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WWE Friday Night SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Nov. 17, 2023) with a live show emanating from Ford Center Evansville in Evansville, Indiana, featuring all the latest build to the upcoming Survivor Series premium live event scheduled for later this month near Chicago, Illinois.
Advertised for tonight: LA Knight’s feud with The Bloodline continues when he goes one-on-one with Jimmy Uso.
Also on the card: Solo Sikoa returns to WWE television after demolishing John Cena at Crown Jewel, there could be a women’s War Games match coming after Asuka turned on Bianca Belair to join up with Damage CTRL, and more!
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: Links to illegal streams are prohibited. Pics and GIFs are allowed.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR NOV. 17
Heartsick at the sight of the status seeker, in a sense I’m not beyond reproach. The aspiration to drop a name when any rose might smell the same, maybe you’ll figure it out someday, but me? I’m just here to liveblog this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.
Back from commercial we get a recap of the women’s division since Kairi Sane returned at WWE Crown Jewel.
The all-new, all-different Damage CTRL make their entrance together.
“Road Dogg” Jesse James is on commentary and promises that he will probably piss his pants tonight.
Bayley puts Asuka joining over as a top moment in WWE history, and says the new and improved Damage CTRL is the strongest faction in all of WWE right now, playing chess while the rest of you idiots are playing Candyland. Charlotte, Bianca, and Shotzi weren’t ready for Asuka, she cackles.
Asuka, IYO SKY, and Kairi Sane chat in Japanese among themselves and Bayley asks if she’s missing something, and Dakota Kai says Asuka was saying this isn’t Damage CTRL because somebody in the ring isn’t part of Damage CTRL yet, and Bayley panicks thinking she’s about to be kicked out.
Kai explains that Asuka feels she’s not officially in the stable yet, and it’s Bayley’s job to induct her, so the Role Model gets on one knee and makes like she’s proposing to Asuka and asks her to join. Asuka takes the shirt and she’s in! Dakota follows it up by saying that they want Bayley to propose a WarGames match— Damage CTRL (minus Kai) vs. Bianca Belair, Shotzi Blackheart, Charlotte Flair, and a partner of their choosing.
Shotzi attacks, Damage CTRL overwhelm her, Flair and Belair make the save but That Damn Numbers Game is against them and Damage CTRL stand tall!
Street Profits make their entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Shotzi Blackheart talks about how she wants to kick Damage CTRL’s butts, but Bianca Belair steers them towards finding a fourth member and she thinks Charlotte knows someone that fits the bill.
General Manager Nick Aldis rolls up to say he wants to know their fourth member by the end of the night.
Brawling Brutes (Pete “BUTCH” Dunne & Ridge Holland) vs. Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) vs. Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) (WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship #1 Contender’s Match)
Street Profits in control early, putting boots to Dunne while Bobby Lashley watches on a monitor backstage. Pretty Deadly turn things around on them, Wilson and Ford at it, Pete slingshots in and tags out! Holland with a shoulder block for Montez, belly-to-belly for Kitty, clobbering him in the corner, half-halch swing!
Back body drop for Ford, DDT for Wilson, clothesline him to the apron, Dunne comes over, stereo Beats of the Bodhran broken up by the Street Profits and we go to break!
Back from commercial, Dunne running hot with enzuigiris for everyone! Apron moonsault takes Wilson out, tornado DDT for Prince, stomp Dawkins’ hands and follow it up with a buzzsaw roundhouse kick! Orihara Moonsault takes everybody out! Back inside, thrust kick sets up an Asai DDT... NOPE!
Cross armbar follows, Dawkins deadlifts him and swings him into Prince to take him down and then powerbombs Pete into Elton! Trading punches, the match breaks down, Holland superplexes Wilson but Prince comes in with the blind tag! Ford splashes Ridge, Elton off the top with a leg drop... ANGELO AND PETER MAKE THE SAVE!
B-FAB rolls up on Bobby Lashley backstage and they get to chatting before we cut back to the match. BUTCH with chops for everybody, Ridge Holland in, malfunction at the junction, the Profits catch him...
Street Profits win by pinfall with Revelation on Ridge Holland, becoming #1 contenders to the WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship.
