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Friday Night SmackDown returned to Salt Lake City, Utah for this week’s edition of the show, now only less than 24 hours away from Survivor Series: WarGames, which will be taking place inside the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Following a run-down of the night’s card, Bianca Belair, Naomi, IYO SKY, Bayley, and Rhea Ripley all made short entrances one after the other on the stage, ultimately entering the ring. Rhea starts off by saying that she knows it’s obvious that not everyone on the team is the best of friends, but none of that matters because tomorrow night, they all step into one of the most dangerous matches in WWE history: WarGames, and they all have someone that they want to get their hands on. Tomorrow night, this all ends when they step into the cage, and no one will be able to stop them from brutalizing the opposing team. Naomi warns Nia Jax and her “lap dogs” Stratton and LeRae that they are going to get everything they deserve and then some, because they have been nothing but a pain in her and Bayley’s side. She promises that not only will the glow be felt, but it’s going to be dealt.
Belair now interjects, adding that her and Naomi both know that one of them took out Jade Cargill last week, and while she doesn’t know which one it was, tomorrow night, all five of them can get a beating. Ripley takes the mic back and warns Liv Morgan that she’s going to wish she never met her. IYO SKY says something on behalf of the team: “We will destroy you!”
Liv Morgan’s music begins to blare in the arena as she walks out alongside Raquel Rodriguez, Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton, and Candice LeRae. The Women’s World Champion of Raw says that it’s funny how confident the babyface team is that they’re going to beat her team. Jax questions if Bianca had a brain fart and forgot that Bayley and IYO tortured her over the past two years while teaming up as Damage CTRL. Or what about Bayley, considering that IYO and their “friends” Kairi Sane, Asuka, and Dakota Kai ended up betraying her and kicking her out of the group before WrestleMania XL early into the year?
Jax says that whatever the heel team has done does not even come close to the issues that the babyface team have, and that they’re all going to implode before they even make it to the ring. The floor is now Bayley’s, telling the Women’s Champion that she’s one to talk, considering that she’s been manipulating Stratton throughout the time that they’ve been on SmackDown together this year, but is too naive to say it. Jax retorts and says that Bayley is an expert at having no friends, with Liv adding on and declaring that they are a united front, so she can stop trying to manipulate them as she’s lost her touch and really isn’t good at it anymore. However, Morgan does think it’s really interesting how Jade gets attacked and now Bayley is on their team. Ripley tells her to shut up and stop wasting everybody’s time. Soon, Liv is not going to be able to hide behind anyone because when she steps into the cages, there is nowhere to run and she is going to have to face Rhea. Morgan says that Ripley is right, which is why she’s going to put her money where her mouth is and finish the job that she started when she breaks Rhea’s face on the steel cage tomorrow night.
Ripley laughs, calling Morgan “sweet” and “naive” before saying that she is going to cave Morgan’s face in so bad that Dominik Mysterio, the love of her life, isn’t going to even want to look at her. Morgan looked upset and seemed like she wanted to fight, but then stopped her team, telling Ripley that she knows what she’s doing, but their team will see them all tomorrow night as they are now leaving. Ripley quickly exclaims that she hates waiting and the teams break out into an altercation on the stage and ramp, with officials rushing out to separate the commotion.
The first round of the Women’s United States Championship tournament continued as Piper Niven (accompanied by first round winner Chelsea Green) and Michin took on Lash Legend in a triple threat match. Legend replaced Jade Cargill following her attack last week.
Right off the bat, the match followed the trend of all three competitors trying to get an early chance of taking control. It didn’t take long for things to start going Michin’s way as she hit a crossbody onto both Legend and Niven outside the ring. Green interfered by trying to kick her, which was allowed as the match was of “no disqualification” rules. As Green confronted a laid-out Michin, B-Fab made her way out to even the score, with the two fist-fighting into the backstage area. The three continued to try pinning each other, with no end to the contest in sight, not even when Legend executed an impressive chokeslam on Niven.
The match would end as Niven attempted to hit the Piper Driver on Michin from the top turnbuckle, but Legend would punch Michin and send her to the ground. With the match now looking like it was in the bag for Legend, The Boujee Bully would take advantage of a missed senton and lift Niven up for the Lash Extension, but Michin got up in time to hit a senton, sending Lash out of the ring and pinning Niven for the three count.
Survivor Series: WarGames airs tomorrow on Peacock in the United States, and the WWE Network everywhere else. Please note that for international viewers, premium live events plus episodes of NXT and SmackDown will be streaming on Netflix starting in January when Raw begins airing on the service worldwide; for American viewers, premium live events will remain on Peacock, and NXT and SmackDown will stay on its respective homes of The CW and USA Network.
Below are the American time slots for the show and its related programming on Peacock:
Survivor Series: WarGames Countdown: 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT
Survivor Series: WarGames PLE: 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT
The post-show will take place immediately after the show ends.
As for matches, here’s what we’ll see tomorrow night:
WarGames: Rhea Ripley, Bayley, Bianca Belair, IYO SKY, and Naomi vs. Liv Morgan, Candice LeRae, Nia Jax, Raquel Rodriguez, and Tiffany StrattonNext week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown will feature the following:
Naomi vs. Tiffany Stratton vs. Elektra Lopez – final first round match in the Women’s United States Championship tournamentMake sure to share your thoughts on this week’s episode in the comments below!
