WWE SmackDown Results, Highlights and Grades for Oct. 25

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown has been promoted as a face to face collision between Crown Jewel opponents Brock Lesnar and Rey Mysterio. And it starts … right now!

We are live from Kansas City, Missouri and we are one week away from WWE Crown Jewel (cue the boos, if applicable). We kick off the show with an episode of Miz TV with Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan (feel free to cue some more boos, if applicable). Each man brought a posse. That being all of the SmackDown Superstars on Team Flair and Team Hogan (what in God’s name in Chad Gable wearing?). Also, Jimmy Hart is here. For some reason.

Seriously, what the bloody hell is Chad Gable wearing? Oh right, I forgot, he’s Shorty G.

As Hogan tells us (brother), he put together the greatest Hulkamania team in the history of Hulkamania teams (which isn’t saying much, when they’re the first ever Hulkamania team

Flair says his and Roman Reigns’ egos are too big to co-exist. But his team is going to take down Team Hogan. “You too, Big Dog!

Hogan reminds Flair that The Nature Boy has never beaten him and just like old times, Hogan will beat Flair.

Sami Zayn pipes up to say Shorty G would need to stand on someone’s shoulders to be half the man Shinsuke Nakamura is. Shorty gives another inspirational speech, promising to rise above it all and overcome his enemies. Such inspiration. Much inspired.

Ali pipes up himself to tell Gable not to pay attention to Zayn, because he’s just a mouthpiece with bad breath. King Corbin tells Ali to shut up in the presence of a king, because “Crown Jewel was made in [his] honor,” ya know? He calls out Roman specifically, saying as he always does, Roman will let everyone down at Crown Jewel when Team Flair beats Team Hogan and gets everyone to bow to them.

Roman tells him to shut up and that he’s just a stupid dude with a stupid cape and a stupid crown and a stupid scepter saying stupid things. He says he’s acting so stupid that he wants to punch him in the face. Shorty wants in on the punching, and Hogan suggests all six men preview their Crown Jewel match with a Six Man Tag tonight.

Zayn suggests his team just takes this challenge under consideration because they don’t work under Hogan’s time. Hogan goads Zayn and eggs the situation some more. Infuriated, Zayn accepts the match. But Zayn says he tweaked his neck on the flight, so he, himself, will not wrestle because he’s on the “Do Not Touch” list. But he will offer the opportunity to take his spot to none other than Cesaro. All six men brawl, only for the babyfaces to stand tall to send us to a commercial.

And just like that, we have our main event for tonight: Cesaro, Nakamura, and Corbin vs. Reigns, Shorty G and Ali.

Grade: D

Sorry, I just don’t care about this match, or the Crown Jewel card at all. Everyone in the ring with mic time did their best to sell this one (even when a lot of the dialogue was cringy), but it’s a hard sell. And when a segment like this is made to sell me on a PPV (yet alone tonight’s match) and I’m not interested, the segment failed.

But hey, on the brightside, Creative remembered that Cesaro is on the roster and are giving him a match, and that ain’t a bad thing at all.

Also, Miz was an afterthought on his own talk show. Forgot he was even in the ring after a while. Which, eh, is kind of good that the host doesn’t dominate the guests (the dudes people are watching for) but again, it’s his show and he barely said a word. Not sure what that says about Miz.