Bobby Lashley comes to the stage to celebrate with the Street Profits while a frustrated Holland leaves Dunne in the ring.
We see Bianca Belair chatting backstage with “Michin” Mia Yim and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Damage CTRL are beating the holy hell out of Mia Yim, with road agent Kenn Doane barely able to shoo them off, the damage done.
A recap of Santos Escobar turning on Rey Mysterio follows as well as an update on Rey’s surgery and his time off.
Dragon Lee makes his entrance and we see footage of him asking Nick Aldis for a match against Santos earlier today but instead being given Axiom to show what lucha libre is all about.
Axiom vs. Dragon Lee
Code of Honor observed, fast-paced in the feeling out, backslide gets a solebutt, victory roll pin, headlock takeover, Lee in control. Shot off, drop down, Dragon with a dropkick and Axiom falls to the floor... LEE WITH A CORKSCREW TOPE CON GIRO! Back inside, into the corner, slingshot boot connects and we go to break!
Axiom with a kick, to the floor, he follows with an Orihara Moonsault! Back inside, Lee up top, jockeying for position, Axiom in the Tree of Woe, double stomp... SO CLOSE! Dragon with big overhand chops, Axiom gives right back as good as he got, dropkick on the button!
O’Connor roll denied, German suplex connects, Penalty Kick, Axiom fired up! Drawing him up, Lee reverses into a brainbuster and he’s fired up! Dragon with a powerbomb lift, Axiom reverses with a flip piledriver... SO CLOSE! Up top, Axiom cuts him off with a kick, Spanish Fly off the top... STILL NO!
Front kick, Lee off the ropes, one-arm Liger Bomb... AXIOM WON’T STAY DOWN! Running knee staggers him, Dragon calls for it...
Dragon Lee wins by pinfall with Operation Dragon.
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial we get some hype for WrestleMania week ticket sales.
Santos Escobar makes his entrance and gets on the mic.
He has something to get off his chest, but he gets drowned out by boos and “You suck!” chants. He talks about how you should never meet your heroes, and he comes from a rich lucha libre tradition, and all of his family have been labeled heroes, but to him, his hero was Rey Mysterio.
He wanted to have the next generation see him the same way he saw Rey, and he was like a father to him and made him feel at home. But after last week, he realized that Dominik Mysterio was right about everything. He deserved to be United States Champion, and who won the title?
He wanted to rebuild the LWO, and who took over and brought in new members like Carlito? He switches to Spanish for a long beat before complaining that Rey sided with an outside like Carlito over him. He knows Rey is watching from his hospital bed, and he hopes all this pain reminds him of how it felt when he betrayed him.
And us, the fans, we’re gonna like this one more. He’ll apologize... for not doing more damage. And Rey, from the bottom of his heart, he hopes the surgery didn’t go well, he hopes he gets an infection and they have to amputate his leg and he NEVER comes back.
Zelina Vega is watching in Gorilla with Joaquin Wilde and Cruz del Toro and she storms out to the stage and ringside as Santos calls Rey Mysterio trash, etc.
She gets in the ring and jaws at him before slapping him and leaving, head in her hands. Joaquin and Cruz come down and Escobar asks if they’re gonna side with her over him and says he allowed them to exist.
They join him in the ring and he wants it to be the three of them together, but Wilde says he’s out of line, and Cruz says they can’t stand for what he did to Rey. Escobar says he sees and tells them to get the hell out of here, they’re dead weight.
But of course, when they go to leave, he puts boots to them and beats them up! He says he made them and he’ll destroy them whenever he wants—
CARLITO MAKES THE SAVE! Escobar leaves rather than fight him.
We get a recap of Kevin Owens getting himself suspended last week.
Grayson Waller makes his entrance to send us to break.
Cameron Grimes vs. Grayson Waller
Austin Theory is on commentary for this one.
Collar and elbow, Waller with a wristlock, Grimes rolls through, slam, kneeling keylock, following it up with a dropkick, but Grayson kicks him aside! Rolling thunder reverse STO, cover for two! Waller with a side headlock, Grimes to his feet, off the ropes, folding press for two!
