Unstoppable Champions?
Five nights after Extreme Rules, the 718th edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown came to you from the CenturyLink Center Omaha in Omaha, NE. After losing the United States Title to The Shield’s Dean Ambrose in Ambrose’s first ever title match at Extreme Rules, Kofi Kingston would cash in his rematch clause on SmackDown as Kofi Kingston challenges Dean Ambrose for the United States Championship. On RAW, Fandango left his tag team partner, Wade Barrett, high and dry, leading to Wade Barrett tapping out to The Miz, “The Awesome One” The Miz would bring Miz TV to SmackDown and the former WWE Champion’s guest would be “The Dancing Enigma” himself, Fandango! Not only would The Miz be interviewing Fandango on Miz TV, but The Miz would also get his rematch for the title he lost the night after WrestleMania as The Miz challenges Wade Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship!
Match Results
- Intercontinental Championship: The Miz def. Wade Barrett (c) by DQ after Fandango interferes. As a result, Wade Barrett (c) retains.
- Daniel Bryan def. Jack Swagger by submission to the No Lock.
- Chris Jericho def. Big Show by count-out following the Codebreaker on the outside.
- Curtis Axel def. Sin Cara by pin following the Axel Cutter.
- United States Championship: Kofi Kingston def. Dean Ambrose (c) (with Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns) by DQ after Seth Rollins interferes. As a result, Dean Ambrose (c) interferes.
- 6-Man Tag: The Shield def. Sheamus, Randy Orton, & Kofi Kingston by Dean Ambrose pinning Kofi Kingston following the Headlock Driver.
Detailed Results
SmackDown kicks off with The Miz in the ring as Miz welcomes everyone to Miz TV, saying that, not only is he hosting Miz TV, but he will challenge for the Intercontinental Title. The Miz then introduces his guest, “The Dancing Enigma” Fandango, who dances onto Miz TV with his dance partner, Summer Rae. The Miz begins to ask his first question, but Fandango shushes The Miz to correct “The Awesome One” on how to pronounce his name. The Miz then says that, on RAW, Fandango did what no one has ever done in a tag team match in WWE history, showing the footage from RAW where Fandango opts to dance at ringside with Summer Rae, leaving his partner Wade Barrett to combat both The Miz & Chris Jericho, which ultimately resulted in a loss for Barrett & Fandango. The Miz tells Fandango that his “ego” is “more obnoxious” than his name, asking what kind of “self-obsessed narcissist” Fandango thinks he is. Fandango says that The Miz is the one with an “ego”, but Miz argues that he knows when to appropriately use his ego and he has never looked like a “bag of Skittles” dancing on the outside of the ring during a tag match, saying Fandango is the “new Fruity Pebbles”! Before Fandango can complete his response, he is interrupted by Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett, saying he has a word for both men. Barrett first addresses Fandango, saying that the only reason that they lost on RAW is because Fandango would rather “tip-toe through the tulips” than fight like a “real man”, vowing to crush Fandango if they ever cross paths again! The Miz then steps in, reminding Wade Barrett that he beat him at WrestleMania and he made him tap out on RAW. Wade Barrett responds by popping The Miz with a right hand, which sparks a brawl between “The Awesome One” and the Intercontinental Champion! A referee comes out to break up the fight before both men get ready for the title match.
Moments after Miz TV broke out in a brawl, “The Awesome One” The Miz would get his rematch for the Intercontinental Title as he challenges Wade Barrett with the gold on the line with Fandango a guest on commentary. Much like on RAW, Fandango would opt to abandon his duties in favor of dancing with Summer Rae at ringside as the Intercontinental Title match continues in the ring! However, The Miz would take the time to take Fandango down with a baseball slide to the outside and it would ultimately cost “The Awesome One” as Fandango would retaliate with a kick to the skull of The Miz, resulting in The Miz winning via disqualification, meaning he does not win the title. After the match, Wade Barrett and Fandango would stomp away at The Miz and the Intercontinental Champion would wind up for the Bull Hammer Elbow, but instead of striking The Miz, Barrett would level Fandango!
After he and Kane lost the WWE Tag Team Titles to Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns of The Shield at Extreme Rules, Daniel Bryan, with Kane in his corner, would go one-on-one with “The Real American” Jack Swagger, with Zeb Colter in his corner. In the end, it was Daniel Bryan locking in the No Lock on Jack Swagger, forcing “The Real American” to tap out to pick up the win! Daniel Bryan would refuse to break the submission hold after the match, screaming at Swagger, “who’s the weak link now?” and Kane would have to come in to pull his tag team partner off of Swagger. However, a clearly unbalanced Daniel Bryan would jump on Swagger again, locking in the No Lock again and Kane would have to pull Bryan off of Swagger again! This would lead to an intense face-off between the Team Hell No teammates before Daniel Bryan leaves the ring alone, leaving a surprised Kane standing in the ring.
