WWE SmackDown Live Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for October 24

WWE SmackDown Live. Photo Source: WWE.com

Follow along with our live WWE SmackDown Live review.

WWE SmackDown Live is making a case to be the premier show in all of WWE. With Survivor Series next up on the pay per view calendar, bragging rights are up for grabs. It’s the one night where the Raw and SmackDown brands go head to head. Well, except for TLC, where Finn Balor and AJ Styles tore down the house.

But Shane McMahon had some tricks up his sleeve last night when he visited Raw. Shane, of course, hadn’t been seen since he fell off the top of the cell at Hell in a Cell. He was supposed to make his return on tonight’s SmackDown to deal with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, but instead he dropped in on Kurt Angle.

Then Shane interrupted Kurt’s announcement to close the show, and all hell broke loose when most of his roster stormed the arena and brutally attacked the Raw roster. With the Blue Team firing the first shot and bringing the flagship show “under siege,” will Angle and company have a response on tonight’s SmackDown?

But there’s more happening on SmackDown than just trying to establish dominance. Baron Corbin is demanding a rematch against Sin Cara after the luchador upset the US Champ via count out. Sin Cara has a lot riding on this match, as he clearly wants to build momentum after a television absence.

And Jinder Mahal got his answer from Brock Lesnar on Raw – the match for Survivor Series is on. But AJ Styles is still looking to get a shot at the WWE Champion in the near future. Tonight, The Phenomenal One goes up against Sunil Singh. Will Styles have any trouble with the speed bump in front of him?

In other action, The Usos and New Day team up to take on Rusev, Aiden English, Chad Gable, and Shelton Benjamin in an eight man tag match. Plus, Breezango are on the case in “Fashion Dogs.”

Related Story: WWE Raw Results: October 23, 2017

Follow along with our live WWE SmackDown Live review right here starting at 8pm EDT.

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The Commish

Shane is officially back on SmackDown tonight, still obviously feeling the effects from his recent case of lunacy. You know, that leap from off the top of the cage two weeks ago.I also can’t help but notice Shane-O-Mac is wearing his “tough guy” leather jacket tonight. Foreshadowing, perhaps?

The Commissioner acted like a Bond villain in this opening segment, just laying out his entire plan for everyone. The only difference is he waited until he had put it in action, unlike a guy like Blofeld or Goldfinger. Turns out, the viral infections indirectly caused the SmackDown invasion of Raw. AJ Styles was the Trojan horse, if you will. Pretty solid plan.

As Shane expressed how upset he was about Kurt Angle “insulting” the Blue Team roster, Sami Zayn came out to address his now worst enemy. Gotta say, Sami skanking in Shane’s face is the best. He states no hard feelings and offers a handshake to Shane, but is refused. Shane is mad about Sami’s involvement at Hell in a Cell – can’t blame the guy.

Sami decides to let all that wait for another day, and he offers himself and Kevin Owens up as members of the SmackDown Survivor Series team. Zayn says Shane may be a lot of things, but he’s not a stupid man – he should know that he needs Sami and Owens to defeat Raw.

But Shane is too upset to just put them on the team. Instead he gives Sami a chance to earn his way onto the team. If Sami can win his match later tonight, he’s in – in fact, whoever wins is on the team. And Sami’s opponent? Randy Orton.

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The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods, w/ Big E) vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin

Result: Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin defeated The New Day via pinfall

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

I guess that eight-man tag match that WWE advertised isn’t happening anymore. Sorry, Aiden English and Rusev! At least The Usos got to hang out on commentary for this one.

After a bit of back and forth in the early going, Benjamin and Gable took over. I especially liked the early sequence between Kofi and Benjamin – both are the “elder statesman” of their teams, and they both have insane agility. The dropkicks to the knees from both man in an effort to ground his opponent was a great touch.

Gable and Benjamin wore Kofi down for much of the commercial break, exhibiting great tag team chemistry. They haven’t been teaming long, but they each have been a part of a great team in the past. Putting things together has come fairly naturally for them. But Kofi was able to tag out to Wood eventually, leading us into the finish.

Seeing Gable and Benjamin taking shortcuts is a little depressing. They’re such a good team that I’d rather see them be the cocky, “we know we’re going to be better than you” team. But if this is what we’re getting, more power to them.

