Tempers flare and bedlam breaks out on “Miz TV”:
With it being announced moments prior that James Ellsworth’s WWE Championship opportunity had been suspended due to him coming down ill on SmackDown LIVE, the show-opening “Miz TV” became the hot stove for all things title talk.
WWE Champion AJ Styles was the initial guest of Intercontinental Champion The Miz and it didn’t take long for The A-Lister to more than subtly suggest that he should be the new No. 1 contender for Styles’ title. However, the two were quickly interrupted by Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler, both of whom seemed ready to fight.
Ziggler and Miz, naturally, got into it, leading to Miz hitting Ziggler with a Skull-Crushing Finale and Ambrose striking both Miz and Ziggler with Dirty Deeds while Styles got out of dodge. Things only became more layered when Luke Harper suddenly appeared in the ring behind The Lunatic Fringe, with him laying out Ambrose.
With it being announced moments prior that James Ellsworth’s WWE Championship opportunity had been suspended due to him coming down ill on SmackDown LIVE, the show-opening “Miz TV” became the hot stove for all things title talk.
WWE Champion AJ Styles was the initial guest of Intercontinental Champion The Miz and it didn’t take long for The A-Lister to more than subtly suggest that he should be the new No. 1 contender for Styles’ title. However, the two were quickly interrupted by Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler, both of whom seemed ready to fight.
Ziggler and Miz, naturally, got into it, leading to Miz hitting Ziggler with a Skull-Crushing Finale and Ambrose striking both Miz and Ziggler with Dirty Deeds while Styles got out of dodge. Things only became more layered when Luke Harper suddenly appeared in the ring behind The Lunatic Fringe, with him laying out Ambrose.
Carmella def. Natalya:
With the controversy over who actually attacked Nikki Bella at Survivor Series still raging, Natalya attempted to diffuse Carmella’s claims that it was her before the match began by addressing Nikki (who was on commentary). The Princess of Staten Island quickly cut that off though, making her way to the ring to get the contest rolling. The Queen of Harts would not be deterred, however, still trying to plead her case to Fearless Nikki even while wrestling the match. However, a questionable moment came when Natalya, trying to reason with Nikki on the outside shoved The Fearless One. Whether or not she was shoving her out of the way of Carmella or simply shoving her is a mystery. All of these distractions for Natalya, however, led to Carmella taking advantage, finding a three count with a roll up for the victory.SmackDown Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contenders’ Battle Royal:
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The teams of SmackDown LIVE squared off for the chance to become the new No. 1 contenders for The New Wyatt Family’s SmackDown Tag Team Championship. The kinetic pace of the match was palpable, with each team scratching for the major title opportunity. An interesting wrinkle to the match was that both members of the team had to be eliminated to be officially ousted from the contest.
In the end, it came down to Zack Ryder of The Hype Bros and Konnor of The Ascension, with Ryder pulling out the W, being able to outsmart Konnor and eliminate him.
After the match it was revealed that Zack Ryder suffered a knee injury.