WWE SmackDown live results: Roman Reigns appears
For the first time in months, Roman Reigns is slated to appear on WWE SmackDown. The episode is taking place from Tulsa, Oklahoma tonight and will feature SmackDown’s fallout from SummerSlam.
Reigns returned at last Saturday’s PLE, interfering in the Undisputed WWE Championship match between Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa. Reigns dropped Sikoa with a Superman punch and spear, which helped Rhodes retain his title.
Also tonight, LA Knight — who won the United States Championship from Logan Paul at SummerSlam — will hold a celebration.
Speaking of the U.S. title, Santos Escobar and Andrade will wrestle in a number one contender’s match. There will also be a WWE Tag Team title contender’s match between DIY and Pretty Deadly.
Jade Cargill vs. Alba Fyre has also been made official for tonight. Plus, The Street Profits are set to take on A-Town Down Under.
Join us for live coverage beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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The show opened with a recap of SummerSlam’s SmackDown matches, including the return of Roman Reigns.
Cody Rhodes Addresses SummerSlam
Cody Rhodes came out and asked what the crowd wanted to talk about. He called the WWE title the “North Star of our industry” and he has been thinking about who he would like to face at Bash in Berlin. Before he could say anything else, Solo Sikoa came out with Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa.
Sikoa said he didn’t care about what everyone wanted to talk about, he wanted to talk about SummerSlam. He demanded Rhodes give him a rematch. Rhodes said let’s talk about SummerSlam, where he couldn’t do it on his own and allowed Jacob Fatu to get injured, where Roman Reigns attacked him for cosplaying him, and where he beat Sikoa. He called Sikoa delusional for wanting a rematch.
The three Bloodline members started to circle Rhodes when Owens came out with steel chairs. The Bloodline backed off as Sikoa said he was going to find Roman Reigns. Rhodes said he’d be right here waiting for him.
Rhodes turned his attention to Owens and said he didn’t want this to be awkward, but wanted to talk to him about something. Rhodes said he’s likely to say no to this, but mentioned earlier about who he’d like to face at Bash in Berlin, saying he’d like to face Owens. Owens said he appreciated that, but he needed to earn a title match, saying he wasn’t the guy. Rhodes pointed out that the crowd saying he deserves it, and every time he needed someone in the trenches, Owens was in there with him. Rhodes said that Owens can say no all he wants, but he is going to Nick Aldis and will explain all the reasons why Owens deserves a title match. Rhodes said he’d see Owens at Bash in Berlin as Owens shook his head.
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WWE Tag Team Championship Contender’s Match: The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) (w/ B-Fab) defeated A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory & Grayson Waller)
Before the Street Profits made their entrance, they were interviewed in the Gorilla Position. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins said that ever since the real Tribal Chief in Roman Reigns returned, the Bloodline has been shaking in their boots. They wrapped up by saying that they wanted the smoke and A-Town Down Under was in the way.
Dawkins and Theory started off in the ring, as the latter got the advantage after Waller distracted Dawkins in the corner. A-Town Down Under exchanged tags as Waller threw Ford into the barricade at ringside. Dawkins’ attempt at momentum was stalled when he got sent into the ring post. Waller continued the attack at ringside before he and Theory taunted B-Fab. This allowed Ford to hit A-Town Down Under with a plancha as SmackDown headed to a commercial break.
SmackDown resumed with Theory hitting a dropkick on Dawkins as he tagged in Waller. Their attempt at a double team was foiled by Dawkins, who managed to get the hot tag from Ford.
Ford dazzled with his impressive offense as he took it to both Theory and Waller. After a near-fall, Ford tried for his frog splash, but Waller escaped as he and Theory hit a double rolling elbow on Ford.
At ringside, Dawkins pounced Waller into the timekeepers’ area, which left Theory alone with the Street Profits. Ford and Dawkins got the pin and win after a double-team super Blockbuster on Theory.
A hot opener, with the crowd rightfully excited for the Profits’ high-flying offense. They’ll face the winner of DIY versus Pretty Deadly later tonight.
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– Backstage, Cody Rhodes was discussing with Nick Aldis about giving Kevin Owens an Undisputed WWE World Title match. Owens entered the room and continued to protest until Aldis brought up that he was discussing potentially giving the title shot to Roman Reigns. Owens pointed out that the rematch clause hadn’t been enforced in years and that there were other people in the locker room that deserved a title match over Roman.
This led to Aldis making it official for Bash in Berlin: Cody Rhodes versus Kevin Owens for the Undisputed WWE World Title.
