Smackdown Week 1: Tucson, Arizona
The show opens to the inside of the office of the Smackdown GM, The Miz. He welcomes everyone to the "awesome" brand and says unlike Raw, Smackdown will crown a World Champion tonight in the main event in an 8 man elimination match featuring Shinsuke Nakamura, Bray Wyatt, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn, Kofi Kingston and a mystery superstar he promises is a huge addition to the match. He then announces the first round matches for the Smackdown side of the King Of The Ring Tournament and says all 4 will be happening tonight, Drew Gulak vs Mustafa Ali, Pete Dunne vs Tyler Bate, Rusev vs Andrade Cien Almas, and Johnny Gargano vs Killian Dain. In his final announcement, he says the tag team champions will also be crowned tonight as he's hand selected the top 4 teams in the division, and they will fight in a ladder match in tonight's co main event.
Match 1:
Boss n Hug Connection (Sasha Banks and Bayley) vs The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan) w/ Ruby Riott
Quote:
Bayley and Liv start for their teams and after some back and forth to start, Bayley and Sasha gain control by isolating Liv. They beat her down for a bit before she tags out to Logan who takes control for her team. Together her and Liv manage to control the majority of the remainder of the match by keeping Bayley isolated and when she fights both off, knocking Liv off the apron and taking down Sarah, Ruby causes a distraction which lets Sarah recover and hit a running kick to the face of Bayley for a 2 count. Eventually Bayley is able to take control and hits her corner baseball slide dropkick on Logan followed by a Bayleyplex for a close 2 count. Later in the match, Sasha gets the hot tag and cleans house for a bit before hitting the Bankrupt on Liv, but Bayley misses the elbow drop which lets The Riott Squad regain control. The end comes when Bayley grabs a roll up out of nowhere on Sarah, and while Sasha takes out Liv in a brawl, the ref counts the 3.
Winners: Boss n Hug Connection via pinfall.
Killian Dain is backstage and says now that he's free from the shackles of Sanity, his path of destruction will not be stopped, and he'll run over everybody standing in his way.
Match 2: King Of The Ring First Round Match
Drew Gulak vs Mustafa Ali
Quote:
Ali tries a roll up right away and manages a 2 count off the surprise pin attempt. Gulak takes control from there and quickly begins wearing down Ali including a southern lights suplex for a close 2 count before Ali regains control by blocking a couple moves and hitting some fast paced, high flying offense. Ali hits a fairly early 054, but Gulak kicks out at 2. Some good back and forth action without either getting much control, but Ali manages to hit his comeback and a slingshot neckbreaker for another close 2. After this Gulak takes back control of the match and after laying out Ali he locks in a cross arm breaker, but Ali escapes, lays out Gulak with a superkick and hits a second 054 for another close 2 count. As the match goes on, both men manage to block finisher attempts from each other and end up busting each other open, and Ali even manages to escape a Gulock, and shortly after that he hits a slingshot neckbreaker and 054 combo to finish off his opponent and advance.
Winner: Mustafa Ali via pinfall.
The Riott Squad are backstage with Ruby yelling at Sarah and Liv for their loss, saying they need to do better in the future. She says she'll set the example for them by becoming the Smackdown Women's Champion.
Match 3: King Of The Ring First Round Match
Pete Dunne vs Tyler Bate
Quote:
Chain wrestling to start which Dunne gets the better of, and snaps off a regal plex for 1. Lots of back and forth wrestling for awhile with neither man gaining a clear advantage for long until Bate hits a buckle bomb followed by a rolling wheel kick and a standing shooting star, Bate goes for the Tyler Driver 97, but Dunne blocks it, and hits a rebound german suplex and a bicycle kick for 2. Shortly after, Dunne hits a superplex followed by the Bitter End for the pin.
Winner: Pete Dunne via pinfall.
A video hypes up Velveteen Dream and mentions he'll be making his debut next week.
Match 4: King Of The Ring First Round Match
Rusev w/ Aiden English vs Andrade Cien Almas w/ Zelina Vega
Quote:
Rusev largely dominates the beginning until Andrade is able to take advantage off Zelina causing a distraction and he beats down the big man and hits the meteora in the corner for 2. Almas goes for the Hammerlock DDT, but it's blocked and Rusev manages to hit the machka kick for 2, but stays on the attack by locking in the Accolade, but Almas again stays alive by escaping the hold. Andrade has slightly more control of some back and forth action, including hitting a cartwheel pele kick for a very close 2 count. Andrade again gets countered when he goes for the Hammerlock DDT, and this time Rusev wins the match after hitting another machka kick and locking in the Accolade again.
Winner: Rusev via submission.
Becky Lynch cuts a promo backstage where she issues an open challenge for next week and says she'll become the champ soon. She promises no matter who steps up to her, she'll slap the head off the dope.
