WWE had one job with Friday Night SmackDown this week in Chicago — deliver on the return they’ve so obviously been teasing for a while now, if you were paying attention, but over the past week ramped up on. The first appearance in a decade from one of the top stars in the history of the women’s division, and I’m absolutely comfortable saying that.
When wife Becky Lynch aligned with husband Seth Rollins, it was too perfect a set up for another his chief rival, CM Punk, to bring his wife back to professional wrestling once more.
First, Rollins came out in the crowd to personally introduce Lynch so she could hit the ring and work the gimmick. The way she harps on about Sports Illustrated calling her the greatest women’s wrestler of all time still pops me. She went after the Chicago crowd for how all their teams suck.
Notably, she didn’t mention the Bears, the team her husband is a superfan of, and who should be much better this year (please let them be better this year).
She did tell Bulls guard Coby White that he sucks while he was sitting front row. That was fun.
Finally, hometown hero Punk made his way out to the ring and he couldn’t hide the smile, hard as he tried at first. He again tried to say it’s not about Becky but instead her husband being a coward and hiding from him. Lynch again antagonized him, reminding him of her assault from days ago on Monday Night Raw.
So the fans chanted for AJ Lee.
Punk mentioned having shooters in Chicago, like his sisters, or Bayley, or Rhea Ripley. Again, Lynch slapped him hard across the face, asking him who is going to come save him?
“You’re pathetic, you’ve got nobody.”
Just like on Raw, Punk took it, got out of the ring, and started walking off. Only this time when he stopped, he had the ace up his sleeve. He would never put his hands on a lady but thankfully, he’s got somebody who will.
No, there isn’t a roof on the Allstate Arena anymore.
My word, what a response.
Lynch — and I really can’t say enough how brilliant she’s been since WrestleMania — sold all of this so beautifully. Her jaw dropped while AJ slowly made her way out to a thunderous ovation followed by “holy shit” chants as she did her entrance. There were no words exchanged. Instead, Lynch stepped forward and AJ knocked her all around until she licked her hand and slapped the taste right out of Becky’s mouth.
The heels retreated, leaving Punk and AJ in the ring together to share a big hug and a kiss.
Man, this was awesome. It was just the kind of fun pro wrestling should always strive to be.
John Cena got one hell of a response from the fine folks in the Windy City, and you could absolutely tell it meant a whole hell of a lot to him. Cena used his time to tease out AJ’s return and say thank you to the fans. It didn’t seem he was going to do anything beyond that.
And then United States Champion Sami Zayn showed up with a bright idea for another big return.
That of the United States championship open challenge.
Zayn asked for permission to steal the gimmick, and Cena, noted appreciator of such things, gave him the go ahead. Before he could bail, however, Sami stopped him.
Hey, remember how he started off challenging for the U.S. championship against Cena himself so many years ago? Why not write some poetry and run it back, this time with Zayn giving Cena a shot at the title?
The fans loved the idea, Cena went for it, and they got down to business right there. Cena paid tribute to Edge, the artist now known as Adam Copeland, and then Michael Cole acted like he was doing his best Roman Reigns. Corey Graves, bless his heart, made sure to course correct without actually saying Edge’s name.
The match never got to the finish it deserved because guess who was always going to make his way out to wreak his own brand of havoc? That’s right, pony tailed Brock Lesnar was back again, dragging the referee out of the ring about as violently as possible before delivering F-5’s to both Zayn and Cena.
When Lesnar got backstage, he told the camera “Hey John, I’ll see you at Wrestlepalooza, bitch.”
Pretty much all of this ruled, even with the interference and non-finish.
- Aleister Black said he came back to WWE only to find the well is still poisoned, and Damian Priest would be the guy to start the process of fixing that. The two started fighting each other before the bell even rang, and I thought they were going to avoid doing the actual match again but they went ahead with it. I never really got into it, and the finish saw Black use the referee to avoid going up for a slam and then using that to hit Black Mass for the pinfall. I do want to credit Priest for the way he sold everything at the finish.
- I feel like Tiffany Stratton has almost exclusively been booked in backstage segments for weeks now. They’ve done so very little to actually promote the women’s championship match she has against Jade Cargill next week. Meanwhile, Nia Jax is still hovering and they’ve set up Jax vs. Cargill as a future program. Everything about this has felt like something they don’t actually want to do but feel they have to. I can’t be alone in feeling like that.
- Michin got her shot at Giulia and the United States championship and it went pretty much exactly how you thought it would. Michin got some offense in but Giulia did her thing and retained the title with a bit of an assist from her mouthpiece Kiana James.
- Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss did a backstage segment where “Dr. Lily” checked in on The Queen. There isn’t much more I can say about it than that.
This show delivered in a major way because they did the damn thing and got AJ Lee back.
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