Smackdown – 09.25.26

As usual, there’s a lot going on. AAA | Raw | NXT | Evolve | Main Event

Last week on Smackdown: There was another Men’s Undisputed Championship match, and this time, CM Punk ruined it!

Smackdown comes to the USA and Netflix airwaves from The Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN. The announcers for tonight’s show are Michael Cole and Corey Graves on play-by-play and analysis, Mark Nash on ring introductions, and Cathy Kelley on interviews and news segments. There’s a STEEL CAGE title match on tonight’s card and a couple of MITB qualifiers, so let’s watch some wrestling!

Who came to work today? Here’s Finn Balor entering wearing a hat only he could pull off. Here’s a hungover-looking Alexa Bliss being joined by her good pals Charlotte Flair and Tatum Paxley. Here’s Lash Legend and Nia Jax arriving and discussing strategy for Legend’s MITB qualifier later. Here’s Giulia looking stylish and thinking about that same qualifier, no doubt. A steel cage lowers over the ring, and a highlights package shows the rise of Trick Williams and the subsequent return of Baron Corbin. Corbin claimed Trick’s US title, and Trick recently won it back at Sunday Night’s Main Event thanks to the heroic (?) efforts of Lil Yachty to survive five minutes with Corbin. Smackdown GM Nick Aldis wants this feud over, so he made this steel cage match to hopefully accomplish that goal.

WWE Men’s US Championship Steel Cage Match: Trick Williams (C) vs Baron Corbin

Lil Yachty is out with Trick, who’s last cage match was with Carmelo Hayes on April 16, 2024 during both guys NXT runs. Corbin’s last cage match in WWE was in 2020 and ended his rather infamous feud with Roman Reigns. Cole and Graves announce that Randy Orton came to ringside prior to the show kicking off and Orton ordered Cole to interview him later. Terrific. Dan Engler is your referee inside the cage.

There’s a hockey fight to start and Trick fires off a spin kick and a facebuster to take control. Trick puts the boots to Corbin and yanks him up. Corbin drives Trick into the cage and then clatters into him for some clubbering. Corbin yanks Trick up for a Death Valley Driver that gets two. We go to commercials.

Trick and Corbin are on top of the cage slugging it out when the show returns. Trick gains the advantage and wants to climb down but Corbin grabs Trick and yanks him into a guillotine on top of the cage. Corbin pulls Trick in and hits a top rope superplex that gets two. Trick turns over and covers Corbin for two. Trick wants to go through the door and Corbin flies over to prevent it. Corbin kicks the door and it mashes Yachty in the face. Corbin turns right into the Trick Kick and Trick’s cover gets two. Trick drops the knee pad and runs into a Corbin lariat. Corbin hits a chokeslam and can’t cover, so he crawls towards the door. Yachty slams the door on Corbin and Trick hits the Trick Shot. Corbin kicks out at two and no one can believe it. Trick gets driven knee first into the cage, and Corbin follows with a German. Corbin hits the Deep Six and Trick kicks out at two. Trick slips out of End of Days and rams Corbin into the cage a few times before planting him with two Book Ends. Trick hits a third Book End and covers Corbin for three.

A cage match that ended mid-ring? I love it! As a complete non-fan of the escape rules, cage matches usually leave me feeling very underwhelmed, but this was some straight up Gedo-type booking with Trick hitting not one, not two, but THREE Book Ends to finish Corbin off once and for all, dead center middle. Fantastic stuff. The match itself was just kind of back and forth stuff, there wasn’t any blood, and the only psychology was kill or be killed, but for what this was always going to be (the weird psychology of the babyface always having the numbers advantage) it worked pretty well. 3.25*

Winner AND STILL WWE Men’s US Champion – Trick Williams (Book End x 3)

Post-match sees Trick go to the top of the cage to celebrate while Yachty hangs out in the doorway.

Here’s Cathy Kelley with Nia Jax and Lash Legend and Legend stops Kelley from talking about the last time Legend was in a ladder match, and Jax takes over the interviewing duties. Legend promises to win tonight, win the briefcase, and return with the title. Jax and Legend make their exit with Kelley looking very put out by the whole thing.

Here’s some highlights of last week’s main event between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, and resulting arrival of CM Punk to affect the whole thing. Here’s CM Punk backstage warming up when Smackdown GM Nick Aldis arrives for a handshake and a request for a chat in his office. Punk: “I’m not in trouble, am I?” Aldis: “No, not at all.” We go to commercials.

