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Hello people, it’s Friday so it’s time for WWE Smackdown. We’re back stateside tonight and in a few weeks we’ll be set for Night of Champions. To that end we’ve got two more Fatal 4-Way matches tonight. On the men’s side Jey Uso vs. LA Knight vs. Royce Keys vs. Finn Balor. Balor was traded to Smackdown a little bit ago, what exactly did RAW get out of that officially by the way? Almost any of those four would be a believable winner, maybe minus Keys who seems stuck near the temu Bloodline vortex. As for the ladies we’ve got Jade Cargill vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Sol Ruca vs. Lyra Valkyria. The Smackdown representation in the Royal Tournaments this year seems a little light with RAW wrestlers taking up 3 of the 4 men’s spots thus far and 3 of the 4 women’s spots. WWE is pretty clearly telling you how little they care about the blue brand these days. Speaking of, Gunther will get to name his stipulation for a WWE title rematch with champion Cody Rhodes tonight. Just like Kevin Owens did. . . just like Drew McIntyre did. . . and probably just like Sami Zayn will in the not too distant future. Speaking of the human pile of garbage, expect Sami Zayn to stick his nose into the WWE title scene again. WWE women’s champion Rhea Ripley is still a question mark, women’s US champion Tiffany Stratton is a little directionless, though on the men’s midcard scene Ricky Saints and Carmelo Hayes seem poised to do what Hayes has done with Andrade and Ilja Dragunov, just work a bunch of really good matches then go nowhere after. US champion Trick Williams has an over chant so he doesn’t have to do anything else, and hasn’t been doing anything else lately. The tag division is still a mess, now the War Raiders are showing up asking for a title shot as they’re the AAA tag champions but Damian Priest and R-Truth don’t seem to have a direction. Fatal Influence seem like they’re going to take the women’s tag belts at some point at least. Still no direction for Ilja, no sighting of Shinsuke Nakamura, no work for Rey Fenix, Blake Monroe is still stuck in traffic I guess, Randy Orton is still taking time off as is Drew McIntyre. But you better believe we’ll make time for Talla Tonga to stink up the joint each week. But with two Fatal 4-Ways and three hours to fill let’s hope Smackdown gets things back on track.

We open with a recap of the WWE title stuff from last week.

We see WWE champion Cody Rhodes arrive and find Nick Aldis. Aldis still has no update on Gunther, but we’ll find out stuff from him later tonight. Cody isn’t surprised and walks off then finds the Usos. Fist bumps are exchanged then Jey says he’s going to win King of the Ring and come after the WWE title at SummerSlam. Cody hopes Jey is right, because Jey deserves it, but hopes it’s Jey’s decision to do so and not Roman’s.

Elsewhere we see more wrestlers arrive while Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett welcome us to the show. We do get an update on Rhea Ripley, apparently the update is she’s still being evaluated. Then a recap of Jade Cargill pinning Tiffany Stratton last week in tag team action. In the back Cathy talks with Jade and her flunkies, Jade feels no pressure to recreate her winning last year. Michin and B-Fab chime in to contribute nothing before Jade says she’ll see Ripley at SummerSlam. The music of Charlotte Flair hits though and she’s heading to the ring for our first match.

Charlotte is followed by Sol Ruca and Lyra Valkyria with Jade getting the final walk.

Match #1 – Fatal 4-Way Match: Charlotte Flair vs. Sol Ruca vs. Lyra Valkyria vs. Jade Cargill w/ B-Fab and Michin

Everyone circles then Jade clocks Charlotte and Sol. Lyra attacks Jade and eventually all three women team up to attack Jade. Jade fights off a double suplex, then catches a jumping Lyra and hits a fall away slam throwing her into Sol. Charlotte and Jade stare down now then Charlotte with chops and her Cena levels of audible spot calling, then she hits a German suplex. B-Fab and Michin screw up pulling Charlotte out but eventually do and attack her on the floor. Alexa Bliss shows up to even the odds that doesn’t work but Tiffany Stratton shows up as well to team up with Bliss and dispose of B-Fab and Michin. Charlotte with a crossbody to Jade but Sol and Lyra break things up as we head to break.