– We got a recap of Roman Reigns’ return at SummerSlam, with headlines being shown ahead of his comeback to SmackDown later tonight.
– A recap of Nia Jax winning the WWE Women’s Championship from Bayley at SummerSlam was shown. This was followed by Tiffany Stratton talking with a production member about making everything perfect for Jax’s World Title celebration. Pretty Deadly popped up and offered to unveil their musical during the celebration. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven then appeared as they said that pink wasn’t Jax’s favorite color. Green made fun of Stratton’s outfit, calling it “tacky time”. Green and Niven then suggested that Stratton might be wanting to cash in Money in the Bank on Jax. Stratton blew the two off with a “toodles” as she walked off.
– The Progressive Match Flo recapped the Women’s Tag Team Championship match between Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair versus Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn, as well as Blair Davenport’s appearance to help the Women’s Tag Champs.
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Jade Cargill (w/ Bianca Belair) defeated Alba Fyre (w/ Isla Dawn)
Fyre started by trying to lift up Cargill, but to no avail. Cargill used her strength to lift Fyre by her arm before starting her offense. Fyre stayed on top of things by hitting a tornado DDT on Cargill for the two count. Fyre then paid tribute to AJ Lee with a Black Widow submission, but Cargill fought out of it right away with a superkick. She finished things with Jaded on Fyre for the one, two, three.
Blair Davenport blindsided Cargill after the match as Fyre and Isla Dawn joined in on the attack. Naomi ran in to even the odds, as Cargill and Belair recovered and helped her clear the ring of the heels.
The match was a bit too short, but Cargill and Fyre did get their stuff in given the limited time they had to work with. The post-match with Davenport and Naomi nicely sets up a potential six-woman tag match.
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– WWE took a victory lap regarding Roman Reigns’ return, boasting that it did 104 million views across all social medias, making it the most viewed SummerSlam moment of all time. We then got a recap of LA Knight’s SummerSlam U.S. Title victory.
LA Knight’s U.S. Championship Celebration
Knight entered to the ring to a fantastic ovation from the Tulsa crowd and a brand-new entrance theme. Lou Ferrigno was shown in the crowd watching SmackDown this evening.
Knight started off with a “let me talk to ya,” as he said that it must’ve felt extra sweet to defeat the former champion in his hometown. Knight said that the champion deserved to get stomped out, and that not long ago, he once said that we’d be calling him champion, and now that’s come true. He knows that holding the U.S. Title makes him a marked man and that he’s ready to move on to the next, “hit it and quit it”. Before he could continue, he was interrupted by Santos Escobar and Legado del Fantasma.
Escobar congratulated Knight on the win, before he said that the crowd sucked. He said it was time to get real, because this “LA Knight as a Champion” thing was nothing more but a fleeting moment, nothing more but an opening act to Escobar’s own U.S. Title reign. Escobar declared that he was the one who deserved to be United States Champion, with everyone saying “Es… Co… Bar… Si!”
Knight responded by saying that Escobar deserved to get the brakes beat off of him again, but he’d have to qualify first against his upcoming opponent. That didn’t matter to Knight though, because he said that whoever he’d end up facing for the U.S. Title, they’d end up knowing what everyone else knows: that it’s LA Knight’s game (yeah).
– A vignette for Giovanni Vinci was shown, promising that he was coming to the SmackDown roster soon.
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United States Championship No. 1 Contender’s Match: Santos Escobar (w/ Angel & Berto) defeated Andrade
The match started during the commercial break, as we returned with Andrade flooring Escobar with a clothesline. He followed that up by vaulting over the top rope onto a recovering Escobar at ringside. Angel and Berto got involved while the referee was tending to Andrade. Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews appeared to even the odds by going after Angel and Berto.
Andrade tried to go to the top rope, but Escobar knocked him from his perch to the ringside floor below. Back in the ring, Escobar slammed Andrade with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and worked over his arm with an armbar.
Andrade’s attempt to regain momentum was stalled when Escobar met him at the top rope. The two were in a dogfight, but Andrade got the better of Escobar with a sunset flip powerbomb, as SmackDown weirdly took a commercial break at this point in the contest.
We returned to the action with Andrade fighting out of an Escobar resthold as he began his offensive comeback. With Escobar trapped in the corner, Andrade attempted an attack. Escobar escaped to ringside, but he got taken down with an apron moonsault from Andrade.
The subsequent crossbody from Andrade only got a two-count. Andrade then did his own homage to Eddie Guerrero with the Three Amigos suplexes. That again got a near-fall.