Here’s the announcement everyone has been waiting on – World’s Collide will air on Youtube next Wednesday at 7 PM. I, for one, am shocked that it’s airing on Wednesday night.

Here’s Kevin Owens on a couch in Nick Aldis’s office, and Aldis tells Owens and Punk to squash whatever is going on between the two of them. Aldis says he can’t have this stuff bleed into the MITB qualifiers, and Punk agrees as Owens walks away without a word..

Here’s WWE Women’s Champion Chelsea Green and Tiffany Stratton chatting, and Green is upset at the prospect of someone gaining the briefcase and potentially cashing in on her. Here’s Paige in to try to calm everything down and after she does, Green asks for a moment alone. Here’s Nikki Bella in to put the badmouth on Green, and Paige and Stratton march back in to break that up. Charlotte Flair makes her entrance and we take a break.

Money In The Bank Qualifying Match: Charlotte Flair vs Lash Legend vs Giulia

Your referee is Felix Fernandez. Giulia and Legend start things out and Legend drops Giulia with a lariat. Flair smashes Legend down and starts in with Giulia, only for a recovered Legend to rise up and blast Flair and Giulia with a double lariat. Legend tosses Giulia around and dumps Fliar to the floor. Giulia slaps a guillotine on Legend but Legend rises up and pulls Giulia into a vertical suplex. Flair flies in with a cross-body on Legend before dumping her to the floor. Flair hits a cannonball from the apron and Giulia flies in with a missile dropkick on Flair. We take another break.

Flair is chopping Legend mid-ring when the show returns. Flair hits her walkover clothesline and yanks Giulia up for a fall-away slam. Flair puts Giulia on her shoulders and ascends to the second rope, but here’s Legend over for a giant slam on both before grabbing covers on both for two. Legend gets mashed by Flair, but Legend recovers quickly for a fall-away slam. Giulia flies in with a top rope missile dropkick on Legend that gets two. Giulia boots Legend out of the ring and starts kicking an attacking Flair. Legend comes in and Flair clips her knee before pulling Legend into a backstabber. Flair wants the Figure Four but Giulia drives her off and sends Flair into a corner. Flair kicks Legend down and ascends, with Giulia following her up. Giulia grabs a double underhook and nails Flair with a butterfly suplex. Legend flies in to send Giulia out before covering Flair for two. Legend and Flair start slugging it out and Flair pulls Legend into a a German. Legend mashes Flair down in response and Flair pushes her off into a Giulia knee. Giulia ascends and Flair flies over to toss her onto Legend. Flair steps on both opponents and ascends for her moonsault. Flair covers Legend for two. Flair hits Natural Selection on Giulia and slaps the Figure Eight on Legend. Giulia breaks it up with a kick and mashes Flair with the Arrivederci Knee. Giulia hits Flair with the Northern Lights Bomb, but Legend breaks up the cover and yanks Giulia into the Lash Extension to end things.

So this was kind of a mess at times with Flair clearly wanting to work at a faster pace than Legend is used to. There was some frustration on Flair’s part with that, and I think Giulia was just trying to get her stuff in without making anyone too grumpy. Overall, I think there’s a better match here with these three, but this one was just a bunch of big moves with very little context and not a ton of selling. 2.5*

Winner – Lash Legend (Lash Extension on Giulia)

Cole and Graves talk up the sit-down interview post-scene comments from Cody Rhodes where he told Cole off-camera that if Orton messes with Rhodes again, he’s going to “kick his F**KING head off”. Here’s highlights of Orton accosting Cole prior to tonight’s show to make sure he gets equal interview time. We go to commercials.

Here’s Giulia backstage being confronted by Blake Monroe. Monroe tells Giulia to go back to the obscurity she came from, so Giulia slaps Monroe dead in the face. Nick Aldis flies in to say they will wrestle next week and it is 100% GOING TO HAPPEN PINKY SWEAR.

Here’s Michael Cole sitting down with Randy Orton. Cole seems unsure as to why he’s there, and so Orton tells Cole he’ll handle things. Orton asks for Cole’s thoughts on Rhodes’s post-interview comments and wants to know why Cole thinks Rhodes waited for the cameras to be turned off before making those comments. Orton says Rhodes clearly believes all his “gibberish” and mentions all the changes Rhodes has been through since he debuted. (Dusty mention, DRINK) Orton says Rhodes has changed a lot while remaining a “good guy” and wants to know who in the locker room who’s never changed. Orton says it’s him and he’ll always be the same guy no matter what while in pursuit of world titles. Orton believes in black and white and says if Rhodes does kick Orton in the head then he’s not the good guy he proclaims to be. Orton asks Cole if Rhodes will actually kick him in the head and Cole says he’s not in a position to answer. Orton demands an answer and gets in Cole’s face before sitting back down. Cole says no, and Orton says Cole is spot on before leaving. Cole takes a deep breath.

