Rapid Results:
- Carmella exposed the myth behind Asuka
- Asuka defeated Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville in a handicapped match by tapping Sonya out
- Naomi & Jimmy Uso defeated Aiden English & Lana after Jimmy pinned Aiden
- Becky Lynch prevailed by tapping Charlotte Flair out to the Disarm-Her
- NEXT WEEK: Lana, Naomi, Charlotte, and Becky participate in a Money in the Bank Summit
The Rundown:
Carmella kicked off SmackDown to expose the woman behind the mask, Asuka. She plays a video package showing Asuka as the undefeated force that she once was. She then plays another video package, calling it the real Asuka, which featured Asuka’s recent matches, including her loss at WrestleMania and her loss in her first match on SmackDown. It also showed Mandy Rose decimating her last week. Carmella says she was once undefeated, but now she’s just defeated.
Then revealing that everyone is ready for Asuka. Asuka‘s theme hit and she danced her way to the ring. Before anything could happen, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville came out! Mandy calls Asuka a shadow of her former self. She says she was a second away from beating Asuka and now that she knows the truth, she’ll beat Asuka tonight. Sonya says Mandy did exactly what she was supposed to do, leave enough for her. Carmella instigates a fight between Asuka and one of the women before telling Asuka to “get an Uber and get the hell out of here”. Paige comes out and asks Asuka who she would like to face tonight. She picks both!
Sonya starts the match off with Asuka. Deville and Rose are unsuccessful in taking Asuka down so they tag in and out. Sonya eventually is able to slam Asuka down. Asuka tried to lock Sonya in a leg lock, but Deville rolled and held onto the rope. Sonya and Asuka tried to get one step ahead, but Asuka overcame with a dropkick. Sonya quickly snuck up from behind and clocked her with a forearm. She went after Asuka with a series of strikes and tagged Mandy in. Rose and Sonya double teamed Asuka with a system of shoulder thrusts and strikes. Mandy flipped Asuka over and applied a headlock. Asuka tried to free herself, but Rose’s strength outpowered.
Asuka got Mandy off of her and hit her with a few hip attacks and a missile dropkick from the corner. Carmella taunted Asuka from ringside, allowing Sonya to cheap-shot Asuka from behind. Sonya capitalized with a bodyscissor and made sure Asuka was tamed. She tagged Mandy in. The bombshell trapped Asuka in an abdominal stretch and flipped her with an inverted sidewalk slam. She mounted Asuka and pummeled her with forearms, then cutting her oxygen supply by choking her across the ropes. Sonya reentered to hit Asuka with kicks before tagging Mandy back in. Rose went for Bed of Roses, but Asuka wiggled out and tried to roll her up, then hitting Deville off of the apron.
Mandy and Asuka went back and forth with strikes as Asuka took her out with a running dropkick and german suplex. Mandy fought her off for a second, only to get nailed with a roundhouse kick. Sonya ran in, but Asuka slammed her head off of her knee and drilled her with a hip attack. Mandy gets deposited to ringside as the two legal participants go for kicks, only to knock each out. Asuka accidentally hit Sonya with her knee, but Deville took her off of her feet with a gruesome spear. Asuka and Sonya go back and forth for control, but Asuka ultimately wins by trapping Sonya in the AsukaLock, forcing her to tap.
Asuka’s celebration is cut short as Mandy goes to ambush her from behind. Asuka took her out with a swinging backfist, but Carmella capitalized and hit her with her title, then superkicking her jaw. ‘Mella stands tall.
Naomi looks to get revenge on Lana as the mixed tag team match happens next. After Aiden English and Jimmy Uso start off the match, Lana enters and checks on Aiden. They try to hit Naomi and Jimmy with a cheap-shot, but they were taken out with an enziguri in unison. Lana and English got deposited to ringside, which allowed Naomi to take them out with a suicide dive with her husband’s assistance.
We return from commercial and Lana is ducking Naomi’s kicks, only to get kicked in the head. Aiden distracted Naomi, allowing Lana to ambush her from behind and choke her against the ropes. She then drilled her knees into Naomi’s head as she was draped over the rope. She kept Naomi down by choking her and restraining her in various ways.
Naomi tried to escape, but Lana sent Naomi face-first into the bottom turnbuckle with her foot. Lana took time to mock Jimmy, which allowed Naomi to hit her with an enziguri. Naomi tried to tag her husband in, but Lana tackled her back down and nailed her with multiple elbow drops. Naomi sent her off with a jawbreaker, but Lana grabbed ahold of her arm.
They went back and forth like tug of war until they took each other out with a clothesline. The men reentered and I stopped paying attention until Lana broke a pin. Lana slapped Jimmy across the face, but Naomi launched over him and took out Lana. Aiden went after Jimmy, but Naomi jumped off of the top rope and took him out with a crossbody! Uso hit him with a superkick and picked up the win.
Best friends Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch go one-on-one. They quickly went after each other and each had a response for the other’s move. Becky got Charlotte down with a headlock, but Flair got her trapped into one of her own. They continuously reversed each other’s moves until they got caught each other’s feet.
They put each other down and took each other out with a running crossbody. Charlotte went after Becky, but Lynch kicked her to the canvas and hit her with a leg drop, then missing the second one. Flair locked her legs around Becky’s neck and slammed her head off of the ring before flipping her around and tightening the hold.
Becky freed herself and took Charlotte out with armdrags and constraining her in an armlock. Becky then went for the Disarm-Her, but Charlotte hit her with chops and a back suplex. Lynch fought Flair off and went to the ropes, but Charlotte got her on her shoulders and hit her with a backbreaker. She went for a Figure 8, but Becky kicked her off and collided with a flying forearm. She ascended the ropes again and successfully landed on Flair with a legdrop.
After another back and forth, Charlotte took her out with a spear. Lynch tried to escape to ringside, but Charlotte took her out with a springboard crossbody. She went for a moonsault, but Lynch got her knees up. After reversing the Figure 8 numerous times, Becky allowed herself to lock in the Disarm-Her. Charlotte taps!
After the match, the two hugged each other.
Smack Talk:
SmackDown did amazing with the women, it really reminded me of the old times.
Carmella’s segment was great and not too long. She did what she had to do and exposed Asuka for filth. Mandy was great on the mic as well and she was serving a bomb look, as well as Sonya in her LGBT Pride gear. The match delivered and Mandy and Sonya were definitely the stars for me. Asuka is obviously very good in the ring, but the way Sonya and Mandy were holding their own against her reaffirmed why I love them.
The mixed tag was so fun. Lana impressed me with her offense against Naomi and I’m extremely glad they didn’t have Naomi kick her ponytail off after that live event video surfaced. Naomi did great taking out Aiden too.
Charlotte vs Becky was good as well, but they were trying too hard to have spots. You could just tell they were doing too much. However, it ended up a great match so it’s really nothing to complain about. Kind of shocked Becky won, but then again she needed to, so I’m not really mad.