Friday Night SmackDown emanated from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida in what would be the final blue brand episode of the year.
Before the night’s in-ring action could start, Cathy Kelley conducted a pre-match interview with Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair and Naomi, with the two teaming up alongside Bayley versus Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton, and Candice LeRae. The champions are asked what the victory meant to them; for Naomi, she had been wanting to win gold since making her return to WWE earlier this year, and while she didn’t think it would come about the way that it did, it meant a lot to her that she was able to do it with a close friend in Bianca Belair. Belair agrees, noting that Naomi stepped up and has had her back during the entire ordeal surrounding Jade Cargill’s injury, but the two are not going to forget about Jade even if they have to move forward as tag team champions, and her and Naomi will keep fighting until she discovers who took out Cargill.
Bayley then enters the shot, with Belair in a minorly annoyed mood, but when the Role Model asks Belair, “We good?”, the EST gives an affirmative thumbs up. The three then make their entrance to Belair’s music, with Tiffany Stratton coming out afterwards followed by WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax and Candice LeRae entering together. Jax has a microphone with her and cuts a promo on Bianca, telling her that she did not attack Jade and shadily mentioning Tiffany’s failure to help them win the Women’s Tag Team Championships last week as meaning that this year’s Ms. Money in the Bank couldn’t have possibly orchestrated it. Jax believes that despite Bianca’s “whining” about her friend, she seems to be doing just fine without her; considering that Naomi became her tag team partner rather quickly, she accuses the EST of playing the victim in order to avoid any suspicion on her name. Jade enters the company and in the opinion of The Irresistible Force, Belair supposedly couldn’t stand sharing the spotlight with someone bigger, stronger, and better than her, leading to her “snapping” – which Jax understands, because she would do the same! But it’s time for Belair to stop pointing fingers, and own up to it, or the Queen of the Ring winner will make her own up to it.
The action started with Belair and Stratton exchanging holds, but by the time the show returned from commercial, Belair and Naomi were attempting unsuccessfully to put Jax away with the help of a stinkface. LeRae was then tagged in but couldn’t keep up with the in-ring chemistry that Belair and Naomi had. Stratton would tag herself in at this point in the match and argued with The Poison Pixie, with the miscommunication giving Belair, the face team’s legal woman, a prime opportunity to hand the tag over to Bayley. With Bayley and Candice having their own issues, the two got into it, with even Nia getting involved and being impressed by LeRae’s arsenal.
The two would tag each other in and out of the match during the second commercial break, with Stratton clearly being excluded. The Buff Barbie would get her tag in and brawled it out with Naomi, almost losing the match for her team after Naomi executed an impactful bulldog. Chaos was now present as every woman in the match hit their moves on each other. Naomi was able to block an attempted Annihilator from Jax and nearly covered her following a split-legged moonsault, but Stratton broke that up in time and sent herself and Naomi to the floor. With Nia laid out by herself in the ring, Stratton got up and decided to cash in her Money in the Bank contract, but LeRae stopped her and they began to argue again. You could hear Stratton say “I want to be champion!” as a furious LeRae told her “No!”. The verbal altercation helped Naomi take advantage to pin LeRae as Belair and Bayley pulled Stratton away from the ring to prevent her from breaking it up, ending the match with the babyface team victorious.
Piper Niven was in the ring standing on a podium and surrounded by several United States flags and balloons for Chelsea Green‘s championship celebration in honor of becoming the inaugural Women’s United States Champion at Saturday Night’s Main Event two weeks ago. Niven introduced “your prettiest, tallest, sparkliest, most beautiful, most popular, first and longest-reigning Women’s United States Champion, my bestie (not yours)” Chelsea Green, who stunned in a cute Lady Liberty dress that would give Wendy Williams a run for her money.
Green began her speech by addressing the WWE Universe, saying “We did it! We have officially turned the blue brand into the Green House!”. She then mentions that Fergie (of The Black Eyed Peas fame) once used the letters G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S to describe this very moment, the moment that the world would feast their eyes on the most “glamorous, richest, tannest, sparkliest, tallest, youngest, oldest, longest-reigning, first-ever” WWE Women’s United States Champion, and that she feels it is only necessary to give recognition to the woman that has been there through it all, the woman who has stood by her side, and if not for her, she’d never be here, and that woman is her. It is Green’s honor to bring pride and sexiness to this reign because if not for her, the fans would be stuck with one of the “she-trolls” in the back. Now to her trash-loving opponent, Michin, she has two words: good riddance! She would say that Michin too could also be a champion like herself, but she’s Canadian, and Canadians don’t lie, eliciting some minor boos from the crowd.
What Green will say about Michin is that she’s honestly shocked she even made it as far as she did in the tournament at all. Lastly, Green challenges the fans to ask themselves not what Chelsea Green can do for you, but what you can do for Chelsea Green. Now is the time, and 2025 is the year of “Red, White, and Green” – but now is also the time for Michin to interrupt and clap back. She states that in case Green forgot, if it wasn’t for her “goofy friend” Piper, she would have been the first champion at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Michin has decided to take a page out of her book, and introduce Green to her “little friend”, a kendo stick, to give her the ass whooping she deserves by attacking Niven near the ramp before entering the ring, where a fearful Green luckily avoids any hurt as she’s taken away by Niven.
B-Fab reappeared with the returning Street Profits, who were last seen laid out backstage several weeks ago. SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis asks the WWE Tag Team Champions #DIY and Pretty Deadly if they knew who attacked them. When Elton Prince seemingly lets it slip that Angel Garza of Legado Del Fantasma was responsible, the fab female asks him if he’s a hundred percent certain. Her and The Profits quickly find Garza and Berto with Elektra Lopez, with the two teams exchanging beatings before Aldis forces them to take it out to the ring. During the resulting match, Lopez tried to pull Garza out of the ring but would get kicked by B-Fab. Garza was dragged back into the ring where the Profits delivered the Doomsday Blockbuster for the victory. It was eventually revealed that Pretty Deadly in fact lied about who attacked The Street Profits in a “quid pro quo” situation with #DIY, with Apollo Crews revealing that the Tag Team Champions were the duo’s assailants.
Friday Night SmackDown will be airing next week at the same time on the USA Network, but now as a three-hour broadcast each week instead of the traditional two. Here’s what will be taking place inside the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona next Friday:
- Women’s Championship: Nia Jax (c) vs. Naomi
Make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s edition of SmackDown in the comments below!