Damien Sandow then makes an appearance, with Matt Striker, in the ring as Sandow says that he has witnessed two Superstars engage in a series of “half-witted” and “embarrassing” challenges, the Tug-of-War Contest, the Arm Wrestling Match, and the Truck Pull, referring to the rivalry between Sheamus and Mark Henry. Sandow continues, saying the “true measure of a man” is not in his physical feats, but “mental challenges”. Sandow then gestures to the Gordian Knot, which sits on a table set up in the ring, saying that a “prophecy” states that any man who can untie the Gordian Knot would be worthy of becoming King of Egypt. Sandow then tasks the former school teacher, Matt Striker, with trying to untie the very complicated knot. Striker fails to untie the knot and Sandow lets Striker hear it, saying that he has discovered the “problem in the educational system”. However, Damien Sandow is then interrupted by “The Celtic Warrior” Sheamus, who makes his way to the ring, saying that he finds it “troubling” that Sandow spends his time “playing with knots”, suggesting Sandow get a personal life. Sandow tells Sheamus to leave his personal life out of it before Sheamus asks if he may take a crack at untying the Gordian Knot and Sandow allows him to try. Sheamus does his best to try and work the knot free, but Sandow snatches the knot away, telling Sheamus to “watch and learn”. Sandow then pulls out a pair of bolt-cutters, using the tool to cut the knot free! Sandow then holds the untied rope above his head with a smile on his face, telling the crowd “you’re welcome”. Sheamus admits that Sandow was the “better man” before trying to catch Damien Sandow with the Brogue Kick, but Sandow quickly dodges the kick and escapes the ring! Sandow says that he expected Sheamus to abandon the mental challenge in favor of physicality and Sheamus responds by teaching Sandow a lesson in “Newton’s Law”, tossing Matt Striker out of the ring and into Damien Sandow!
Fresh off of his victory over Fandango at Extreme Rules, Chris Jericho was in action on SmackDown as “Y2J” would go one-on-one with a former tag team partner of his, “The World’s Largest Athlete” Big Show. During the intense match, the bout would spill to the outside and, while on the outside, Jericho would hit the Codebreaker on Big Show and Big Show would topple over the ringside barricade! Jericho would then rush back into the ring and Big Show would scramble to make it back to the ring in time, but the giant would not move quick enough as the referee reaches his ten-count as Jericho picks up the count-out victory! After the match, an angry Big Show would grab a steel chair, but Jericho would hit a baseball slide on Big Show, knocking the chair into the giant. Jericho then follows this up with a chair shot to the mid-section, forcing Big Show to retreat from the fight!
After unveiling his newest “Paul Heyman guy” on RAW, Paul Heyman would bring the third-generation star, Curtis Axel, to SmackDown. Paul Heyman first introduces himself, saying he is the “humble visionary” that serves as the “advocate” for Brock Lesnar, saying Brock is a first ballot Hall of Famer. Heyman continues, saying he is the “architect” behind the sixth longest reign as WWE Champion in history and its bearer, CM Punk. Heyman then says that he is the “most exclusive manager” of all-time and he was the manager of two-thirds of the WrestleMania main events, so when he picks a Superstar to manage, it means something. Heyman then says that the fans can “invest their money” in the “stock” known as Curtis Axel. Heyman then says that he does not want to be the one to “brag” about what his client did to Triple H on RAW, he wants Axel to do that himself. Curtis first introduces himself, saying that, in one day, he accomplished more than his father, Curt Hennig, and his grandfather, Larry Hennig, did in their careers. Axel then says that he left Triple H “dazed and confused” on RAW, touting himself as the winner of the match against Triple H on RAW. Curtis continues, saying that it was just “day one” in the building of the career of Curtis Axel.
Curtis Axel was also in action on SmackDown as the third-generation star, with Paul Heyman in his corner, went one-on-one with Sin Cara. In the end, it was Curtis Axel hitting the Axel Cutter on Sin Cara en route to picking up the win.
Then it was time for the United States Championship to be decided as The Shield’s Dean Ambrose would defend his newly won title against the former champion, Kofi Kingston. During the match, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns would try to interfere on Dean Ambrose’s behalf, but Kofi Kingston would kick Seth Rollins off of the apron before diving out on top of Roman Reigns. However, this would lead to The Shield ganging up on Kofi Kingston, bringing an end to the match. However, an old adversary would be looking to combat The Shield as Randy Orton rushes out, followed by Sheamus and, together, Orton, Sheamus, & Kingston send The Shield out of the ring! SmackDown Senior Advisor Theodore Long then comes out, saying that SmackDown is not going to end like that, announcing that The Shield will face Sheamus, Randy Orton, & Kofi Kingston!
After The Shield cost Kofi Kingston in his United States Title match, an impromptu 6-Man Tag Match would main event SmackDown as The Shield would face the team of Sheamus, Randy Orton, & Kofi Kingston! During the match, Randy Orton was hung up on the middle rope and, on the outside, Roman Reigns leaps up into the air and blasts “The Viper” with a right hand, but Reigns would tweak his ankle on the landing and would spend the remainder of the match on the ring apron, letting Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins handle the workload in the match. However, later in the match, Roman Reigns would muster up enough strength to blast Sheamus with the Spear, but after rolling out of the ring, Reigns would pay for it as Randy Orton plants Reigns with the RKO on the arena floor! Sheamus manages to tag Kofi Kingston in and Kofi hits a cross body on Dean Ambrose, but Ambrose would kick out. A distraction from Seth Rollins would then allow Dean Ambrose to take advantage as the United States Champion hits the Headlock Driver on Kofi en route to picking up the win for The Shield, who remains undefeated as a team!
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