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WWE Friday Night SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Feb. 24, 2023) with a live show emanating from Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, featuring all the fallout from the Elimination Chamber Premium Live Event that went down this past Saturday night in Montreal.
Advertised for tonight: Rhea Ripley visits the blue brand for a face-to-face confrontation with SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair.
Elsewhere on the card, Bray Wyatt brings back the Firefly Fun House, Rey Mysterio battles Karrion Kross in a rematch, Madcap Moss teams up with Braun Strowman and Ricochet for a six-man tag team match against Imperium, 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 FEB. 24
In the short time that I have spent here in this ghastly plane, I’ve come to find there are so many things that should be changed, but first I’m gonna liveblog this here pro wrestling show for you folks.
The show opens with a recap of Sami Zayn’s attempt to dethrone Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber and the fallout from that on Raw.
Jimmy Uso arrives at the arena and runs right into an interview.
He says he hasn’t spoken with Jey Uso yet, despite reaching out and telling him that whatever he needs to get off his chest, he can look him in the face and tell him.
Braun Strowman, Madcap Moss, & Ricochet vs. Imperium (Giovanni Vinci, GUNTHER, & Ludwig Kaiser)
Vinci to start, babyfaces pull him in for double-teams, fighting on the mat with Ricochet, side headlock, backflip into a standing shooting star press... NOPE! Tag to Kaiser, working the One and Only over, disdainful slaps to the face, whip across, roll over, back handspring misses, double throat chop cuts Ricochet right off!
Ludwig slaps Strowman across the face and he and Vinci take advantage of the distraction to take Ricochet out on the apron as we go to break!
Back from commercial, Ricochet trading strikes with Kaiser, a big lariat gets Ludwig two! GUNTHER tags in and hammers him with a big chop as Drew McIntyre comes out of the entranceway to watch from the stage! Ricky with an enzuigiri, the Ring General responds with a stomp and a tag to Giovanni!
Hot tag to Strowman, clubbing Kaiser down, and he and GUNTHER get into a striking fight! The Ring General looking for the Gojira Clutch, a shotgun dropkick leads to Moss getting the tag and hammering him with punches in the corner! Off the ropes, he clears Kaiser off the apron but eats a big chop, a German suplex, and a lariat!
GUNTHER gets him up...
Imperium win by pinfall with a powerbomb from GUNTHER on Madcap Moss.
Post-match, Viking Raiders attack Drew from behind and throw him into the barricade! The beatdown continues until Sheamus makes the save and the babyfaces overcome and stand tall!
Rey Mysterio is interviewed backstage.
He says he’s going to put an end to Karrion Kross once and for—
Santos Escobar rolls up to say there’s one thing he and his familia value, and that’s respect. He’s had the honor of earning a mask from Rey, and he wants to show the WWE Universe how much he respects him. Rey says that’s a mutual feeling but before they can shake on it, Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley roll up.
Dom talks some trash and Santos tells him he’ll teach him respect. Dom spouts off about prison and Escobar laughs before getting in his face. But it’s not his face, but rather Rhea’s, and the Judgment Day mockingly wish Mysterio luck.
Santos tells him not to let it bother him but Rey says it’s his son, how can he not be bothered?
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, Jimmy Uso is talking to Solo Sikoa about how everything’s gotten so crazy.
A few weeks ago he knew Jey was gonna come help defend the titles, but since Montreal he thinks things might be different, and he might be spooked by the whole Sami thing. Paul Heyman comes over to sit with him and says if that’s the case, maybe Solo should stay back here while Jimmy handles this Uso to Uso, personally.
LA Knight makes his entrance and gets on the mic.
He says it’s the season and everybody’s back here talking about WrestleMania moments, but he didn’t come here for moments, he came here to make money and win titles, and you do that by getting to WrestleMania. You can’t have an LA WrestleMania without LA Knight, and what that means is that he’s gonna give WrestleMania an LA Knight moment.