Match 5: King Of The Ring First Round Match:
Johnny Gargano vs Killian Dain
Quote:
Dain jumps Gargano during his entrance, jumping him from behind and dropping him on stage with two straight powerbombs, then dragging him down the ramp, throwing him into the barricade, and dropping him with a bicycle kick all before the bell even rings. After letting Gargano get in the ring so the bell could ring, Dain whips Johnny into the corner, and drops him with a vader bomb for a 2 count. Gargano manages to fight back with some strikes, but Dain keeps control of the match with some power moves. Gargano fights back again and goes for his signature move, but Dain counters it and hits another vader bomb for another 2 count. Shortly after, Dain hits Ulster Plantation and picks up the win.
Winner: Killian Dain via pinfall.
After the match: Killian goes on the attack again, hitting two more powerbombs on Gargano along with a running crossbody and a second Ulster Plantation, leaving Gargano laying as he sends a message to the rest of the field of the tournament.
Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose come up to Paige backstage and ask her to reform Absolution so they can work together to run the entire division. Paige says she's not interested and she's moved on and changed her ways. She suggests they do the same before walking off, but they simply shake their heads at her.
Match 6: WWE Tag Team Championship Ladder Match
New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) vs The Street Profits vs Revival vs The Bludgeon Brothers
Quote:
Chaos at the start with everyone pairing off to fight someone. Early on Montez Ford climbs up the ladder, but Harper pushes it over which lets Woods pull him off the titles, and powerbomb him onto the downed ladder. Later, Angelo Dawkins hits Sky High on Scott Dawson as Big E pulls Harper off the ladder and shortly after, Montez Ford gets some payback on Woods by hitting a spinning scoop slam on Xavier Woods onto a ladder. As the match continues, Harper bloodies Big E with a ladder shot and Ford goes for a frog splash on Wilder, who gets knees up to block him. At the end of the match, Rowan and Wilder were on the ladder with Wilder trying to knock Rowan off, but while he was unsuccessful, Big E and Montez Ford were successful in taking the big man out before Ford knocked down E, causing him to roll out of the ring. Woods and Ford were fighting on top of the ladder, but Ford smashed Woods's face into the ladder before pulling down the belts.
Winners and NEW WWE Tag Team Champions: The Street Profits
Zelina Vega goes into the office of The Miz carrying a briefcase and says Andrade deserves another opportunity next week, and asks for a chance herself at becoming Women's Champion. Miz says he doesn't think he can help them, but Zelina says she thinks they can make a deal, and closes the office door.
Match 7: WWE Championship Elimination Match
Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kofi Kingston vs Bray Wyatt vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles vs Drew McIntyre vs Sami Zayn vs ???
Quote:
The final entrant was revealed to be Chris Jericho. All kinds of chaos at the beginning and there was even a couple finisher kick outs, but before too long the first elimination came as Samoa Joe locked Sami Zayn into the Coquina Clutch, narrowing it down to 7. After getting the elimination, Joe grabs a sledgehammer and waits for his chance to strike, and knocked out multiple people with it, which allowed Jericho to sneak in and hit a Codebreaker on Kofi Kingston for the second elimination of the match. While Jericho and Joe fight on the floor, Wyatt hits a powerslam on Drew at the same time as AJ locks in the Calf Crusher on Nakamura, but Nakamura escapes. As the match continues, the third elimination manages to come a few minutes later when Jericho locks Drew McIntyre into the Walls of Jericho, and forces him to tap out and bring things down to 5 just as Joe finished laying out Nakamura, Styles and Wyatt with sledgehammer shots. Shortly after, Jericho hits a suplex on Joe forcing him to roll out, but this leaves Jericho open to be blindsided by a Phenomenal Forearm from Styles, but he chooses to attack Joe instead of going for a pin. More chaos ensues for awhile in the match, but the next elimination comes when Jericho hits a Codebreaker on Wyatt and pins him.
Joe continues to fight with AJ on the floor as Nakamura fights with Jericho in the ring, and Joe hits a urinagi on Styles against the barricade, as Nakamura hits a knee strike in the corner followed by a Kinshasa to lay out Jericho, and then pin the man with the most eliminations in the match and take it down to the final 3. The 3 men continue to fight for awhile before Joe manages to get the upper hand, laying both men out before hitting an Urinagi on Styles, and a Muscle Buster on Nakamura, and eliminating the king of strong style. As Joe gets back to his feet, he drops a freshly recovered Styles with a kick to the face, then whips him into the corner and charges in, but Styles blocks his move and hits the Styles Clash for a 2 count. Styles picks up Joe to go for another move, but Joe punches him in the face, hits a rolling leg sweep to take him down, follows up with a running senton then hits a Muscle Buster to win.
Winner and NEW WWE Champion: Samoa Joe via pinfall.