WWE SmackDown FOX Premiere: Results, Highlights, and Grades for Oct 4

After months of build-up, WWE finally makes its much anticipated debut on the FOX network with the season premiere of Friday Night SmackDown. Let’s kick off these results with everything that happened during the show’s first hour.

At the top of the hour, we open with none other than the Chairman of the WWE Board himself, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, and his daughter, Stephanie McMahon. The father-daughter duo welcome us to SmackDown right before ushering in the new era with a shiny new opening crawl.

“Are You Ready for a Good Time?” by AC/DC is the song. As for the question … are we ready? Oh, hell yeah.

Fireworks galore rage throughout the bright, new stage arena before The Man comes around to the ring.

Becky Lynch says she’s happy to kick SmackDown off on the show she was first embraced by fans. To thank them, she’s ready to “kick some ass,” but not before being interrupted by King Corbin, who thinks he should be the one kicking off the show. But before he has the chance to berate Becky for not being The Man, The Rock comes back home.

The Rock recalls coining the phrase “SmackDown” for the millions … [and the millions] … of fans around the world before calling Corbin a “broke ass Burger King on crack.”

Corbin says The Rock doesn’t run the place anymore. The Rock says just because Corbin’s won King of the Ring doesn’t mean he has to dress like a king, just like how The Man isn’t walking around with a pair of testicles, though Lynch promises hers would still be bigger than Corbin’s.

Corbin badmouths LeBron James to the LA crowd inside the Staples Center. In return, The Rock puts Corbin over as a “super tough dude,” so he convinces the crowd to cheer him as “STD.”

Right after, Becky and Rocky take turns punching Corbin. Lynch drops a leg drop and right after, Rock hits a People’s Elbow, followed by a Rock Bottom to close out the segment.

Grade: A

Simple, effective way to kick off the show. The Rock makes promo work look way too easy. Using him to highlight Becky Lynch as the potential new face of the brand whilst also giving the company’s prodigal heel son a nice, special rub in the ring. Plus, it’s just flat out entertaining. Everybody wins.

Back from the break, we see Maria Menounos, Trish Stratus, and Lita all front and center in the crowd sitting together. Cut to Becky back in the ring, which leads us to the first match on the FOX network.

Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks and Bayley

Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch start the match. Bayley tries to cheap shot Becky, before getting cheapshotted by Charlotte. It’s all Charlotte until Bayley pulls Charlotte’s hair to the ground.

This turns to Charlotte vs. Sasha in the ring. Charlotte’s in control, especially after a series of chops in the corner.

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After tossing Sasha to the outside, Charlotte climbs up on the top rope for a dive, but Bayley pushes her off and to the floor. This allows Sasha to get a cheap kick on Charlotte while she’s down, leading us to a commercial break.

Back from the break, Bayley and Charlotte are at it again, though briefly before Becky gets the hot tag. Her comeback spot is in full force. Gets in all of her moves, including the Bex-ploder, before attempting a Dis-Arm-Her before a distraction from Sasha holds her off. Bayley gets control.

Becky runs at Bayley, but gets flapjacked onto the ropes. Charlotte gets the tag and immediately hits Natural Selection. Sasha Banks breaks it up.

Becky comes in, stares down with her Hell in a Cell opponent before a brawl ensues. Bayley interjects, then Charlotte comes in, and its an all out brawl. The brawl finds its way outside, where Charlotte hits a top rope moonsault on the Boss n Hug Connection.

Back in the ring, Charlotte locks the Figure Eight on the SmackDown Women’s Champion, who taps out.

Winners: Becky and Charlotte

Grade: B+

Not as much intense or as exciting as their Madison Square Garden match, but the high energy in the atmosphere was there thanks to the hot crowd. Then, of course, the Four Horsewomen are all phenomenal athletes who have been facing each other for the better part of seven years now. Naturally, the chemistry was there (as always) and you’re not going to get anything less than a great match between these competitors on any given night.

FOX Sports’ Erin Andrews is backstage interviewing The New Day. She asks Kofi about going into the match being an underdog going into his match tonight vs. Brock Lesnar, but Kofi laughs it off because he’s “always the underdog.” He considers Brock Lesnar just another mountain. We also learn that Kofi politely asked Xavier Woods and Big E to stay backstage because he wants to prove that he can beat Brock all by himself.

