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WWE SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (May 20, 2022) with a live show emanating from Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, featuring all the latest build to next month’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view (PPV) event.
Advertised for tonight: There will be a tag team title unification match between RK-Bro (the Raw tag champs) and The Usos (the SmackDown tag champs).
Elsewhere on the card, WWE will have to find a new challenger for Ronda Rousey’s SmackDown women’s championship. Hell in a Cell is only two weeks away, so there isn’t much time left to figure it out.
Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on FOX. It will be below this line here. (Note: Going forward, there will be no ban on GIFs or images in the live blog threads. Feel free to post as you wish.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR MAY 20
You’ll listen to reason while you’re face down in the dirt. You’ll stomach the hurt and break for him here, just how much he’s worth. Following you across the interstate walking away, I’ll fire on and liveblog this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens with a hype reel for the tag title unification match.
The Bloodline make their entrance.
Roman Reigns asks Grand Rapids to acknowledge him and continues, talking about how special tonight is ‘cause you’re not just acknowledging him, tonight you acknowledge his cousins the Usos, and thus, the Bloodline. Paul Heyman welcomes us to the single biggest night in the history of tag team wrestling.
He puts Roman over as the GOAT, over a litany of the top stars of years past, promising you can stack them all up and they’d get smashed and pinned by Reigns. And further he talks about the Usos and their claim to being the greatest tag team of all time and says they’ll only reinforce the legitimacy of their claim if they unify the belts, something no other team has ever done (with these versions of the titles).
It’s not enough just to be the cousins of the Tribal Chief, so tonight they’ll come home as undisputed tag team champions or they won’t come home at all. Tonight they’ll beat RK-BRO and become the greatest tag team of all time, and that’s not a prediction, that’s a spoiler.
Roman tells his cousins that they know what he wants and he expects them to deliver. The only reason he has these expectations is because he loves them, and he brings them in for a hug.
Shinsuke Nakamura makes his entrance to send us to break.
Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Zayn in with a side headlock, shot off, shoulder block, cover for one. Reverse chinlock applied, Nakamura fights to his feet, Sami shifts to an armbar, to a wristlock, Shinsuke rolls through, big reversal to an arm wringer, hammerlock pass to a side headlock, shot off, shoulder block.
Off the ropes, drop down, fake out the leapfrog and Nakamura lays him out with a roundhouse kick! Chest kicks into an enzuigiri, a little Good Vibrations, whip blocked and Zayn hits a hair pull mat slam! Mounted punches, whip across, big lariat takes Shinsuke off his feet, cover for two!
Jockeying for position in the turnbuckles, Nakamura crotches him and lies in wait, Sami sidesteps Kinshasa, Shinsuke up top and Zayn drops him off the top and to the floor as we go to break.
Back from commercial, Zayn grabs a reverse chinlock, hoping to grind Nakamura down. Shinsuke fights out, evens the odds with a kick, charges in, enzuigiri into the sliding German suplex through the ropes! Headed up top, the diving Kinshasa across the back of the head... SO CLOSE!
Another kick leaves Sami staggered, but he wakes up in time to run away from the knee! Michinoku Driver on the floor when Shinsuke follows after him, waiting while referee Ryan Tran counts... NAKAMURA BEATS THE COUNT! Zayn distraught, kicking Shinsuke out of the ring, whip reversed and Sami goes hard into the post and Nakamura throws him over the timekeeper’s barricade!
Tran counts... AND SAMI BEATS THE COUNT ONLY TO RUN CLEAN INTO KINSHASA! IT’S OVER!
Shinsuke Nakamura wins by pinfall with Kinshasa.
We get a video package for the Usos.
Happy Corbin makes his entrance, and he’ll host Happy Talk after the break.
Back from commercial, Happy Corbin welcomes us to Happy Talk.
He knows he says this every week, but this is the happiest he’s been, and none of us can understand how happy he is. He talks about how expensive his dopey hat and watch are and says he’s happy because he rid WWE of that mouthbreathing moron Madcap Moss and got himself a souvenir in the form of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal Trophy in Memory of Andre the Giant.
He says he got fined a lot of money for smashing Madcap with the trophy, but he’s so rich it doesn’t matter and like every piece of art you appreciate it more a second time, so he replays the video. He says we should all learn from that and appreciate that and you should always show your boss total respect and never attempt to improve your station.
Moss wanted to get out of his shadow, to become a big star and rise to the top of WWE like a bigshot, and who’s laughing now? He might just be the big bald wolf, because he huffed and he puffed and put Madcap in an ambulance.
Happy goes to the floor and smashes the trophy up before standing tall and waving the lil Andre around.
We get a recap of last week’s attack by GUNTHER on Drew Gulak.
Imperium make their entrance to send us to break.
Drew Gulak vs. GUNTHER
The match is joined in progress and GUNTHER drops Gulak with a boot! Arm wringer and a big chop, this is over in short order...
GUNTHER wins by pinfall with the Tenryu Powerbomb.
