AJ Styles Battles Jimmy Uso In The Main Event
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This week's episode of SmackDown featured less than a full roster since some of the stars were over in India for the Superstar Spectacle. But, the roster that was in attendance did their best to keep the action hot and the storylines rolling. Charlotte Flair, fresh from her return, joined forces with Shotzi on SmackDown to confront Damage CTRL's Bayley and WWE Women's Champion Iyo Sky in a women's division tag team bout. The episode also featured a headline clash between AJ Styles and Jimmy Uso, and a special appearance by Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, The Judgment Day, and a solid match between LA Knight and Austin Theory.
The highlights of the night were the crowd in Boston booing Dominik Mysterio and drowning him out, LA Knight's shot at Kevin Nash, and the Judgment Day tag team match with Judgment Day. Here are your winners and losers for SmackDown Live, the September 9th edition of the show:
Winner/Loser: Women's Tag Match Ends With An Asuka and Iyo Sky Standoff
Friday's SmackDown opened with Shotzi and Charlotte Flair clinching a significant victory against Bayley and Iyo Sky, further elevating Shotzi's recent push. She secured the pin for the second week in a row and Charlotte played second fiddle, trying to get over another star, and ultimately another rivalry. It worked because it was the post-match stare-down between Sky and the returning Asuka that stole the spotlight.
Asuka, who lost her WWE Women's Championship and watched as Sky cashed in her Money in the Bank contract to win the title from Bianca Belair, showed up to let Sky know she was next in line. It was an interesting standoff and Sky issued a formal challenge to Asuka in a backstage promo following the match. Asuka's appearance changes the direction of the Women's Championship and that's not a bad thing. This match will be fire when it eventually happens.
Winner: LA Knight Gets Significant Screen Time On SmackDown
LA Knight, Austin Theory, and Grayson Waller engaged in a verbal exchange that culminated in a match between Theory and Waller. The contest concluded with a decisive victory for The Megastar, solidifying LA Knight's ever-increasing standing on the SmackDown brand. The match itself was given plenty of time to percolate and included fundamental pro wrestling action, with the right winner coming out on top. Some may argue the Austin Theory loss hurts his character, but it likely won't if WWE is pushing Theory and Waller as a future tag team.
Theory and Waller, whose camaraderie is palpable, are likely going to get a run with the tag team titles at some point. Meanwhile, Knight is proving himself as WWE gives him the ball to run with and more television time to go with it. Perhaps the best line of the night was Knight's call back to Kevin Nash's grammar error as part of WCW Nitro when he mistakenly labeled the word "play" as an adjective. Knight essentially called Nash a moron and corrected him some 20 years later, saying "play" is a verb. For those who don't know the history between these two, it wasn't long ago Nash claimed not to know who Knight was on a recent podcast episode.
Winner: Judgment Day Defeated The Brawling Brutes
In another strong match, Judgment Day picked up a big win over Butch and Ridge Holland. Sheamus is on the shelf with an injury, so the team was outnumbered and that mattered, as Dominik tried to create distractions to give Finn Balor and Damian Priest the advantage. The way this match was booked and the four wrestlers worked together A premium live event rematch is an absolute must! The match was solid. The conclusion displayed exceptional teamwork between Balor and Priest, featuring a sequence of maneuvers culminating in Priest executing two finishers followed by a Coup de Grâce, resulting in Holland taking the pinfall.
At the end of the match, as Judgment Day stood tall in the ring, Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits came to the ring and stood face-to-face with Judgment Day, warning the three men they didn't need to worry about The Bloodline. Instead, they were taking over as the most dominant faction.
Winner: AJ Styles Wins His Match, But Loses The War
In the main event, Jimmy Uso battled with AJ Styles in a singles match. This was Jimmy's chance to prove his worth to Paul Heyman and The Bloodline, using a few moments earlier in the show to get on Heyman's good side. After attacking Styles backstage, AJ reprimanded The O.C. for not having his back. He told them not to go anywhere near his match if they were "too distracted" and, as one might imagine, that led to Styles being outnumbered.
Styles was able to secure the win, even as Solo Sikoa became a factor on the outside. Styles hit a Phenomenal Forearm for the win. But, Judgment Day ran down to the ring and attacked Styles, throwing him back into the squared circle where he took a Samoan Spike from Solo. Jimmy clearly wasn't going to impress Reigns and Heyman with his loss, but Styles wasn't standing when the show ended. The real question was where Judgment Day sat with The Bloodline as it appeared they were trying to get on their good side and work out some kind of truce.
This show felt a bit light without John Cena, Roman Reigns and some other big names, but those that were on the show did a job good of making their angles and segments work.
