Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from inside the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis introduced the interim WWE Women’s Champion Chelsea Green after it was reported that she suffered a broken orbital bone sustained during her tag team match last week with Tiffany Stratton against Lainey Reid and Fallon Henley of Fatal Influence. After discussing her condition with WWE’s medical team, he has reached a decision.
Chelsea would make her way to the ring and upon entering, was told by Aldis that there was no easy way to say it. He knows how hard she’s worked, how much it means to her to be champion, and how much the moment of winning the belt at SummerSlam means to her, but after talking to medical, he cannot in good conscience let her compete with a broken eye socket.
Green tells him not to say what she thinks he’s going to say. The socket is already healing and she’ll do whatever it takes. Aldis says he hates this part of his job, but it is his job: he needs her to relinquish the WWE Women’s Championship. The Boston crowd did not agree with this, collectively pleading “no”.
Green says she knew it was too good to be true. She knew as soon as she climbed that ladder and took the title down, she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop because every time something good and magical happens to her in this business, it’s followed by something devastating. That’s just her story, isn’t it? Chelsea Green is the comic relief, the perfect opponent for the rest of the girls, never the champion, never the QB 1.
As the fans chanted “You deserve it!”, Green told Aldis that he knows how much she’s sacrificed to be here. She has missed weddings and funerals, she has broken bones, she has left all of her blood, sweat, and tears in this ring. She has put her face through birthday cakes and pies, she’s thrown her body into dumpsters, she has had the entire world laugh in her face. But every night when she got into bed, she told herself it was all worth it, because this moment would come.
And now here they are. She made it, and Aldis should understand that, especially after SummerSlam. Green mentions how Aldis went out there at the event and the world applauded him, his wife Mickie James, and their son in the ring after his first match in WWE against Gunther. Then she went out there, and they proved that it doesn’t matter what the powers that be think about them, what matters is what they think about themselves. He was a champion, his wife was a champion, and until someone takes the title off of her, it is hers. She thought Aldis of all people would understand that, angrily handing him the Women’s Championship belt and leaving the ring.
Aldis then told her to wait. Although he may be doing the right thing as Nick Aldis, the SmackDown general manager, as Nick Aldis, the man, he doesn’t give a damn what the medical team thinks. He will give her 30 days to get cleared, get a face mask, do whatever she has to do, and as far as he’s concerned, until someone takes this from her, the belt is hers. Green promptly returns to the ring and hugs Nicholas, and held the belt in the air to cheers, but the celebrations are spoiled by Gunther.
Gunther says enough with the sob story as he claims nobody wants to hear it. Aldis also maintains that he is focused on the Women’s Championship right now and not on Kevin Owens returning at SummerSlam. Gunther says that all Chelsea did was climb up a ladder, and then a week later, she bumped into a door frame and now she’s out here crying about it? He pulled double duty and competed both nights.
Green complimented Aldis for mentioning that Gunther couldn’t get the job done when he lost to Owens at SummerSlam, but Gunther took exception to her mocking, telling her to do everyone a favor and shut up. Green told him to go puff his chest and have his cute little temper tantrum, to stroke his tiny, fragile little male ego, as she believes it’s all he has after The Biggest Party of the Summer. She’s looking around the ring, and she only sees one champion: her!
Green’s real-life husband Matt Cardona rushed into the ring and confronted The Ring General. Although Green tried to restrain him from getting in Gunther’s face, this moment would lead to the first match of the night, in which Green cheered him on and got quite vocal with Gunther throughout. Cardona would lose, but Green’s night wasn’t done just yet.
The music of The Irresistible Forces began to play as Nia Jax and Lash Legend walked out, with Nia having a microphone in hand. Jax finds it pathetic that Green is not even a week into her title reign and she’s already injured. It sounds like Green has a ticking clock, and since she wants to be a fighting champion, why waste time? She got screwed out of SummerSlam, and you know what she wants? She wants the WWE Women’s Championship, and if Chelsea doesn’t give her what she wants, she has a history of breaking faces around here.
The Women’s United States Champion Tiffany Stratton runs out only for Nia and Lash to attack her as Green cannot do anything but stand and watch, asking for referees to enter the ring.
After a recap was shown of Tatum Paxley’s SmackDown debut last week, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair were backstage. Flair says she missed Bliss and thanked her for kicking B-Fab and Michin’s butts last week. Bliss says you’re welcome, but that was all Tatum; she is proud of how nice Flair was to her, even though Flair claims to only have been nice in the moment as a “one-time cute thing”, which Bliss isn’t too pleased with. She likes Tatum, as she reminds her a lot of herself, and Charlotte loves Alexa; The Goddess assumes that because Charlotte likes her, she’ll be nice about the surprise Tatum has for them.
