Friday Night SmackDown took a trip overseas to Berlin, Germany where Bash in Berlin will be taking place tomorrow afternoon.
To begin was a shot of Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton entering the Uber Arena, the site of both SmackDown and Bash in Berlin.
A vignette for Nia Jax aired following the first match, set to the tune of “Mud” by Dorothy. The vignette featured footage of Nia over the years, emphasizing her dominance and physical strength as well as her recent achievements of winning both Queen of the Ring as well as the Women’s Championship.
As always, Elektra Lopez and Santos Escobar of Legado del Fantasma accompanied Angel and Berto (now known as “Los Garza”) for a tag team match against Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin. Lopez got on the apron to try and distract the referee, which initially appeared to be unsuccessful until Angel was able to take Crews’s concentration away from Berto and allowing them to hit their MTY finisher – named after the Mexican city of Monterrey – for the victory.
9:37pm Eastern Time and it was time for our main event between Nia Jax and Michin for the Women’s Championship in a Street Fight!
But before that could happen, a Progressive Match Flo recap aired showing The Unholy Union winning the Women’s Tag Team Championships from Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill at Clash at the Castle two months ago. To Bianca, this was more than a match. She understands how it feels for Jade to come with high expectations. To Jade, she knows the feeling of being unstoppable and making headlines. But then, as things keep going wrong for the team, they start questioning and doubting themselves, but failure is a part of the process. The fight is not in the ring, but rather in one’s mind and one’s heart. The two are ready to go and regain the Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Michin is then shown backstage, telling the WWE Universe that she has fought her whole life – every battle, every war, has all led her to Berlin. You can like her or you can hate her, but after she becomes the new Women’s Champion tonight, you will not forget her. “Michin” is not who Mia Yim is, it’s what she is. She makes her way out to the ring for the street fight with a shopping cart of weapons.
Michin starts by hitting the queen with a kendo stick, gaining the upper hand rather quickly. Bringing a table out from under the ring gets the crowd excited, but the kendo stick is used against her by Jax. She reverses and brings out the table again, but the show goes to commercial. Once the show returns, the champ puts the table in a corner of the ring, but gets blinded by a fire extinguisher for her troubles, and a missile dropkick coupled with some trash can lids keeps her down, but not down enough as Jax kicks out at two. Jax regains some composure, but finally gets put through the table!
“Table Time” quickly turned into the familiar voice of “It’s Tiffy Time!” as Tiffany Stratton made her way to out to presumably cash in her Money in the Bank contract, hitting Michin with the briefcase, and contemplating pinning Nia, but instead drags her friend’s body to try and pin Michin, but when she kicks out, Stratton attempts to hit the Prettiest Moonsault, an attempt stopped by the returning Bayley. The two fight outside the ring, while Jax covers Michin’s face with a trash can and hits an Annihilator on her for the victory. Jax is still feeling aggressive and hits a few more shots onto the can after being declared the winner, before the show goes off the air.
Bash in Berlin airs tomorrow on Saturday, August 31st. Below are the showtimes:
Countdown
5:00 p.m. CET (local time zone for Germany)
11:00 a.m. ET (Eastern Time Zone)
8:00 a.m. PT (Pacific Time Zone)
Main show
7:00 p.m. CET (local time zone for Germany)
1:00 p.m. ET (Eastern Time Zone)
10:00 a.m. PT (Pacific Time Zone)
Women’s matches for Bash in Berlin on Saturday, August 31st are as follows:
- Women’s Tag Team Championship: The Unholy Union (Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn) (c) vs. Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill
- The Terror Twins (Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest) vs The Judgment Day (Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio) in a mixed tag team match
Share your thoughts on this week’s episode in the comments below!