Here’s Cathy Kelley with WWE Men’s Undisputed Champion Sami Zayn who was watching the Orton interview. Zayn is concerned about Orton but is also very concerned about Nick Aldis trying to take his title away by constantly putting him in title matches. Zayn puts over being the last real good guy and says the vultures and sharks circling him are doing things for the wrong reasons. Here’s Finn Balor in to say that the actual reason they’re all after Zayn is because of his continually screwing them over on his quest to become champion. Balor says he wants to tell Zayn face to face that he’s coming for Zayn and it doesn’t matter if he wins the briefcase or not. Here’s Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae in and Gargano wants his title match. Zayn says Gargano is right and deserves a title shot, but Nick Aldis has said no. Zayn says he got Gargano and LeRae MITB qualifying shots for next week’s show. Zayn wants to know if LeRae and Gargano are ride-or-die, and Gargano confirms it.

WWE Women’s Champion Chelsea Green, Tiffany Stratton, and Paige vs Fatal Influence (WWE Women’s US Champion Jacy Jayne, and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid)

It’s Fallon Henley’s 32nd birthday today, so happy birthday to her! Daffanie LeShaunn is our referee. Paige starts with Henley and Paige blasts Henley with a reverse thrust kick as Reid tags in. Paige dropkicks Reid to the apron and then pulls Reid’s head in for some knee lifts. Green tags in and she mashes Reid with a Meteora. Stratton grabbed a tag during the whole thing and follows with a Hip Attack on a prone Reid. Paige blasts a charging Jayne with a kick and we go to commercials.

Stratton and Jayne are slugging it out when the show returns, and Jayne grabs Reid for a tag. Reid and Henley combine to drive Stratton down and Reid grabs a cover for two. Henley tags in as Reid blasts away at Green and Paige on the apron. Henley hits a sling blade on Stratton and Green and Reid get tags. Green mashes Reid around and drives her face-first into the mat. Green drives Henley down on the apron before ascending. Reid catches Green with a kick to the face after her dive fails. Paige and Jayne grab tags and Paige drives Jayne down with the Paige Turnah and covers for two as Henley breaks it up. Henley drops Stratton with a right and turns into a Green slap before being driven to the floor by Green. Green then sends Reid out over the top rope. A pissed Henley yanks Green out to the floor so Stratton crushes both of them with a top rope cross-body. Jayne takes both Green and Stratton out with a Blockbuster. Paige thinks about trying a move but when she hits the ropes here’s Nikki Bella out to grab her by the ankle. Jayne takes advantage and blasts Paige with the Rolling Encore to end things.

It wasn’t a masterpiece but this got the job done. I like to call these chaos tags where everyone is just kind of flying around and there’s not a ton of structure, and that’s what this was. Fatal thrive in these kinds of matches and the face team held their own. I think a fair amount of good stuff happened during the break but that’s the nature of television matches at this point. I was fine with this and it did what it set out to do. I’m not super thrilled with Nikki Bella being so heavily involved at the top of the women’s division but I guess you have to do something with her so here we are. 2.75*

Winners – Fatal Influence (Jayne Rolling Encore on Paige)

Post-match sees the babyface team eye up a retreating Bella who makes the “I want the belt” gesture at Green.

Cole throws to highlights of Damian Priest attacking R-Truth at the Performance Center earlier this week. Priest yelled at Truth in Spanish just to show how serious he is about beating up a 54 year old man.

Here’s Cathy Kelley with GUNTHER who’s approach for tonight is to proclaim this whole thing as a farce. GUNTHER puts over Finn Balor’s right hand but says he doesn’t have his emotions in check. Here’s Danhausen in to greet his good pal GOONER and talk about his plans for the HUMAN MONIES once GOONER wins the match. Danhausen realizes that GOONER is not going to share those MONIES with him and goes to curse GOONER. This results in GOONER choking Danhausen and issuing a warning to stay away from him.

Here’s footage of CM Punk throwing out a first pitch at a Cubs game and getting to lead the Wrigley faithful in a rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”. We go to commercials.

Here’s Graves and Cole running down next week’s card and the MITB qualifiers will be Tatum Paxley vs Tiffany Stratton vs Candice LeRae, and Cody Rhodes vs Kevin Owens vs Johnny Gargano.