Enter the New Day.
Kofi Kingston points out LA’s only been on the roster for like two and a half months, so who is he to be demanding anything right now? Knight doesn’t recall inviting Nerd Day down here and says if they weren’t so busy playing video games they might realize they’re looking at a perpetual motion machine megastar.
Xavier Woods points out that being nerds has made them a hell of a lot of money and they can tell he loves handouts given the fake leather vest he’s wearing. WrestleMania moments aren’t given out, they’re earned, like Kofi working for eleven years for his moment.
LA says he doesn’t care about their path because he’s a creator of circumstance, and how’d KofiMania work out for Kofi anyway?
New Day get in the ring and Kofi says it worked out pretty well given that he won the WWE Championship and all. He won’t wait for a chance to shut LA up and a match is proposed.
Referee Jason Ayers comes down to officiate and we go to break.
Kofi Kingston vs. LA Knight
Kofi running hot out the gates, getting his Shadows Over Hell splash early for two! Tripping Knight up, he and Kofi do a celebratory dance on the floor! Back inside, LA takes him down, whiplashes him to the floor and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Knight is in control, whip to the corner, Kingston nails him with a dropkick! LA and Woods get into it on the floor, Knight telling him to go ahead and get him the DQ win before picking Kofi up and clubbing him down! LA with a shoulder block for two, Kingston counters into a folding press for a nearfall of his own!
Leaping lariat, off the ropes for the Boom Drop, Knight fires back with a pop-up Rock Bottom! LA attacks Xavier on the floor and Kofi dives on him with a huge crossbody! Back in and up top, Knight cuts him off, up top but Woods makes the distraction with the trombone...
Kofi Kingston wins by pinfall with Trouble in Paradise.
We go to break on promises of a face-to-face between Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair.
Back from commercial, Charlotte Flair makes her entrance and gets on the mic.
It’s 35 days to WrestleMania, and she can’t wait to hear what Rhea Ripley says to her face, and calls her down.
No response.
Flair says she smells hesitation and asks if Rhea remembers the last time they were in the ring together. It’s okay to be scared and have second thoughts!
Enter Dominik Mysterio.
He’s not gonna let the Queen run down his Mami, and she compliments him on following orders but tells him to go get Rhea instead of hiding behind her boy-toy. Dominik says she sounds bitter because she knows Ripley is the hottest thing in WWE right now and no other woman has won the Royal Rumble from #1.
Mysterio tells her to smile more often (gross) and takes about how women are the softer more delicate sex but Rhea is so strong she damn near breaks his back when she hugs him. And when she makes sweet— Charlotte cuts him off to say she has a real Latino man at home who calls her Mami with a much thicker... accent, so she doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.
Dominik says he just wanted to chat because they both have a lot in common. They’re both generational superstars and know what it’s like to be compared to their fathers while being better than and surpassing them.
He spins a tale about how when she loses at WrestleMania she’ll know her dad was right and she’s just not good enough. Charlotte says she loves her dad, unlike him, and he’s 74 tomorrow and if he were here he’d kick Mysterio’s but, but since he’s not, she will.
Rhea Ripley comes down and saves her guy from getting destroyed by the champ, but they slide right back in the ring when Charlotte holds the title high.
Commentary runs us through some social media sniping between Shayna Baszler and Natalya.
We see footage of Adam Pearce telling Natalya it’s up to her if she fights but she needs to be mindful of her injuries recently. Tegan Nox is there and says she’ll have Nattie’s back and Pearce goes to make it official.
Natalya makes her entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial we get some hype for Sami Zayn’s Elimination Chamber vlog.
Natalya vs. Shayna Baszler
Natalya taking it to Baszler earlier, Shayna targets the arm and Divorce Court connects, leaving Neidhart in agony. Wristlock, overhead elbows, bending the arm to her will. Nattie gets away, discus lariat gets a two, pick the legs, stomps, Sharpshooter blocked and Baszler rolls to the floor!
