6 months ago
46 ARTICLE AD
BY Derek Stoughton – ON May 24, 2024
Photo Courtesy of WWEThe following are spoilers for the May 24, 2024, episode of Smackdown, which was taped in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier today.
The Bloodline is shown arriving for the show. Michael Cole & Corey Graves are reunited at commentary. Cole’s regular Friday night partner Wade Barrett is also there.We see Nia Jax and Bianca Belair’s arrivals as Triple H reminds us the tournament winners get SummerSlam title shots.Nia Jax def. Bianca Belair to advance to the finals of tomorrow’s Queen of the Ring tournament. Belair sold a knee injury while hitting some impressive power moves, but couldn’t pull off the KOD. Jax used the advantage as an opening for her Annihilator (Bonzai Drop) finish for the pinfall victory.While trainers check on Belair, Kayla Braxton tries to interview Jax in the ring. Nia dismisses her and sends a message to fellow QotR finalist Lyra Valkyria that she’s just taken down another big name after previously beating Becky Lynch & Rhea Ripley. She plans on going through Lyra to beat another in Bayley and become champ.We see tag champs Austin Theory & Grayson Waller talking backstage.After a break, we see Bianca icing her knee when Tiffany Stratton rolls by to mock her for the loss. Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell do the same, so Jade Cargill appears to stand up for her partner. Jade is going to go see Aldis about a match since it seems like LeRae & Hartwell want their wigs split.LA Knight is introduced by Theory are The Grayson Waller Effect’s guest, but Carmelo Hayes comes out instead. Melo runs down his accomplishments (with Theory interjecting to remind us all that he beat Hayes on SmackDown earlier this year), and Waller agrees he’s a better guest anyway. Hayes takes a few shots at Bobby Lashley in a pitch for the young guys to stick together against veterans, like Knight, who they say hasn’t accomplished anything. They mock the “YEAH”, eventually bringing out LA.Knight storms to the ring, wrecks the talk show set, and says he’s gonna keep it short & sweet since he has better things to do: if they keep it up he’s going to remind them whose game this is. He goes to leave but gets dropped by Hayes. Street Profits arrive to put a stop to the three-on-one attack.We get a video hyping the debut of Blair Davenport.LA Knight, Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins def. Carmelo Hayes, Grayson Waller & Austin Theory. The finish saw Knight send Hayes over the announce desk after Melo broke up his post-BFT cover on Waller, which allowed Ford to pin the Aussie after a frog splash.A clip from yesterday’s Kickoff event is shown where Logan Paul gave Cole his brass knuckles and vowed not to use them against Cody Rhodes tomorrow.We get a possible SummerSlam when Rhodes and Randy Orton pass each other backstage.After a reminder about the two-night SummerSlam announcement, Tonga is walking backstage. Paul Heyman keeps a healthy distance when following him.Cody’s here to see what people want to talk about, but Logan Paul cuts him off before he can ask. Paul insults the champ, saying his smarts will trump Rhodes’ experience tomorrow, and let him leave Saudi with two belts. Because he’s a better athlete and performer too, he won’t need his brass knucks tomorrow. Rhodes fires back that Paul has imposter syndrome, and is a scared kid afraid of being exposed as a fraud. He thinks he’s got the knucks on him right now.This leads to Logan agreeing to be searched. When the brass knuckles are indeed found in one of his pockets, he says those aren’t his pants and blames his brother. Eventually, he admits he brought them for protection. Cody cuts an impassioned promo about how real he and his whole family are, putting Paul over as a talent but saying he’ll never be WWE champ until he commits to the business full-time.Byron Saxton interviewed Orton about his match tonight. The Bloodline may have numbers, but he’s been overcoming odds his whole career and will show Tama just how vicious he can be. Tonga may see it coming, but he still won’t be able to withstand the three most devastating letters in sports entertainment: R-K-O.Bayley passed Jax on her way to the ring in another potential SummerSlam title match tease. Nia tells her to keep the title clean until August.Street Profits are interviewed backstage with B-Fab. #DIY cuts that off, with Johnny Gargano saying they’re on SmackDown to win the Tag titles. Tommaso Ciampa dumps out Ford’s drink before they exit the scene.Bayley def. Chelsea Green via pinfall after a Roseplant. She’s immediately splashed by Piper Niven. Bayley fights back but ends up taking three sentons from Niven in a scene possibly signaling that the Scotswoman will get a title shot at Clash at the Castle in Glasgow next month.AJ Styles pleads his case for a shot at the winner of tomorrow’s Rhodes/Paul match, saying he needs another WWE title shot. GM Nick Aldis says on a personal level he’d do almost anything for Styles, but on a professional one, he has to tell him to earn another shot. AJ says he doesn’t have time for that and storms out.After a video of Andrade talking about his history and hyping his SmackDown debut, we see Legado Del Fantasma talking about him. Berto wishes Andrade had stayed on Monday nights, but Santos Escobar & Elektra Lopez suggest they forget the past and not rule anything out.Paul Heyman informs Solo Sikoa that Tonga Loa wasn’t able to get into Saudi Arabia, and says that’s why Roman Reigns didn’t recruit such dangerous people. Sikoa tells him he needs to deal with whatever issues the Tongans’ pasts cause. We seem poised to learn more about Heyman’s concerns about Tama Tonga when he rolls up, leaving the Wiseman looking shaken again.An addition to tomorrow’s card: Belair & Cargill will defend the WWE Women’s titles against LeRae & Hartwell on the Countdown show.We see Gunther in the crowd ready to watch the main event…Randy Orton def. Tama Tonga via pinfall after an RKO to advance to the finals of tomorrow’s King of the Ring tournament. Interference from Sikoa thwarted one RKO, but Orton is inevitable.During a staredown between Orton & Gunther, Solo hits Randy with the Samoan Spike. Kevin Owens runs it to even the odds against The Bloodline. Sikoa avoids taking a Stunner then hightails it while KO celebrates with Orton to close the show.[h/t to Cageside Seats for the spoilers]
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