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SmackDown Women’s Survivor Team is Set

Boy, does Daniel Bryan hate Lana or something? Just straight up shot her down there. The GM also set a match for tonight – a fatal five way between the team members, and the winner is named team captain.

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Fashion Dogs

I hope someone is watching out. Something tells me Quentin Tarantino is the kind of guy who would sue over this.

As far as Reservoir Dogs parodies go, this is a pretty good one. Breeze and Dango argue over who gets to be Mr. Pink (spoiler: both of them!). The Ascension have a prisoner – the missing James Ellsworth! The Chinless Wonder is tied up and gagged, and Konnor and Viktor are ready to pour gasoline all over him. Why? Wasteland stuff! Excellent.

Turns out, though, it’s not really gas in the can, since Konnor drinks it. Or, maybe it is gasoline; he’s a strange dude. But since the gagged Ellsworth can’t answer any questions about the missing briefcase, Breezango decide to let The Ascension do things their way. They’re interrupted by Carmella – carrying the Money in the Bank briefcase. A break in the case!

But alas, all that Fandango finds in the case are a pair of skid mark undies. Ew. Carmella takes Ellsworth away and promises to make him pay. Breezango claim they’ve solved the case, but are called on it by The Ascension. Konnor seems pretty sure that “2B” is the Bludgeon Brothers, but Breeze doesn’t think there’s a ‘B’ anywhere in ‘brothers.’ Then he remembers it’s a silent B, and he claims things are getting stranger-er.

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Baron Corbin vs. Sin Cara

Result: Sin Cara defeated Baron Corbin via disqualification

Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars

Prior to the match, Daniel Bryan confronted Shane McMahon about the assault on Raw. D-Bry doesn’t agree with the decision, and he’s upset he wasn’t told about it before hand. DISSENSION AMONG MANAGEMENT.

Anyway, after being embarrassed last week with a count out loss, Baron Corbin demanded a rematch with Sin Cara. The Lone Wolf is probably warmed up now after beating the tar out of a skinny little intern backstage at Raw 24 hour earlier.

This week, it was a very different story as Corbin showed no restraint. There’s no way anyone can claim he was nonchalant about this week’s match. In fact, he was an outright monster. Sin Cara managed a brief flurry of fast-paced, high-flying offense. But he was no match for the United States Champion tonight.

However, Corbin’s desire to be ruthless ended up costing him in the end. He employed a ground and pound technique in the corner, but refused to heed the referee’s five count. Sorry, Wolf Boy, that leads to a disqualification. You lose again.

Clearly less than thrilled about the outcome, Corbin goes back to punish a helpless Sin Cara some more. Corbin dragged him to the floor and hit the End of Days. Maybe next week Corbin can actually win a match? He is the US Champion, after all.

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Sunil Singh vs. AJ Styles

Result: AJ Styles defeated Sunil Singh via submission

Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5 stars

Prior to the match, the Singhs mock Paul Heyman’s introduction of Brock Lesnar. I’d have to say that’s ill-advised. Although, it’s probably going to spur Lesnar to take one of the Singhs at Survivor Series and throw him approximately 1500 yards on a fly, so that’s got my attention.

Also prior to the match, Jinder Mahal responds to Brock Lesnar’s response to Jinder Mahal’s challenge. If this keeps happening between now and Survivor Series, things are going to start getting confusing. Jinder’s confidence is at an all-time high, too. That son of a gun really thinks he’s going to beat Brock Lesnar. That’s cute.

Sick of listening to Jinder blab on and run his mouth, AJ interrupts and makes his way to the ring. Before the match can get started, referee Mike Chioda ejects Jinder from ringside to even the odds. Sumeer Singh got to stay, because haha why not?

In no time at all, Styles neutralizes Sumeer’s potential interference, and locks Sunil in the Calf Crusher for a quick and easy victory. Backstage after the match, Jinder demands AJ get punished next week… by facing Sumeer Singh, and Daniel Bryan makes it official.

Best Friends Backstage

Sami Zayn is preparing for his match and gets a visit from his best friend and brother Kevin Owens. KO informs Sami that next week, he’s got his own Survivor Series qualifying match against Shinsuke Nakamura. Are we really setting up Owens and Zayn fighting for Raw? Because I’m almost certain Nakamura and Orton will be on Team Blue.