Throwing Shayna back in, Ronda Rousey runs interference and Shayna clocks her with a running knee and a cross armbar follows...
Shayna Baszler wins by submission with a cross armbar.
Post-match, Baszler blasts Tegan Nox off the apron with a big boot!
We get a hype reel for the WrestleMania Goes Hollywood skits and we go to break.
Back from commercial and... welp, my computer decided to crash so I lost all my original text.
Anyway, we got a weird meta episode of Firefly Fun House with footage of Bray watching his own promos, a segment from the Firefly Fun House News studio about the door opening, Uncle Howdy doing the weather, a clip of a show called Can You Keep a Secret, footage of the open door with wacky video footage underneath, and finally Uncle Howdy asking us if we can keep it secret if he tells us a story.
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial we get some hype for ticket sales for Money in the Bank.
Karrion Kross vs. Rey Mysterio
Mysterio in with forearms, a tijeras, a low bridge sends Kross to the floor! Off the ropes, northern 619, off the ropes again with a suicide dive and we go to break!
Back from commercial, Kross in control, block the boot on the charge and he hoists Mysterio up but it gets countered with a tijeras into the turnbuckles! Seated senton follows, off the ropes but Karrion trips him up and sends him crashing to the floor!
Gutbuster on the floor, back inside, fireman’s carry, Kross heads up top but Rey slips out and hits the avalanche Frankensteiner, crawling to the cover... NOPE! Dominik runs interference, and Karrion takes full advantage...
Karrion Kross wins by submission with the Krossjacket.
Post-match, Dominik confronts his father and tries to cajole him into hitting him, shoving him repeatedly. Rey steps to his son and goes chest-to-chest, ready to unload on him but the better angels of his nature win out, so Dom spins him back around and takes another crack at getting him to fight.
Rey kicks the bottom rope in frustration and leaves the ring.
Backstage, Jimmy Uso is looking at his phone before getting up and walking to send us to break.
Back from commercial we get some hype for Roman Reigns’ return next week plus a few matches.
Jimmy Uso makes his entrance and gets on the mic.
From brother to brother, he knows Jey is hurting, and when he hurts, Jimmy hurts, but he just wanted to tell him he’ll always be here for him. He knows there’s been issues and everything’s been crazy, they’ve had Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens problems, and he knows Jey has issues with the Tribal Chief but he can’t do this alone.
Sami Zayn jumps the barricade and gets in the ring.
He says he’s not here to fight and he knows Jimmy is here to talk to Jey, and he’d like to as well, but right now he’s here to talk to Jimmy. Every time he uses the word brother it breaks Sami’s heart because they were like brothers. They were dawgs, and Jimmy had his back from day one. When Jey didn’t trust him, when Paul Heyman shoveled him aside, Jimmy was there for him.
Jimmy made him the honorary uce, and without him there’s no Sami Uso, there’s no feeling ucey, and at the Royal Rumble Jimmy didn’t even think twice before taking him down, and that hurt.
Jimmy fumes at him before calling him selfish for trying to blame him for it. He says Sami made that choice, he had the chair, he pulled the trigger, and he stepped on him and on Jey. What was he supposed to do? Sami made a choice, and Jimmy did what he had to, because that’s family.
Sami says family doesn’t test your loyalty every week or jump through hoops just to prove something, they don’t manipulate you every week.
Jey Uso appears on the steps leading down the crowd.
Sami makes his pitch to Jimmy, trying to offer him a way out of the manipulation and abuse, and Jimmy jumps him! Jey makes his way down to ringside but Zayn wakes up and hits the Helluva Kick! Solo Sikoa comes to ringside and Sami runs away through the crowd right as Jey gets to the barricade. and the two of them share a look.
Solo and Jimmy stand together in the ring while Jey and Sami look pensive in different parts of the crowd.
That’s the show, folks.
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