The “surprise” is Tatum in a tiny locker room covered in pictures of Alexa and Charlotte with candles surrounding them. Paxley says hello and she has been working on their new locker room all day. Both Alexa and Charlotte seem to be secretly uncomfortable with it, as Bliss closes the door. Who knows what they’d be able to do in such a cramped space?
Meanwhile, in the more appropriately sized women’s locker room, Tiffany Stratton is feeling her stomach and back which are still in pain from the attack by Lash and Nia. Chelsea Green walked in to thank her for coming to her aid against them, but the last thing Green ever wanted was for her to be injured before her title match against Jacy Jayne later on tonight. Stratton says she wasn’t going to let her be out there by herself and maintains that she is fine and will still be competing tonight; she is sure of it.
The match started with Jayne unleashing offense, headbutting the abdomen of Stratton, hitting a snapmare, and kicking her spinal area. Stratton would trip Jayne against the middle rope, but couldn’t put her away.
Fighting off interference from Lainey and Fallon before the commercial break, the show returned with Chelsea Green coming down to support her. Stratton would hit a crossbody to Lainey and Fallon outside the ring, but diverting her attention away from the ring would prove costly as Jayne hit the Rolling Encore to win the Women’s United States Championship, shocking Green.
NOTE: Same video, but starting at 4:29 for the interview segment.
Cathy Kelley interviewed The Baddies (Jade Cargill, B-Fab, and Michin). Asking Cargill how the return of Alexa Bliss and debut of Tatum Paxley changes her approach to her issues with Charlotte Flair, Cargill says she thinks it’s funny that these women can’t mind their damn business – Alexa, Charlotte, now “Tater Tot” wants to step up to the plate? Fine, be her guest. She’ll add them all up, and she’ll knock ’em all down. B-Fab adds that what Jade is trying to say is all Alexa and Charlotte did is give them another victim, and they look forward to giving Tatum a proper welcome to their show. The three then walk off to end the segment.
Television wasn’t the only platform the SmackDown Divas were on this week. In a segment published on WWE’s YouTube channel, Blake Monroe entered the office of Nick Aldis as the boss of Team Blue wanted to see her. He apologizes for being a little preoccupied for the last few weeks while he was preparing for his SummerSlam match with Gunther; he is now fully reinstated as general manager and ready to get to work.
With that mind, he would like to add that he’s had a lot of women on the roster complaining to him about her. Monroe doesn’t know why, but Aldis says it seems like they’re not fond of being attacked from behind, so he decided that maybe it was time for her to have a match in the ring, one-on-one. Monroe says it is a great idea, so she came up with a debut match for him, fitting for The Glamour: a WWE Women’s Championship match against Chelsea Green.
Giulia walks into the office and speaks in Japanese. While Monroe doesn’t understand what she’s saying, Aldis translates for The Beautiful Madness: she can’t wait to be the one to give her a beating in her first match. Giulia then tells Blake, “Welcome to SmackDown”, followed by a “goodbye” in Japanese.
Paige was also featured in a YouTube exclusive segment, calling out Nikki Bella after The Fearless One made her intentions clear to go after Paige last week on SmackDown. Paige said that since Nikki decided to try and rewrite history last week, she’ll set the record straight. Nikki said that she single-handedly revitalized her career, but last time she checked, she doesn’t remember her being there by her side when she was working tirelessly every single day for 8 years just to get back to WWE.
Then Nikki said she was leeching onto her and Brie Bella, but let’s go back to the week before WrestleMania. Did she come begging to be an honorary Bella for her big return after being gone for nearly a decade? No. Nikki called her, asked for her help, and because she loves Brie, she was willing to share that moment with Brie because she needed it. Nikki wasn’t there for her.
Nikki blames her for being cheated out of the tag team titles and losing at SummerSlam even though she had to save her from getting pinned, not just once, but twice. Nikki acts like she’s doing this to support her sister, but really, she’s just jealous that somebody took her spot, and did it better.
Nikki said that she’s going to make whatever career she has left pure misery, but wishes her good luck keeping up, because this is her house, and she plans on being here for a very long time.
Friday Night SmackDown airs next week from inside the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, although no matches or segments have been advertised or announced as of this writing.
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s edition of SmackDown in the comments below.
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