Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with much fallout from Survivor Series: WarGames last Saturday. Bayley, Bianca Belair, and Naomi were on the winning team this year alongside Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY from Raw. Now almost a week later, Naomi now has a match against Tiffany Stratton, and in a rare in-ring appearance, Elektra Lopez, which will finish the first round of the Women’s United States Championship tournament. Meanwhile, Belair has to contend with the fact that she still does not know the identity of who attacked Jade Cargill two weeks ago.
Kicking off the women’s action this week was Ivy Nile, who made a surprising appearance with the rest of American Made, a stable from Monday Night Raw, as leader Chad Gable confronted Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes at the start of the show. A Minnesota native himself, Gable explained that the “transfer window”, perhaps alluding to potential trades between WWE’s brands, is about to open, and Team Blue general manager Nick Aldis has apparently contacted the group about switching over to the SmackDown roster.
Michael Cole would confirm that the transfer window is indeed open due to Monday Night Raw’s impending move to Netflix in January. This will be a collaborative effort between general managers Aldis, Adam Pearce, and Ava in switching several Superstars around between SmackDown, Raw, and NXT, which will undoubtedly change the landscape of the women’s division on all shows.
The show then cuts to Naomi and Bianca Belair backstage, with Belair noticeably having her stomach covered up with athletic tape after the events of last Saturday. The EST says that now that WarGames is over, she can finally focus on who took Jade out. Naomi says that she is with her all the way, expressing her support for Belair, but has to deal with her triple threat match first and leaves.
Chelsea Green and Piper Niven enter the scene, with Green saying that Belair has so much time now to focus on this “Jade mystery” as she lost her shot at becoming the first-ever Women’s United Champion in the first round of the tournament. Belair retorts and says that Green is lucky that she took herself out of the match… but in actuality, was it luck, or was it Piper that took Cargill out? Belair mentions that Niven didn’t accompany Green during their triple threat match, and usually Chelsea can’t win without Piper’s interference. Niven tells Belair to watch herself and what she’s being accused of, claiming she didn’t touch Jade, but she can put Bianca in a hospital bed next to Jade. The trash talk leads to Belair attacking both of them, but Green and Niven target her stomach and lay her out. Niven will meet her in the ring and the two walk off as Belair is on the floor in pain.
Tiffany Stratton makes her entrance for the triple threat match, being announced from Prior Lake, Minnesota, followed by the entrances of Elektra Lopez and Naomi.
The three start to brawl with one another, but Lopez throws Naomi out of the ring and kicks her when she tries to retaliate. Lopez yells out “I didn’t come here to play no games!” and it reflects in her moveset, which seems to emphasize a lot of striking attacks. Stratton quickly takes control with the fans cheering on their hometown hero, hitting Naomi with an impactful dropkick and nearly performing a bodyslam on Lopez, which the Legado Del Fantasma valet counters into a half-crab hold. The three then begin to pin each other, with the action keeping up at a quick pace.
Ultimately, as Naomi gets ready to execute a move on Lopez, Candice LeRae appears to try and attack her but gets thrown into the floor as a result. Naomi’s attempt to put Lopez away fails and she herself is again thrown out of the ring, but with Lopez still laid out and not getting up, that becomes an opportunity for Stratton to hit “The Prettiest Moonsault” for the victory.
The semi-finals are now set for next week, which will have Bayley going up against Chelsea Green and Michin taking on Stratton. The winners of those two matches will go on to Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 14th to determine the inaugural Women’s United States Champion.
B-Fab was seen backstage with Nick Aldis tending to both Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins of The Street Profits, both of whom were clearly the victims of an attack that would require medical attention. The two were set to challenge the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) later on for the WWE Tag Team Championships.
Bianca Belair and Piper Niven were then set to go one-on-one. Belair was obviously still dealing with the aftermath of what was revealed to be hurt ribs as a result of the WarGames match, trying to muster up enough strength to fight Niven off. The EST’s focus would change to making sure she could tire Niven out, which she tried to do by throwing her head into the turnbuckles several times. Trying to lift Piper up for the K.O.D. would be reversed into a belly-to-back suplex, but Belair would still kick out of anything Niven could execute. Green, attempting to distract Belair, would get thrown into the ring, and Belair would finally be able to hit Niven with the K.O.D. onto her for the victory.
After the match, Belair would run into Naomi, who told her she knew it felt good to get her hands on Piper. Naomi says that she’s getting sick of Tiffany and Candice, as the two can’t stop getting on her neck. Byron Saxton interrupts the two for an interview, stating while he knows Bianca believes Piper was behind Jade’s attack, he can personally confirm that he saw her sitting beside Gorilla position during Bianca’s triple threat match. Asking Belair who else she thought could have attacked Jade, Naomi decides to speak and says there are a multitude of options: Women’s Champion Nia Jax, Tiffany, Candice, Liv Morgan, and Raquel Rodriguez. Belair says she doesn’t know who did it, but when she finds out, it’ll be on sight, which Naomi appears to agree with.
Going back to the tag title scene for a minute, DIY would take the places of the Street Profits as challengers to the Motor City Machine Guns, and after Johnny Gargano turned heel on his now-former friends with the support of Tomasso Ciampa, the two became the new WWE Tag Team Champions. Now backstage, Candice LeRae would appear once again, this time to give her husband a hug and congratulate them on winning.
Lastly, Ivy Nile re-emerged with The Creed Brothers to accompany Chad Gable in the main event against Cody Rhodes. Nile would briefly get up on the apron, staring coldly at the The American Nightmare and distracting him to set up an opportunity for Gable to take control. The trio would eventually be ejected from ringside by referee Jessika Carr, and Gable would end up losing the match.
Here is what’s set to take place next week on Friday Night SmackDown, which will be emanating from Hartford, Connecticut:
- Women’s United States Championship Tournament Semi-Final: Bayley vs. Chelsea Green
- Women’s United States Championship Tournament Semi-Final: Michin vs. Tiffany Stratton
The winners of both matches will go on to face each other at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 14th from the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island, New York. For American viewers, the show will be airing at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on both NBC and Peacock.
Make sure to share your thoughts on tonight’s episode of SmackDown in the comments below!
