Friday Night SmackDown aired this week as a pre-taped episode from inside the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany.
Our first sighting of the women this week was the tandem of the new Women’s United States Champion Giulia and her representative Kiana James, who were interviewed by Byron Saxton. When asked what last week’s victory over previous champion Chelsea Green meant to her, The Beautiful Madness said that the title was back where it belonged. James added that Giulia was an asset, an asset with an upside that the SmackDown women’s division simply hasn’t accounted for, and soon, she’ll dominate the entire market. Giulia agrees with the statements of James, and says that tonight, she will make an example out of her opponent, Alexa Bliss, who she pointed out as a former champion and legend of the women’s division.
Alexa Bliss was on the phone with her tag team partner Charlotte Flair, remarking that she didn’t know the match was going to happen until today. Bliss advised her to rest, recover, and drink plenty of fluids, revealing that The Queen was out sick, before she cut off her call and ran into Nia Jax and Lash Legend, who mocked her illness. Legend says it’s funny that the second Bliss gets an opportunity for herself, Charlotte is nowhere to be found. When Bliss says that they don’t know what they’re talking about, Jax counters and says she knows exactly what they’re talking about. According to Jax, the second it was about Alexa, Charlotte did not like it and had to make it about herself by not showing up.
Bliss retorts and says that Jax is only saying that because that’s something she, as in Jax, would do, and as a word of advice to Legend, advises her to drop Jax before she brings her down. Bliss then leaves for her match, as Jax remarks that Bliss was incredibly rude and is just lost.
NOTE: Same video, but starting at 4:13 for the match.
The Women’s United States Championship match followed. Giulia and Bliss pushed each other to begin the match, with Giulia grabbing her hair and then running into her at the turnbuckles, following it up with a missile dropkick. The Beautiful Madness then tossed her across the ring with a snapmare. With the action breifly spilling outside the ring, James caused Bliss to trip on the ring apron and grabbed her hair while referee Charles Robinson paid attention to Giulia, who then pivoted to hitting a neckbreaker on Bliss, sending her to the floor.
As Giulia got back in the ring, James used her one of her boots to step on Bliss’s pigtails, although when Robinson saw what was going on, the assistant tried to play it off as a simple accident whilst looking at her nails. Bliss got back in the ring before the count of ten, but Giulia continued to make it her mission to hurt Bliss, even putting her nails into her opponent’s nostrils. James once again took the opportunity of the unknowing referee to strike Bliss with a punch to the face.
Bliss soon fought back against Giulia, throwing out punches, a dropkick, and some clotheslines, but the action remained back-and-forth. Just when Bliss was ready to hit Sister Abigail, James got up on the ring apron, only for Bliss to throw her into the ring. As Robinson sent James out of the ring, Bliss geared herself up for Twisted Bliss only for Lash Legend to push her off. This helped Giulia hit the northern lights bomb on Bliss to retain the title.
Afterwards, Legend hit a forearm on Bliss and helped Jax hit the Annihilator on her. With Flair not in the venue to help her out, Bliss was all alone in the ring as Jax called her a loser.
Nick Aldis and Jordynne Grace were situated right outside his office, with Aldis saying it is with great pleasure that he officially welcomes her to SmackDown, making her the newest female Superstar among the ranks of Team Blue. Grace says that she is excited, but that excitement doesn’t last as Chelsea Green, as she always does, runs to Aldis for some complaining. Green demands a “re-re-rematch” for the Women’s United States Championship, but Aldis encourages her to welcome Grace.
Grace then brings up that this attitude is exactly what she was talking about before with Aldis, that she wasn’t going to be a Diva, like some of the other women on the SmackDown roster, but Alba Fyre buts in to let her know that she needs to watch her mouth and fix her tone. Grace and Fyre get in each other’s faces, which leads to Aldis booking a match between them both; he had been looking for a first opponent for Grace, and Fyre has stepped up. Grace can’t wait, and walks off. As for Green, Aldis tells her that she can help Fyre get ready for her match, and calls him “insufferable, even in German.”
The match between Alba and Jordynne took place during the show’s second hour, with The Powerhouse sporting blue ring gear to commemorate her in-ring debut on the blue brand. Grace immediately hit Fyre with a chop and sent her face-first into the turnbuckle twice. She then hit two clotheslines and dropped Fyre onto the ring mat. The redheaded Secret Hervice agent did her best to fight back, and was able to pull out a DDT to stop Grace in her tracks.
A “fyred-up” Alba threw some punches and tried a double underhook suplex, only for Grace to show off some impressive athleticism and execute a folding powerbomb on Alba. Chelsea got up on the ring apron in an attempt to distract Grace, only for the new SmackDown star to throw Alba into her and falling to the floor. Grace then hit a Torture Rack bomb on Fyre to win the match.
As she walked out of the ring afterwards, Grace went face-to-face with the WWE Women’s Champion, Jade Cargill, who walked out with a microphone in hand and cornered Grace, questioning if Grace thought she did something or thought she was special. Now, she is on Cargill’s show, and Cargill is that bitch.
Nathan Frazer was getting ready to answer Carmelo Hayes’s open challenge for the United States Champion, asking Axiom why he wasn’t in gear, but when he questioned how he got his blue mask back, Frazer was attacked by Johnny Gargano, who was pretending to be Axiom in disguise. Candice LeRae assisted Gargano with the scheme as she grabbed Frazer’s hair when he revealed himself, only for the two to be chased off by the real Axiom.
Friday Night SmackDown airs next week from inside the OVO Arena Wembley in London, England, but there are no women’s matches or segments scheduled as of this writing.
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s episode of SmackDown in the comments below.