Here’s Cody Rhodes out as “Kingdom” gets a huge pop from the crowd. Rhodes soaks in some cheers before asking Indianapolis what they want to talk about. Rhodes wants to keep it simple and says he’ll keep things black and white. Rhodes mentions having CM Punk beaten at Summerslam before Randy Orton interfered. Rhodes talks about Punk losing the title to Sami Zayn and Rhodes knows he can beat Zayn, but he needs to address Randy Orton’s earlier comments. Rhodes talks about his recent history and says he’s the king of unwinnable positions. Rhodes promises that Orton will be in the same position on all fours and Rhodes vows to kick Orton’s head off his shoulders, and then cryptically promises that Orton may not be the only one. “Cult of Personality” fires up and here’s CM Punk out in his gear. Punk and Rhodes meet in the aisle and give each other a look before Rhodes walks to the back. Punk declares it CLOBBERIN’ TIME and we go to commercials.

Money In The Bank Qualifying Match: CM Punk vs GUNTHER vs Finn Balor

Jason Ayers is your referee for this one. GUNTHER goes after Balor at the start, so Punk wades in with some chops. GUNTHER fires back and Balor comes in for some chops of his own. Punk and Balor drive GUNTHER down with double sledges, and GUNTHER fires up with a Boston Crab on Punk. Balor breaks that up with a kick and GUNTHER drives him down with a chop in response. Balor holds GUNTHER up as Punk flies in with a kick to the head and Balor uses that momentum to smash GUNTHER down with a side Russian leg sweep. Balor pulls Punk and GUNTHER into him and drops them both with DDT’s. Balor lariats Punk to the floor and GUNTHER catches Balor in the sleeper. Balor shakes that off and sends GUNTHER to the floor, and Balor follows up with a tope on both GUNTHER and Punk as we go to commercials.

GUNTHER is mashing Balor along the ropes before hitting a snapmare and torquing on Balor’s neck when the show returns. GUNTHER goes out and drives Punk into the barricade. Balor is fired up when GUNTHER returns but it’s short-lived as GUNTHER yanks Balor up and blasts him in a corner. GUNTHER goes back to the floor and runs into a pissed off Punk who chops away before firing off some rights. GUNTHER shakes that off and drops Punk back-first over the timekeeper’s barricade area. GUNTHER goes back in to start slugging it out with Balor. Balor fires off a Pele Kick and both guys are down. Punk ascends and hits the Savage Elbow on GUNTHER for two. Punk lifts knees on both Balor and GUNTHER and says it’s GTS time. GUNTHER goes to the eyes when Punk lifts him up and then drives a knee into a charging Balor. GUNTHER gets caught by both Punk and Balor who turn him over into a double Boston Crab. Balor decides to grab an inside cradle on Punk and gets two. Balor rolls Punk up for two and then hits a slingblade. Balor nails Punk with a dropkick and ascends for the Coup de Grace. GUNTHER breaks up the subsequent cover by yanking Balor to the floor. Balor nails GUNTHER with a slingblade and runs right into a GUNTHER sleeper. Balor breaks out of that and walks into a GTS from Punk that sends Balor to the floor. GUNTHER immediately nails Punk with a dropkick and pulls Punk up for a powerbomb that gets two. GUNTHER puts a sleeper on Punk and then turns Punk around but Punk counters the powerbomb attempt. GUNTHER slaps on a sleeper and collapses to the mat with GUNTHER on top of Punk, and Balor crushes GUNTHER’s back with another Coup de Grace. Punk covers GUNTHER and gets three as Balor can’t make it back in time to break it up.

It’s probably only interesting to me that GUNTHER ate the pin here but I’m pretty on board with that as a finish. The announcers put over the idea of Balor being this close again and not being able to close things out, and that’s a good story to keep up with. I’m a bit surprised that Punk wants to do a ladder match at this stage of his career, so hopefully he knows what he’s doing with that decision. This was pretty good for the most part, and the crowd was going apeshit in the second act, which helped things along. 3.5*

Winner – CM Punk (Covered GUNTHER after a Balor Coup de Grace)

Post-match sees Punk and Balor giving each other some respect as the credits roll. Balor shakes Punk’s hand as a pissed GUNTHER watches from the floor.

Not a bad episode at all. I enjoyed both qualifiers but the women’s was a bit rough in spots. The six-women tag was decent, and I liked the cage match because it actually finished with a pin! I’d tell you that the main event was the major highlight tonight but overall, this was a fairly breezy two hours and we can all move on with our lives.

Thanks for reading.