Off the ropes, flying forearms, Manhattan Drop, chest kick, rolling solebutt, sliding kick! Scoop into a Bossman Slam... NOPE! Grimes fired up, Theory helping his buddy to his feet, Penalty Kick takes Austin out but Grayson trips Cameron up! Back inside, laying in wait...
Grayson Waller wins by pinfall with the flipping Killswitch, dubbed the “Dingo Driver” by Road Dogg.
We see Bianca Belair chatting with Zelina Vega outside the trainer’s room and we go to break.
Back from commercial and, of course, Damage CTRL have beaten the holy hell out of Zelina Vega.
Paul Heyman is in the ring with Solo Sikoa and “Big” Jim Uso and he says he has a big surprise for us, an acknowledgement ceremony for Solo Sikoa after his victory over John Cena. And the surprise of the night, the 16-time champion of the world, John Cena... is not here tonight, and it’s all thanks to Solo.
He talks about how Cena can’t speak now and says goodbye to John and to us on Cena’s behalf. He counts down from three and says that’s the proof that Cena’s done, because if he wasn’t he would have come out and told us it wasn’t over, etc, and it’s all because of Sikoa.
And furthermore, if he does come back now, he has to fight Solo again to prove that he’s John Cena, but he’s not John Cena anymore, again, all because of the Enforcer.
Enter LA Knight.
He says Heyman’s out here talking about cause and effect but he hasn’t mentioned how, no matter how good Roman Reigns has been, the only reason he’s still champion is because of the Bloodline, yeah. Everybody knows that’s a problem, the whole world knows that’s a problem, Knight knows that’s a problem, and he’s got a problem solver, name of LA Knight, yeah.
What’s that mean? He’s standing here on SmackDown because he made it that way, and he stood across from the champion at Crown Jewel, because he made it that way, and the Bloodline will cease to exist because he’ll make it that way, and each of them will fall until it’s just him and Roman, nowhere to go and nobody to save him, and the first stop is ol’ Jim Uso.
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial we get a media hype reel for WWE’s partnership with the Big 12, whatever that is. (Please do not contact me on Twitter to tell me what it is, I do not care.)
Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, and Shotzi Blackheart are chatting backstage and Flair agrees to make the call to find a partner.
“Big” Jim Uso vs. LA Knight
Knight with a straight suplex, cover for two, boots in the corner, but Uso rolls to the floor for a breather. Back inside, whip reversed, Samoan drop connects! Whip reversed, chops in the ropes, back body drop puts Jim on the floor, dropkick follows! Bouncing Uso’s face off the announce desk a few times, throwing him over it, Knight poses and we go to break!
Back from commercial, Knight blocks a kick but Uso gets him on the rebound, cover for two! Jim posturing for the crowd, LA sidesteps the Ode to Rikishi, back elbow, right hands, whip reversed, block the Samoan drop, DDT gets Knight some breathing room! Up in the turnbuckles, Jim shoves him down, LA ducks under, looking for BFT, blocked, duck a superkick, second try gets it...
LA Knight wins by pinfall with BFT.
Post-match, Solo Sikoa comes down the ramp and Knight draws an imaginary line in front of himself, but Uso blindsides him and Solo hits the Samoan Spike! Cody Rhodes makes the save and the babyfaces turn the tide!
Shotzi Blackheart and Bianca Belair roll up on Charlotte Flair, who doesn’t know if the woman she called will get here on time, but they’re headed to the ring and we’re going to break.
Back from commercial, Nick Aldis chats to a disappointed Cody Rhodes.
Commentary hypes up next week’s show.
Bianca Belair, Shotzi Blackheart, and Charlotte Flair make their entrances.
Charlotte gets on the mic and says they’re running out of time and they accept Damage CTRL’s WarGames challenge.
She knows a thing or two about turning on a best friend, and there’s a thin, thin, thin line between love and hate, but if she’s going to war, there’s only one person she wants on her side.
Enter Damage CTRL.
Bayley says they know Flair is bluffing because they took every girl they tried to get to join their team and she has no numbers in her phone because she’s an idiot and a loser, so they’re not going to make it out of the building tonight. Damage CTRL get up on the apron—
BECKY LYNCH IS HERE AS THE FOURTH BABYFACE FOR WARGAMES!
We get a brawl that continues until we go off the air.
That’s the show, folks.
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