Post-match, GUNTHER puts a Boston Crab on Drew!
Ricochet makes the save!
LA Knight meets Adam Pearce backstage and introduces himself as Max Dupri, CEO of Maximum Male Models and says he’s here to scout superstars that can headline fashion week and WrestleMania. Pearce doesn’t know who he is and Max tells him that Sonya Deville said Adam was very excited to have him when she hired him.
Pearce says Sonya’s status means he’s probably out of luck and Dupri says he has a signed contract, so Adam says he guesses he’ll have to reach out and work something out.
We see RK-BRO getting ready for an interview and go to break.
Back from commercial, RK-BRO are interviewed.
Matt Riddle says he’s been beating the Usos one by one week after week and RK-BRO 4:20 says we just smoked your asses. Randy Orton says the Usos were sweating bullets earlier tonight because they know that after the smoke clears, Roman Reigns is going to look at them in disappointment and shame.
We get a recap of Raquel Rodriguez wrestling Ronda Rousey last week.
Shotzi Blackheart is shown watching in Gorilla when Aliyah rolls up.
They bicker at each other, Aliyah upset that Blackheart locked her in the locker room last week, when Rodriguez rolls up. Shotzi says she couldn’t beat Ronda because she has all the physical tools but she doesn’t know what to do with them, six feet of disappointment, and she’s gonna make her pay in their match right now.
Raquel tells her she’s dead, but in Spanish.
We get entrances and go to break.
Back from commercial we get some hype for Clash at the Castle.
Raquel Rodriguez vs. Shotzi Blackheart
Rodriguez ramming her into the corner, elevated wristlock into a short-arm shoulder block, arm wringer, Blackheart throwing forearms, whip across, boot up, enzuigiri connects, sunset flip blocked, chokebomb into the turnbuckles! Shotzi fight back, hanging figure four headscissors, reversed into an electric chair, reversed into a sleeper hold, but Raquel rams her into the corner to break!
Blackheart with kicks, Rodriguez with a headbutt, boot up from the corner, looking for a Frankensteiner but Raquel blocks and hits a fallaway slam! Another one, a corkscrew splash, she’s fired up, pumphandle lift...
Raquel Rodriguez wins by pinfall with the one-arm powerbomb.
Xavier Woods is interviewed in Gorilla.
He asks if Butch can get things done by himself and says he’s flying solo tonight and he invites him to do the same.
Woods makes his entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Fight Night, their graphic now saying “Brawling Brutes”, give Butch a pep talk and send him out alone.
Pete “Butch” Dunne vs. Xavier Woods
Woods launching himself out of the ring with a dropkick, back inside and Dunne cuts him off with a stomp and lays mounted punches in! Reverse chinlock groundes him further, Xavier fights to his feet, body blows, big rolling thunder lariat gets two! Fireman’s carry, Pete claws the eyes to slip out, fishhooks, hanging him in the ropes for Kawada kicks!
Headed up to the second, Xavier ducks, enzuigiri from the apron, springboard into a forearm and more mounted punches! Woods reverses...
Xavier Woods wins by pinfall with the small package.
RK-BRO are hanging out backstage and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Xavier Woods is interviewed backstage.
He says he’s sick of the numbers game and he’s got somebody to join him and Kofi for a six-man tag team match that the Brawling Brutes aren’t going to like.
Commentary parrots the party line about Sasha Banks and Naomi walking out on Monday and announces that they’ve been suspended indefinitely and there’ll be a tournament to crown new tag champs.
We get entrances for our main event and go to break.
RK-BRO (Matt Riddle & Randy Orton) (Raw) vs. the Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) (SD) (WWE Raw Tag Team Championship / WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship Unification Match)
Riddle and Jimmy to start, leg pick, looking for a sleeper but Uso gets the ropes! Tag to Orton, Garvin stomps, tag back to Riddle, chops in the corner, Jimmy with a whip across and he regains control. Mat slam, hard whip into the corner, referee Dan Engler throws the X up and a medic comes and checks on Matt as we go to break.
Back from commercial, Riddle is good to go and the Usos double-team him as we’re informed that Matt has suffered a bruised hip. More double teams, we’re in full-on heat segment territory as the Usos work him over. Eventually tags are made and Orton comes in hot! Snap scoop powerslams connect, hanging DDT. RKO... JEY USO MAKES THE SAVE!
Whip across, Riddle with a tag, Pele kick, kip-up, charging forearms, fisherman suplex, high jump senton but the knees are up! Back suplex neckbreaker, up top, jockeying for position, Roman runs in for the assist, Jey off the top...
The Usos win by pinfall with a diving splash from Jey Uso on Matt Riddle to unify the WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
Post-match, the Bloodline continue attacking RK-BRO. They set Riddle up on the announce desk, Jey off the top... DIVING SPLASH THROUGH THE TABLE! Reigns chokes Orton with a guillotine until road agents pry him off!
The Bloodline stand tall.
That’s the show, folks.
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