Back from commercial break, we see more stars in the building, as undefeated boxer Tyson Fury is in the crowd, with a head shiny as a melon. It’s lovely. We also see crowd shots of Mick Foley sitting with Kurt Angle before we cut to our next match: a Champion vs. Champion contest.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Seth Rollins

BUT FIRST, an impromptu episode of Firefly Fun House! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Bray Wyatt introduces himself to SmackDown’s new home, and introduces everyone else to all of his friends. This includes Mercy the Buzzard, Huskus the Pig, and Rambling Rabbit rocking a Seth Rollins shirt, who warns his biggest fan not to fight The Fiend.

Bray enters frame, notices Ramblin’ Rabbit’s shirt, and decides to show the Universal Champion what will happen to Rollins in the Hell in a Cell.

Playing Seth, Rabbit is locked in a cage with Mercy Buzzard (as The Fiend), who eats and murders Ramblin’ Rabbit on live television. Bray and Co. just laugh it off with Rabbit’s severed head in his hands. What a season premiere.

Back from commercial, Nakamura has an armbar locked on Rollins, but Rollins wiggles his way out before hitting a series of Suicide Dives on Nakamura outside. Sami Zayn provides a slight distraction outside, allowing Nakamura to get back into this. nearly hits a Kinshasa, but Rollins ducks and offers a Sling Blade, then a jumping knee.

Rollins sets up The Stomp when the lights cut out. Enter The Fiend.

Suddenly, Rollins is getting fingers jammed down his throat by a homicidal Fiend up the ramp before getting tossed off the stage.

Winner: No Contest

Grade: B-

Super fast paced match off rip. I personally enjoy a little slow build towards a match like this before we get the nonstop action, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it. Not getting a true winner might’ve hurt this match a bit, but at the same time, when neither of these champs need to take a loss now, this was smart booking. And prior to the finish, both men got all their fun spots in and did what they could to produce a good, short match. Short but sweet.

Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens – Ladder Match

Heading into the second hour, we’ve got our Career vs. Career Ladder Match. Whoever wins will fire the other.

During his “Best in the Worlllllllllllllllllllllll…” introduction, Kevin Owens attacks Shane McMahon. From there, KO starts whipping the General Manager up and down the arena like a scalding dog.

Both men fight to climb the ladder before KO just flings the ladder at Shane, nearly taking out the commentary team. KO goes to retrieve, but on the way back in, Shane dropkicks the ladder into the face. He then smashes the ladder into KO’s back. He then sets KO up onto the announce table. You know what that means …

Shane O Mac nails an elbow drop on KO through the announcer table!

Back from the commercial, KO sends Shane crashing through a ladder in between an apron with a frog splash. He then goes to climb the ladder some minutes later, but Shane nails him with a chair from behind once he’s up. Shane then sets KO in the corner with a ladder on him. You know what that means …

“Shane goes Coast to Coast and KO is KO’d!” Michael Cole’s words, not mine. I could never be that clever.

Shane climbs the ladder, but KO gets back up to powerbomb Shane onto another ladder. This allows KO to climb the ladder, retrieve the briefcase, and of course, fire Shane McMahon. He then proceeds to Stunner Shane out of the WWE.

Winner: Kevin Owens

Grade: B

Much better than expected, but also as good of a Ladder Match as you’ll ever get between these two (that sounds like a knock, but trust me, it’s not). Provided some eye popping carnage as well as a satisfying closing to not only a feud, but the Shane McMahon “reign of terror,” so to speak. It’s exactly what you want to see out of a feud between a guy you love and a guy you hate, and WWE delivered.

Afterwards, backstage, Kayla Braxton interviews Paul Heyman and rolls the footage from last Monday. Heyman says Rey Mysterio simply got into Brock Lesnar’s way, so Brock got him out of his way and will do the same to Kofi Kingston tonight.

AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode vs. Braun Strowman, The Miz and Heavy Machinery

Braun Strowman arrives to the ring for an 8-Man Tag Team Match. Miz and Dolph start and immediately hits a Zig Zag, but doesn’t go for the pin. He sets up a Super Kick, but gets blocked for a DDT. Miz hits a hot tag for Braun Strowman, who bulldozes through everyone.

