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WWE SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Oct. 16, 2020) with a show from the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. Tonight’s lineup includes Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman, New Day’s farewell, Daniel Bryan’s return, Lars Sullivan vs. Jeff Hardy, the Street Profits defending their tag titles, and more!
Come right back here at 8 p.m. ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on FOX. It will be below this line here. (REMINDER: NO GIFS OR PICS ARE ALLOWED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR OCT. 16
Let’s admire the pattern forming, murderous filigree. I’m caught in the twisting of the vine, go ascend with ivy, climbing, while I liveblog this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens into the intro video.
The SmackDown locker room is assembled on the stage with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H in the ring.
Steph welcomes us to the season premiere of SmackDown and Hunter says tonight means all new action and drama and there’s a little something for everyone, including Roman Reigns defending the Universal Championship against Braun Strowman, New Day’s farewell match, and Jeff Hardy vs. Lars Sullivan.
They talk up some of SmackDown’s stars and a brawl breaks out, sparked by Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode attacking the Street Profits! Everybody’s going at it, Montez Ford dives on both challengers, Lars Sullivan shows up and destroys Kalisto before fighting Apollo Crews and Chad Gable off two-for-one.
Jeff Hardy attacks him from behind and sends him running, low-bridging the Freak to the floor!
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, Jeff Jarrett is shown in the crowd as one of the many ThunderDome screens.
Jeff Hardy vs. Lars Sullivan
Sullivan dominating the early goings, throwing Hardy around and hitting heavy crossface strikes. Sliding lariat gets two, Lars goes for the diving headbutt but misses! Jeff throwing hands, he gets a jawbreaker, the Manhattan Drop but Sullivan blocks the double leg! Twist of Fate blocked, Lars shoves Hardy to the floor and rolls out the opposite side after him.
Hardy looking for Poetry in Motion, he gets caught and slammed on the apron! Back inside, beat the count, kick to the cut, Twist of Fate connects this time! Jeff up top, Lars catches him with the goozle...
Lars Sullivan wins by pinfall with the Freak Accident.
Commentary hypes up tonight’s show, including Daniel Bryan’s return.
Back from commercial, we get a Bianca Belair hype reel.
New Day cut a promo, talking about how they’re going to be split across the brands now.
They’ve had a week to deal with it and they reminisce about the highlights of their career and get emotional talking about the origin of New Day.
Our heel trio are interviewed backstage about how they’re going to send New Day packing forever
They make their entrance but we go to break before the match can begin.
Back from commercial we get some football analysts talking about our main event.
BARtist Collective (Cesaro, Sheamus, & Shinsuke Nakamura) vs. New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, & Xavier Woods)
Woods and Nakamura to start, Xavier takes the lead in some mat grappling. Off the ropes, slide under, blind tag from Kingston, pop-up stomp for two! Cesaro with a tag, the heels take control, but Kofi gets a dropkick out of the corner and tags Big E in! Leapfrog senton, quick tag, electric chair splash... NOPE!
Sheamus in for the first time, Woods with a rolling elbow and a sliding knee, tag to E! Off the ropes, rolling powerbomb puts X into the Celtic Warrior and Kofi comes off the top with a splash... STILL NO! Triple-teaming Kingston on the floor, back inside, Good Vibrations and quick tags send us to break.
Back from commercial, Kingston his the SOS on Sheamus and the path is clear! Tag to E, he comes in hot with the belly-to-belly suplexes, off the ropes, big splash, fired up! He scoops Cesaro up, but he floats out and hits the Karelin lift! Uppercuts in the corner but Woods tags in, Rock Bottom / lungblower combo... NOT ENOUGH!
Nakamura in, he gets a nearfall in short order and puts boots to Xavier. He puts Shinsuke into the ropes, pass-through dropkick gets the tag, Kofi off the ropes... trust fall tope! Sheamus tries to pull him up the apron, kick counters, Kingston throws Nakamura back in, up top... ENZUIGIRI COUNTERS THE DIVE!
Tag to Cesaro, giant swing, Kinshasa, tag to Sheamus, catapult into the spike White Noise... BIG E MAKES THE SAVE! BIG ENDING TO THE SWISS CYBORG! The match breaks down into “everybody do something cool”, Sheamus goes over to Kofi, jawing at him, he fires a headbutt back, tags made...
New Day win by pinfall with Midnight Hour on Sheamus.
Post-match, New Day huddle together and Big E thanks Kofi and Xavier.
Backstage, Otis is interviewed.
Or well, Sami Zayn rolls up before he can say a word, pointing out that Otis has lost both his best friend and his girlfriend to Raw, so he’s probably going to lose the Money in the Bank lawsuit as well. Dozer shoves Sami over and we cut away.
Daniel Bryan makes his entrance in street clothes to send us to break.
Back from commercial, we see Brie Bella and Birdie Joe Danielson watching from the ThunderDome.
Daniel Bryan gets on the mic and talks about how impressive the ThunderDome is. He says he loves his time at home, but he couldn’t wait to come back and experience this. And what a night! The Street Profits defending the tag titles, Roman Reigns defending the Universal Championship, and on top of that, he got to meet, in person, the new SmackDown roster.
There are fresh faces he’s excited about like Bianca Belair, the Riott Squad, people he’s excited to fight like Kevin Owens, Aleister Black (who of course he fought in wXw’s very first shoot-style tournament, AMBITION, back in the day in a match that’s very worth hunting down on YouTube), and Apollo Crews—
Enter Seth Rollins.