Escobar rolled out to the apron to avoid an attempted diving move from Andrade as we got anoterh fight between the two. Escobar stunned Andrade long enough to hit an amazing poison rana for the two-count. Escobar and Andrade exchanged a superkick and a dropkick, before Andrade hit a moonsault.
Andrade looked to have the match won, but Carmelo Hayes provided a distraction. However, Andrade managed to hit his elbow for the two-count. Elektra Lopez had the referee distracted, which allowed Hayes to pull Escobar out of danger. This gave Escobar the right opportunity to roll Andrade up with a handful of tights for the pin.
Fantastic match between these two talented competitors, as we got continued set up for Escobar’s U.S. Title match against LA Knight, as well as Andrade’s feud with Carmelo Hayes.
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– The duo of Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa addressed losing the WWE Tag Titles last week to the Bloodline, as they promised to do whatever it took to regain their gold.
– A touching video tribute to Kevin Sullivan, who passed away today, was aired just before SmackDown went to break.
– Next week on SmackDown: Naomi vs. Blair Davenport, and Nia Jax’s Womens’ Championship Celebration.
– A-Town Down Under entered Nick Aldis’ office to complain about their recent fortunes, as Grayson Waller versus Keivn Owens was booked for next week by Aldis after the SmackDown GM took Austin Theory’s blurting out a potential match with KO as an idea. A flustered Waller was left alone by both Aldis and Theory.
WWE Tag Team Championship Contender’s Match: #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) defeated Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson)
Gargano and Wilson started off for their respective teams, but we soon got a standoff between #DIY & Pretty Deadly in the middle of the ring. Gargano and Ciampa gained the upper hand as they sent Wilson to the outside onto his own partner.
Wilson and Prince stopped #DIY’s attempts at a dive with stereo upper cuts, but they couldn’t avoid a second dive from Gargano and Ciampa. SmackDown went to break on DIY doing their signature clapping on the apron.
We returned with Gargano getting the tag on Ciampa, who proceeded to clean house on both Prince and Wilson by himself. Ciampa and Gargano hit a nice double team powerbomb on Prince for the near-fall.
Things broke down in the ring, which led to Pretty Deadly hitting a double-team chickenwing slam, but that wasn’t enough as Gargano broke up the count. Prince and Wilson tried for another double team move, but Gargano stopped them with a spear. The Shatter Machine, followed by Meet in the Middle on Prince from Gargano and Ciampa, and that’s it, over. #DIY will face off against the Street Profits for a shot at the WWE Tag Team Championship.
Short but sweet. It’s always nice to see Pretty Deadly get a match, and I do enjoy Gargano and Ciampa as a team. Their match with the Street Profits for a shot at the Bloodline should be fun to see.
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– At the gorilla position, Solo Sikoa was awaiting to make his entrance, as Tonga Loa and Tama Tonga informed him that Roman Reigns hadn’t arrived yet. Sikoa said that Reigns would be here soon. The Bloodline then made their way down the ring.
Roman Reigns Returns to SmackDown
– With the ula fala necklace around his neck, Sikoa demanded the Tulsa crowd to acknowledge him, but got loudly booed instead. He said that he was the Tribal Chief now, and that if Roman Reigns called himself the Tribal Chief, and if he wanted the ula fala back, he should come and get it from him.
The moment had finally arrived as Roman Reigns entered to a massive ovation from the crowd. Sikoa told Tonga Loa and Tama Tonga to confront Reigns, but they got beaten down in short order. Reigns used the steel steps to batter both Loa and Tonga down, which left Sikoa all alone in the ring.
Reigns entered the ring and faced off with Sikoa as the fans chanted for him. Reigns and Sikoa didn’t waste any time as they went after one another. Reigns floored Sikoa with a Superman Punch and had him in position for the Spear. Tonga and Loa pulled Sikoa before he could get hit with the Spear.
Reigns looked at the ula fala and was about to put it on, but Loa and Tonga attacked from behind, which allowed Sikoa to recover the ula fala. Loa and Tonga’s beatdown of Reigns didn’t last long, as he managed to fight back, hitting a Superman Punch on Tonga. He sized up Loa in the middle of the ring for a Spear, before he headed out of the ring and hit a Spear on a dazed Tonga through the barricade.
The crowd cheered as Reigns grabbed a steel chair and attacked Loa again and again with it. While Sikoa taunted from the stage, Roman stood tall in the ring to end SmackDown, the crowd’s “O.T.C.” chants playing us off for the week.
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