WWE Friday Night Smackdown Live Coverage - April 19th, 2024
What's next for The Bloodline?
On the SmackDown after WrestleMania, Solo Sikoa rebuffed any speculation that The Bloodline was reeling after The Show of Shows, as The Enforcer ushered in some potentially earth-shattering changes to the faction. Without warning, Sikoa and the emerging Tama Tonga, son of the legendary Haku, unleashed a vicious attack on Jimmy Uso. Who, however, is calling the shots? Although Tonga later informed a seemingly stunned Paul Heyman that the attack came "by order of The Tribal Chief," many questions still remain around the details of that statement.
What is next for the re-energized Bloodline?
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– Corey Graves and Wade Barrett welcome us to the show as we see arrival shots of Cody Rhodes, AJ Styles, LA Knight, Bayley, Naomi and others. Inside the arena, the theme for LA Knight hits and the crowd explodes as "The Mega Star" heads to the ring for our opening contest.
WWE Universal Championship Eliminator: LA Knight vs. AJ Styles
The theme for AJ Styles hits next and out comes "The Phenomenal One" for this WrestleMania XL rematch, where the winner will advance to challenge Cody Rhodes for the WWE Universal Championship at the upcoming WWE Backlash: France premium live event.
After the bell sounds to get this one officially off-and-running, Knight and Styles collide in the middle of the ring and immediately start going at it. After some back-and-forth action, Knight emerges in the early offensive lead. He takes Styles out to the floor and bounces his dome off the commentary desk over-and-over as fans chant "Yeah!" each time.
Back inside the ring, Styles starts to shift the offensive momentum into his favor for the first time in the match. The two fight their way out to the floor again. As they do, we shift gears and head into a mid-match commercial break as the match continues.
When we return, after some back-and-forth action, we see Styles fight his way back into the offensive lead, where he connects with a Phenomenal Forearm after a cheap-shot thumb to the eye of "The Mega Star" for the pin fall victory. With the win, Styles moves on to challenge "The American Nightmare" at Backlash: France.
Winner and NEW No. 1 Contender to WWE Universal Championship: AJ Styles
– We see a recap video package showing Roman Reigns losing the Universal title to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania XL, followed by Solo Sikoa seemingly taking over The Bloodline with the arrival of Tama Tonga and attack of Jimmy Uso last week.
– Back live, we see Paul Heyman standing outside when a vehicle pulls up. Out pops Solo Sikoa in a fancy suit with a gold chain on. Heyman tells him "nice threads." Solo greets Tama Tonga. He then asks Heyman if Kevin Owens is here. He tells Heyman to take him to him. They head off in that direction as we head to a commercial break.
– When we return from the break, we see the ring decked out with a carpet and podium. In the ring is SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis. The theme for WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque hits and out comes "The Game" for a special segment.
Levesque settles in the ring and welcomes us to the new era of WWE. He mentions how the tag-team titles were split up at the greatest WrestleMania of all-time at WrestleMania XL. He talks about presenting Awesome Truth with the Raw Tag-Team titles, which were rebranded as the World Tag-Team titles, this past Monday.
With that in mind, he introduces the reigning SmackDown Tag-Team Champions, the A-Town Down Under duo of Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. They come out and talk trash about The Miz and R-Truth, calling them the B-champs. They are presented with the brand new SmackDown Tag-Team titles, which are rebranded as the WWE Tag-Team titles.
After they get a little too familiar with Levesque, we see Aldis step-in and threaten the duo, telling them if they disrespect him one more time it'll be their last.
WWE Tag-Team Championship Eliminator: Legado Del Fantasma vs. New Catch Republic vs. The Street Profits vs. Authors Of Pain
He then says it's time to find out who will challenge them for their new titles first. The new champs hang at ringside to watch, as the four teams vying to become the number one contenders make their way out. Those teams are Legado Del Fantasma, New Catch Republic, The Street Profits and Authors of Pain.
As the entrances continue, we shift gears and head into a quick pre-match commercial break. When we return, we see a quick live backstage interview with Naomi about her WWE Women's Championship opportunity tonight against Bayley, as well as next week's 2024 WWE Draft.
Back live, the A-Town Down duo of Theory and Waller join Graves and Barrett on special guest commentary. The final entrances for the match wrap up as Authors of Pain make their way out. The bell sounds and we're officially off-and-running with this high stakes tag-team tilt. Ford and Bate kicks things off in this one.
