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell, who mocked Bianca for her still injured knee. A provoked Belair was ready to fight the duo, but her tag team partner and other half of the Women’s Tag Team Champions, Jade Cargill, came to her rescue, leading to Candice and Indi leaving The EST alone.
Another vignette aired for Blair Davenport. She presumably refers to the WWE Universe and likely her fellow wrestlers as “weak” and “lazy”, and that the reason bad things happen to people is because they allow it. She claims that not being good enough makes someone unsuccessful, and while women cry about being overlooked, Blair Davenport has already taken their spot. She challenges her fellow women to come and do something about it if their feelings are hurt by what she says. Sheesh girl… not this gaslighting era.
WWE Women’s Champion Bayley was shown walking backstage, set to face Chelsea Green, before running into Nia Jax, who warned her to keep “that thing” clean for SummerSlam.
The match started and Chelsea made sure to get the ball rolling as she quickly unleashed an attack on the champion, but Green fell victim to a Rose Plant not long after for a victory by Bayley. She had little time to celebrate as Piper Niven put herself on notice by attacking her, with the champion’s night ending with her lying hurt in the ring.
The following matches will be taking place tomorrow afternoon at King and Queen of the Ring:
Queen of the Ring finals: Lyra Valkyria (Raw) vs Nia Jax (SmackDown)
WWE Women’s World Championship: Becky Lynch (c) vs Liv Morgan
Countdown pre-show: Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill (c) vs Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell
Times for the show are as follows:
Arabian: 8:00 p.m.
Eastern: 1:00 p.m.
Central: 12:00 p.m.
Mountain: 11:00 a.m.
Pacific: 10:00 a.m.
Hawaiian: 7:00 a.m.
