We start with Charlotte demanding a title shot as she hasn't been granted one in the 7 days she has been on the show. Naomi comes out and grants her the title shot but attacks her immediately. Shane comes out to make a match where Charlotte has to beat Naomi to become number 1 contender. The 2 of them then have a brawl. The crowd seemed more than happy to have Charlotte as the champion, and they should, she is great.
Natalya is pissed that Charlotte is being treated better than her. Shane said that if you want a title shot you just have to ask, which seems like a terrible way to determine a number one contender. Carmella turned up and I'm not really sure what happened as Ellsworth started speaking and I went into a coma.
We are already going headfirst into the really weird number 1 contendership match for the WWE Title. It's Sami Zayn vs Mojo Rawley vs Luke Harper vs Erick Rowan vs Dolph Ziggler vs Jinder Mahal. What this basically means is that AJ Styles gets punished for winning last week. I assume they have something planned for Corbin too. This was a really fun match with an ending that, whilst I predicted it in a Facebook post earlier in the day, I was still quite surprised they went with. Jinder Mahal won with interference by the Bollywood Boys. The fans are not happy about it one bit. It's such a tangent to go off on. I can only assume that Vince loves him some vascularity. Luke Harper would have been my choice as winner.
Randy Orton comes out and tells Jinder that he ain't winning shit then turns his attentions to Bray Wyatt. This brings Wyatt on to the Titantron to talk about burning Orton, or crippling him, or something of that ilk.
Styles is doing a backstage interview when he is interrupted by Baron Corbin. They insult each other and set up a match for later in the show.
Charlotte is on her way to the ring when she runs into some of the women's division. And Ellsworth. They do nothing.
It's Charlotte vs Naomi up next. Really good match. Often I feel that Naomi is too much show and not enough go but she looked really good here. It's credit to Charlotte really, who is easily the best female wrestler on the main roster. This got a decent amount of time too. Charlotte picked up the hard fought win and is the number 1 contender.
Charlotte is backstage and runs into the same women as before. She winks at them and they still do nothing.
American Alpha vs Primo & Epico up next with AA looking to get revenge for last week. They don't get it. Remember when American Alpha were the next big team. Well, that must seem a long time ago now. They need to be rebuilt.
Tye Dillinger is backstage to do an interview but instead he shows a video package.
Kevin Owens is out for his 'Face of America Open Challenge'. He has an awesome 'Face of America' Titantron image and ramp picture. He is facing Gary Gandy (I think) and he murders him. He then cuts a promo saying he will remain the face of America. He will also be doing commentary for the main event. He says something in French, which predictably pisses off the American crowd.
Main event time, Baron Corbin vs AJ Styles. It's a good main event, back and forth. Corbin hits a tremendous looking Deep Six. He also backdrops Styles onto Owens while he is the announce desk. Following this they cut to a bloke in the crowd that looks like he has just ejaculated with EXTREME POWER. Styles picks up the victory via countout to see out the show.
Thoughts
A fun show overall. Most of the matches were fun to watch and nothing was overly poor. Smackdown does a great job at making most of it's roster seem important. There were a couple of weird choices, Jinder and the Colons winning, but I trust something will be done. It appears that the US Title is currently more important than the WWE Title. On a separate note, Byron Saxton is much better on Smackdown. Having said that I understand that this week's show will have annoyed quite a few people with the Jinder Mahal victory as he has just sort of been given a WWE Title shot out of nowhere with nothing to support it. I'm choosing to be optimistic. That may change in the future.
At least it wasn't Rowley
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