After some early back-and-forth action, we see Akam and Rezar settle into the offensive lead as we head into a mid-match commercial break. When we return, we see a crazy stacked spot in the corner. Everyone in the crowd randomly pulls their phone flashlights out and do the "Firefly" routine in the background. In the end, The Street Profits get the win to earn the next tag title shot.
Winners and NEW No. 1 Contenders to WWE Tag-Team Championships: The Street Profits
– We see a video recap package of Rhea Ripley being forced to relinquish the WWE Women's World Championship on Raw due to an injury suffered at the hands of Liv Morgan.
– After it wraps up, we see Byron Saxton backstage live with Bayley. She talks about being the only WWE Women's Champion right now, vows to beat Naomi tonight and looks ahead to the 2024 WWE Draft.
– Backstage, we see Solo Sikoa looking upset. Paul Heyman apologizes for not being able to find Kevin Owens, per the request of Sikoa. Solo forges ahead into Gorilla position as Heyman freaks out. He tells him, with all due respect, that he's not trying to piss him off. He says he's the last person in the world he wants to piss off.
Heyman says with all due respect again and tells Sikoa that he's making decisions that are not yet his to make. He says in due time they will be, but for now, they are the decisions of only one man. Before he can say who, Solo cuts him off and abruptly asks, "Are you done yet?" He then heads to the ring as his theme hits. Heyman asks if Tama Tonga is coming. He gives him a thumbs up and smiles.
We head to a commercial break as Sikoa and Heyman head to the ring. When we return, they are in the ring and after a big wind up by "The Wise Man," we see Sikoa begin to speak, only to get the extreme Dominik Mysterio treatment from the crowd. He forges ahead and talks about having to lose a brother last week to gain another.
Tama Tonga emerges from the back beating down Kevin Owens. He continues attacking him and then heads to the ring to join Sikoa and Heyman. Owens eventually gets up and stumbles down to the ring, where he is attacked even more viciously by the duo and ends up busted open extremely bad, bleeding like a stuck pig all over the place. Sikoa and Tonga leave him laying as we head to another break.
When we return from the break, we see SmackDown G.M. Nick Aldis dragging Heyman by the arm to the parking lot to show him a pair of crashed cars. He tells him one belongs to Owens and the other to Tonga. He tells him tip-top executives will be the WWE Draft next week and we can't have this. He says losing isn't the only thing that has consequences.
Carlito vs. Santos Escobar
Inside the PPG Paints Arena, we hear the sounds of Carlito's theme song and out comes the LWO member. He settles in the ring as Graves and Barrett talk more about the mystery attack of Dragon Lee leading up to WrestleMania XL. The theme for Santos Escobar hits and out comes the leader of Legado Del Fantasma.
As Escobar settles in the ring, we see the pre-show digital exclusive where Escobar assures Kayla Braxton that he and Legado Del Fantasma had nothing to do with the attack of Dragon Lee. The bell sounds and we're officially off-and-running with this one. After some initial back-and-forth action coming out of the gate, we head to a mid-match commercial break.
When we return from the break, we see some more back-and-forth action until we get to the finish of this one, which sees Zelina Vega and Elektra Lopez get into it at ringside. In the chaos, Escobar takes over and hits his Phantom Driver on Carlito for the win.
Winner: Santos Escobar
– We shoot to a sky box where Damage CTRL is interviewed. Dakota Kai promises revenge. We head to the ring for our final match of the evening, and out comes the challenger, Naomi, for this WWE Women's Championship main event. We head to a pre-match commercial break.
– When we return from the break, we see a pre-taped interview with WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes from the London, England stop of the ongoing WWE European Tour. He reacts to AJ Styles emerging as the number one contender for his title. He talks about two Georgia boys colliding at WWE Backlash: France for the gold.
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WWE Women's Championship: Bayley (C) vs. Naomi
Back inside the PPG Paints Arena, the theme for Bayley hits and out comes the new WWE Women's Champion for the first defense of her title since capturing it from IYO SKY at WrestleMania XL. The bell sounds and we're officially off-and-running with this one.
After some good early action, we shift gears and head into a mid-match commercial break as the WWE Women's Championship hangs in the balance in this closely contested title tilt between two veteran WWE Superstars. As we settle back in from the break, we see things nearing an end.
Out of nowhere, Tiffany Stratton hits the ring for an attack. Damage CTRL seem happy with this in their luxury box. Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair aren't happy. Stratton attacks the champ on the floor and then hits her top-rope Prettiest Moonsault Ever to leave her laying as the fans boo. Graves plugs next week's 2024 WWE Draft special episode and we head off the air.
Winner: No Contest
