After what happened at SummerSlam, SmackDown is bigger than ever!

As big as Becky Lynch’s SummerSlam return was, SmackDown’s only going to build upon it! What will The Man have to say now that she’s CHAMP again?

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• SmackDown Women’s Championship #1 Contender’s Fatal 4 Way Elimination Match: Bianca Belair VS Liv Morgan VS Zelina Vega VS Carmella; Belair wins and will challenge Becky Lynch for the title.
• Chad Gable w/ Otis VS Cesaro; Cesaro wins, by disqualification.
• Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs VS The Dirty Dawgs; Nakamura & Boogs win.
• Dominik Mysterio w/ Rey Mysterio VS Sami Zayn; Zayn wins.

MY REPORT

For more information as to why Play By Play is put on hold, please refer back to this article.

First, and on behalf of the Chairshot, I wish Pat McAfee the best given his COVID diagnosis. But at the same time, great to have Michael Cole working with Corey Graves again, and Kevin Owens was a great choice since he’s just a great talker period. Now full disclosure, I didn’t have time to watch SummerSlam myself but the results were literally everywhere so I knew about Becky Lynch’s return and title win even before the video package that opened tonight. I do find it amusing that whether WWE tried to or not, they just could NOT make The Man into The Heel because fans love her so much. Her getting cheers on her entrance tonight and during her promo just further proved that.

And speaking of that promo, Becky did great, and it made a lot of sense for essentially the entire SmackDown Women’s Division to throw their name into the ring. And of course it set up a brawl that then turned into a match, but I could not have expected it to be an elimination Fatal 4 Way. That was a brilliant move that Teddy Long would be proud of, especially with it being a contender’s match. I like that it came down to the two Faces since that kept things a bit more unpredictable, but it makes all the sense for Bianca to win. She’s getting her proper match with Becky since SummerSlam was for shock factor.

Having Gable VS Cesaro just because was a great move, those two guys are solid in-ring guys and the fans deserve to be given something that’s straight up in-ring entertainment. Alpha Academy destroying Cesaro fits their M.O., I have no idea who at this point could stop Gable and The Dozer. At least, not while WWE has yet to go get Braun back. But I find it very disappointing that WWE just went, “Hey let’s make Corbin rich and arrogant again,” all so they could use that stupid rumored name, “Happy Corbin.” They barely scratched the surface of the “a beggar can be a chooser” gimmick with Corbin, and now it seems like all of that was just filler BS to get through the summer.

Great highlight reel vignette for Edge VS Rollins and great promos from Edge and Rollins, with Rollins getting ever closer to just going nuts. I like that Rick BOOGS is finally getting in the ring, and it makes sense that he’d start by teaming with Nakamura. Dirty Dawgs were of course the guys to take that loss with how they’ve been booked, but I’m really surprised they let Boogs be the one to score the win. I’m sure they’re going to build up Nakamura and Boogs before they face Apollo Crews & Azeez to settle that story. Then maybe an NXT call-up *cough* Adam Cole */cough* can debut and challenge for the Intercontinental Championship right away.

Naomi back on SmackDown makes a lot of sense because of The Bloodline, but I also like that they’re using this to feed into the power struggle Sonya Deville and Adam Pearce should’ve still been having this entire time. The Mysterios turning the corner from tag division to Dominik’s singles run is a logical move, and it was a great twist for there to be the surprise opponent. Sami was definitely the guy for this, too, since he’s great at character work and can help Dominik cover for the gaps in his ring work. That said, it also works 100% in story that Dom lost. He is going to struggle getting his footing as a singles guy, but his frustration could boil up and make him turn on Rey.

Naturally, Heyman is caught in the middle of Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar being active at the same time, and that is good stuff right there. It was like Lesnar returning unsettled Heyman and created this anxiety that may not even need to be there. But if anyone honestly thought Lesnar was going to be on the SmackDown right after his Big Four PPV return, they must’ve forgotten how Lesnar operates. Extreme Rules is up next, that is not a PPV Lesnar cares about, so he’s going to wait for a Survivor Series or Royal Rumble to go after Roman.

As for the segment itself, Heyman talks up Roman to show his loyalty, Finn Balor calls Roman out again because he still hasn’t gotten his shot, and then the Profits come out to stake their claim to the tag titles, all great stuff for the road to Extreme Rules. Balor may want his shot sooner but I’m thinking Roman waits until the PPV to do anything, and then we can get Roman VS Balor in THE Extreme Rules match of the card.

My Score: 8.4/10