He clobbers Dolph for a pin, but breaks it up. Cue everybody to hit their finishers. Also cue barely naked Otis, because it’s good for television.

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After Braun bulldozes everyone around the ring, he challenges Tyson Fury in the crowd to “get these hands.” He tosses Dolph into Tyson, who briefly teases getting in the ring to fight Braun before the latter finishes Dolph in the ring with a PowerSlam.

After the match, Tyson hops the barricade before literally all of security needs to hold him back.

Winners: Team Braun

Grades: D

This one just felt really rushed, but considering the ending with Tyson Fury, it makes sense if the end goal wasn’t to have a good match, but to set up a confrontation between Fury and Strowman. Not sure if this is teasing a match or just creating a moment for the sake of buzz, but looking strictly at the match as a match (even if it was never designed to be a good match), it’s not a good match.

Back at commentary, Michael Cole recaps that during all of these festivities in the ring, DJ Marshmello (yes, that Marshmello), won the 24/7 Championship from Carmella, then loses it back to her almost just as fast.

This leads us into our Lumberjack Match, with Daniel Bryan on commentary.

Erick Rowan vs. Roman Reigns – Lumberjack Match

Rowan backs Roman into a corner and kicks him down. He then sends Roman to the outside to get beat up by the heel Lumberjacks. Back in the ring, Roman throws Rowan outside to get beat up by the babyface Lumberjacks, who get beat up by Rowan. Roman tries to hit a Superman Punch, but Rowan catches him and slams him into the barricade.

Heel Lumberjacks pick up the scraps. Back in the ring, Roman gets hit with a spin kick from Roman for a near fall.

Back from the break, Rowan has his signature knuckle sandwich rest spot in before The Big Dog fights out of it. Cue Roman’s comeback spot.

Harper makes a run-in, but Bryan chases after him. This leads to all the Lumberjacks fighting, which leads The Big Dog to hitting a big dive.

Rowan powerbombs Ali into Roman Reigns. Yes, you read that correctly. It was amazing.

Rowan goes for the Iron Claw, but Roman hits a Superman Punch. Harper in the ring, but Bryan hits a Knee Plus. Rowan attempts an Iron Claw, but Roman spears him for the win. Roman and Bryan shake hands after the match.

Winner: Roman Reigns

Grade: C+ (the plus is strictly because Rowan tossed a dude into another thing, which is my favorite thing in wrestling)

Lumberjack Matches are hard to book. There’s really only one way to have a Lumberjack and it’s to regurgitate the same formula for every match. This is one of those matches that regurgitates that formula. This isn’t necessarily a bad match. It just abides by the usual formula and if you’ve seen one Lumberjack Match, you’ve seen them all.

Kofi Kingston vs. Brock Lesnar – WWE Championship

Main Event Time!

Kofi Kingston runs at Brock Lesnar, Brock immediately catches him into an F5, and Kofi, after over 130+ days, Kofi’s WWE Championship run ends in about 5 seconds.

After the match, Rey Mysterio and Cain Velasquez (yes, the dude who beat Brock in UFC for the Heavyweight Championship, and the dude who’s been pulling lucha in AAA lately) make their way down the ring. Cain double leg takedowns Brock immediately and pounds Brock into running away. Staredown to end the show.

Winner: (And NEW) Brock Lesnar

Grade: [BRUH]

I can’t even grade the WWE Championship match. It wasn’t even a match.

I was too bummed out to get into the Brock vs. Cain confrontation because of the way that match ended. Like … man.

I figured Kofi was losing, but I expected a full match at least. After the great reign he’s had, he’s just tossed to the curb for … Cain Velasquez. No diss to Cain, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall Show Grade: B-

The show wasn’t exactly a bang, but it was far from a whimper. Even if the ending left a sour taste in my mouth, that doesn’t change the fact the rest of the show was mostly good. Some bumps here and there, but mostly good.Fine, fine, super fine start to the new FOX era of SmackDown programming that show produce positive results for WWE, FOX, and most importantly, us fans.