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Carmella vs. Tamina (w/ Lana) vs. Becky Lynch vs. Naomi vs. Charlotte Flair

Result: Becky Lynch defeated Carmella via submission to win the match

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

Reminder: The winner of this match will be the captain of the SmackDown Women’s Team at Survivor Series. After Natalya makes a brief cameo appearance before the match kicks off, everyone springs into action, with Tamina being the last one standing in the ring before too long.

Tamina almost killed Carmella later in the match, though. It looked like she went for some kind of slam into the apron, but completely misjudged the distance and awkwardly dropped her ribs first onto the ledge. To add to it, Charlotte kicked Carmella in the face moments later.

Charlotte showed off her own strength by catching Naomi during a hurricanrana attempt. She swung her into the barricade a little awkwardly, which seemed to be the theme of the match – but the match was really good! We got a nice clean fallaway slam from Charlotte onto Tamina, so there’s that.

Lana tried to interfere on Taqmina’s behalf, but Charlotte countered it. The Queen caught a superkick to the face from Tamina, who then threw Charlotte into the crowd. Carmella took out Naomi, eventually leaving Becky Lynch and Carmella alone in the ring. One Dis-Arm-Her later, and Becky Lynch is your Survivor Series captain.

It’s a great decision, much like the one a year ago to make Becky the inaugural SmackDown Women’s Champion. She’s a terrific competitor and a very popular superstar. It’s nice to see her getting the rub with a captaincy here.

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Bludgeon Brothers

I am so on board with the Bludgeon Brothers. Luke Harper is one of the best superstars on the roster, and Erick Rowan is never better than when he’s teamed with Harper. And the whole gimmick just screams “1980s INSANITY.” Please, push these guys to the moon.

I mean, sledgehammers. Druid robes. Maniacal laughter. Creepy lighting. Idiotic catchphrases that sound so ridiculously cool it defies logic. This is the greatest thing WWE could do in 2017, which is already the craziest year in professional wrestling in a long time.

Dolph Ziggler and Bobby Roode Exchange Words

So Dolph Ziggler is still doing his whole “The WWE Universe are a bunch of idiots” thing. Great. Last week, he evened up the score against Bobby Roode. Then last night, he and Roode basically worked together to take out the Raw roster. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I get it. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to be that guy.)

After Ziggler steals The Rock’s catchphrase (poorly, I might add), he’s interrupted by Roode himself. Roode proposes yet another match between the two. He says he enjoyed fighting against him, and since the series is tied up at one, one more match should settle it.

Ziggler initially denies, mentioning something about beating him twice. But Roode likes the sound of that, and alters his proposal – next week, Roode vs. Ziggler III will be a two out of three falls match. Sounds good to me, especially if it ends this lackluster rivalry. And to sweeten the pot, the winner of the match will join Team Blue at Survivor Series.

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Sami Zayn vs. Randy Orton

Result: Randy Orton defeated Sami Zayn via pinfall

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

We got a taste last week in tag team action, but heel Sami Zayn is a revelation. I pointed out his skanking in Shane McMahon’s face before, but look at his sarcastic hand wringing before the match started and tell me you don’t want to punch him in the face.

Then once the match got started, Sami decided to celebrate hitting his big moves. The barricade apron connected, and before anything else Zayn had his arms in the air like he just scored a touchdown.

And Sami’s offense is pretty much the same as it was when he was the most pure babyface in all of WWE. But he’s just subtly shifted his mannerisms enough to make him an effective antagonist now.

Now, as the match progresses, you had to figure at some point the other shoe was going to drop. All night, the announcers made a point of mentioning the extra security posted to thwart a possible Raw retaliation. So as Orton was hitting all his usual moves, and there was only seven minutes left in the broadcast, your brain was saying, “Where’s the superstars in red shirts?” Only, they never showed up.

But through that, Sami made his comeback, hitting the tornado DDT through the turnbuckles to the outside. But Sami missed the Helluva Kick and was in danger of losing the match until Kevin Owens came down to help. It backfired, as Orton hit Sami with a low blow to get some payback for last week. And it didn’t come out of nowhere, but Orton hit an RKO for the victory.

Next: WWE WrestleMania 34 Match Card Predictions Following TLC

Backstage after the match, Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon discuss that Raw never showed up tonight. Shane says Daniel was worried over nothing, but Bryan says that it’s just a matter of time before Kurt Angle retaliates. and that closes out this week’s SmackDown Live.