Because we’re no pretaped I’ve got Netflix feeds back. The three faces trade pin attempts for a bit but no one can find a 3 count before Jade shows up to clothesline Charlotte and Sol down. Jade with corner work to Charlotte then clotheslines Sol down. Sol runs into a back elbow from Jade, Charlotte rolls up Jade for 2 then takes a terrible clothesline in response from Jade. Jade with corner work to Sol now and a suplex. Charlotte shows back up, did Lyra get hurt or something? Chops from Charlotte but Jade clotheslines her back down. Oh, there’s Lyra but she gets double legged by Jade then tossed out of the ring. Jade slams Sol as we come back to the broadcast. Sol and Jade square up, with Sol finally getting the better of Jade, Jade tries to catch a jumping Sol but slips and has to roll through to complete the spot then Lyra dropkicks her down. Lyra finally gets to do stuff and hits Charlotte with an enziguri then a Fisherman’s Buster for Sol. Jade tries to suplex Lyra but Lyra counters into a spike DDT, then Charlotte allegedly with a Natural Selection to Lyra but that was ugly as sin. Charlotte with a corner kick to Sol, then heads to the apron for her usual apron work. Sol kicks Charlotte up top then jumps up, back flips to her feet and Lyra rams Sol into Charlotte. Lyra climbs up with Charlotte, she wants a superplex but Jade shows up and they slowly work out a Tower of Doom spot. Jade and Charlotte are left alone, the crowd think this is awesome which doesn’t speak well to their taste. Chops from Charlotte then the walk over clothesline. Sol shows up to dropkick Charlotte then fires up, jumps over Jade then Lyra rolls up Sol for 2. Lyra sends Sol to the apron the punches her down before hitting a lovely diving dropkick to Jade on the floor. Sol up top and moonsaults onto the pile of bodies and everyone’s down. Sol throws Lyra back in the ring and hits a springboard Splash for a near fall as we head picture in picture.

Sol with a Dragon Sleeper on Lyra but Charlotte shows up to hit her with the headscissors take overs. Sol grabs a Tarantula on Charlotte but Lyra breaks that up then grabs the reverse Boston Crab into a pendulum swing on Sol. Jade breaks that up with a kick that might have legitimately busted up Lyra’s nose. Jade with corner work to Charlotte and Sol, then she lines up Lyra for corner work as well. OK, Lyra’s nose isn’t bleeding at least. Jade retains control over all three women then does more corner work to Charlotte. Sol dodges a corner attack then flips out of a back suplex from Jade and trips her then hits running attacks before running into a spinebuster as we come back to the broadcast. Jade up top, Charlotte attacks her up there though and climbs up with her. Sol recovers and climbs up as well, she and Charlotte want a double superplex and hit it with Jade losing her wig a bit on the landing. Lyra shows up to try and find a pin but can’t get a 3 count. Sol avoids a corner attack from Lyra then kicks her, kicks Charlotte as well then gets both of them with a springboard Buckshot Lariat but she turns into a pump kick from Jade. Jade, still holding her hair on, tries Jaded on Charlotte and hits it but Lyra breaks up the pin. Lyra tries Nightwing, Jade fights out of that but Sol hits Jade with a Sol Snatcher, Lyra yanks Sol out of the pin though and hits a leg drop on Jade. Charlotte with Natural Selection, no Lyra avoided it and everyone trade kicks. Charlotte with a Figure 8 on Lyra and Lyra has to tap.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Charlotte Flair won in 18:00

Rating: 2.5 stars
Thoughts: They really had a killer 14 minute match here but it got stretched out a hair too long. The opening few minutes were a little rough overall but the finishing stretch was quite good. Jade clearly has a limited scope of her control segments because there was a lot of repeat stuff from her, and the overall layout did feel a little lifeless at times. Again though the finishing minutes were quite good, this just needed to be a few minutes shorter to really click all the way through.

In the back Tiffany walks and finds Cathy. Tiffany isn’t friends with Tiffany but no one wants Jade. Michin and B-Fab menace Tiffany but Chelsea Green shows up with a kendo stick to back them off and volunteers her and Tiffany to face them later tonight.

Jimmy and Jey warm up, and Jacob Fatu shows up to relay a message from Roman. Fatu is here to talk to Solo Sikoa while Jimmy is here to make sure no one gets involved in Jey’s match. That sends us to break.

We come back to another Blake Monroe video. This week she talks about Charlotte Flair.

In the back Gunther talks with Aldis, Gunther can’t trust Aldis and for next week he can’t trust Aldis choosing the ref so Gunther will pick the official. Aldis asks who, Gunther will tell him by the end of the night. You’ve got unlimited stipulations and you’re going with special ref?

Elsewhere Cathy talks with Finn Balor. Balor is excited to be on Smackdown, he’s got old friends and foes here. R-Truth shows up and is happy the Judgement Day is back together. Priest shows up after Truth’s comedy, then Truth is happy while Priest and Balor have tension. Truth tries to play peacemaker, then Balor heads out to get ready. Priest tells Truth not to trust Balor after what Balor did to him. All that matters is them defending the titles next week against. . . the Island Boys. FML, again?! We’ve seen that done to freaking death at this point.

Back to the ring here comes Brie Bella and Paige for their tag match, they’ll take on Fatal Influence after this break.

Match #2 – Tag Team Match: Paige and Brie Bella vs. Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid w/ Jacy Jayne

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