He’s upset that Bryan didn’t name him amongst the men he’s excited to wrestle, but he also has an important question— which side of history would he like to be on? When it comes to the greater good, you’re either with him or against him, and surely a man of Dan’s intellect will want to stand beside him and help him mold the future of the industry to his vision.
Bryan says he’s all for changing the future for the better, he wants to save the planet and all, but to be honest, Rollins’ vision seems short-sighted, self-indulgent, and frankly a little dumb. Dan keeps calling it dumb as Seth gets more and more upset before snapping and attacking the American Dragon!
Bryan turtles up before coming off the ropes, ducking a lariat, and hitting an Axe Bomber! Blazer off, chest kicks, but Rollins runs away!
Enter Rey & Dominik Mysterio, cutting Seth’s retreat off!
They back him into the ring, Rollins begs Bryan to join him but Dan just rolls out of the ring and leaves him to it.
But Buddy Murphy runs to the ring!
He gets between Seth and Rey but turns on Rollins and beats him down! Big knee strike sends Seth flying out of the ring!
Buddy shares an awkward moment with the Mysterios before they leave the ring.
Another Fox analyst talks about the draft.
Street Profits make their entrance and cut an inset promo about defending their titles as we go to break.
Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs. Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) (c) (WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship)
Ziggler and Dawkins to start, Angelo using his strength, shoulder block, drop down, leapfrog, dropkick! But Roode tags in and puts boots to him, warned out of the corner by referee Jessika Carr, straight suplex for two. Leapfrog Fameasser... FORD MAKES THE SAVE! Brawling Robert into the corner, Ziggler cuts him off, the match is completely broken down and Carr calls for the bell...
The match goes to an unannounced double disqualification draw.
The brawl continues after the match.
We get a video package for the Bayley/Sasha Banks feud.
Sasha Banks makes her entrance to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Bayley makes her entrance, chair in hand.
Five-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce is on-hand to preside over their contract signing.
Bayley talks about her title reign and how she did it all by herself, which gets Banks to interrupt and Bayley accuses her of waiting to turn on her the entire time. Sasha fires back, pointing out that she stood by her side the entire time and they won the tag titles together. Congratulations, you’re the longest-reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion, but Sasha helped her every time and she turned her back on her.
At Hell in a Cell, she’s going to end Bayley, because her name is bigger than that title. Bayley refuses to sign the contract and walks off, which leads the Boss to call her a coward. But when she’s locked in Hell in a Cell, there’s no way to run, and she’s gonna make her sign that contract one way or the other.
We see Braun Strowman preparing backstage to send us to break.
Back from commercial, various celebrities including Ken Jeong and Joel McHale share their thoughts about the WWE Draft.
We get main event entrances and see Jey Uso watching on a monitor backstage before we go to break.
Back from commercial, another Fox analyst is chatting with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin about who he wants to hit a Stunner on, the answer to which is... a tree?
I don’t know, folks.
Mark Henry is shown watching from the ThunderDome.
Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns (c) (WWE Universal Championship)
Collar and elbow, Strowman in control but Reigns forces him out of the corner and dumps him to the floor! Braun back up on the apron... SUPERMAN PUNCH KNOCKS HIM DOWN! Drive-By follows, he throws Strowman back inside and covers him but it’s only a nearfall. Putting boots to the big man in the corner, whip reversed, big slicing right out of the corner!
A big boot follows, another nearfall! Low bridge sends the monster to the floor, smashing his face into the steel steps, into the announce table, Braun shrugs him off and catches him when he jumps off the steps, throwing him over the announce table! Back inside, seemingly happy to take the countout, but soon enough he leaves the ring and pounces Roman over the barricade to send us to break!
Back from commercial, Strowman biels Reigns across the ring! Clubbing him down, cover for two, no dice! Charging in, Roman gets the boot up before passing him shoulder-first into the post on his second go! Block the Superman Punch, goozle, knee to the gut, powerbomb lift dropped into a facebuster!
Braun comes up lame in the groin after the Big Dog hit a stealth low blow on the kickout! Lining him up, spear... STROWMAN KICKS OUT! Charging in, Braun scoops him up but he slips out, shoulder into the post, counter the pop-up into a guillotine choke! Strowman hosses him up and rams him into the corner but the Big Dog won’t let go!
Fading, flagging... THE MONSTER IS OUT! IT’S OVER!
Roman Reigns wins by submission with a guillotine choke.
Post-match, Jey Uso makes his entrance.
Strowman starts to get up and Roman takes him out with a spear to send a message to his cousin!
Reigns has a chair and Jey advances on him as we can hear Braun gasping and wheezing.
Roman says this is how we eat, and if he’s not at the top, they can’t do that. He doesn’t want to do that to Jey and he’s giving him another chance to avoid ending up like Strowman.
At that, the Big Dog wails on Braun with the chair before referees and road agents (Pat Buck and former ROH World Champion Jamie Noble) swarm the ring to try and get Reigns to lay off. He does not, beating Strowman down further with the chair.
Jey gets in the ring and Roman tells him he loves him but the fact that he’s trying to take his place makes no sense and he wants him to prove himself by hitting him with the chair. Reigns turns and offers his back up, but Uso won’t do it! But he sure as hell baits hi into a superkick!
Once Roman is down, Jey starts hammering him with the chair and shouting that he loves him too! Referees and road agents swarm, Reigns gets away... A SUPERMAN PUNCH LAYS JEY OUT!
Agents check on Jey Uso.
That’s the show, folks.