WWE SmackDown recap for October 18, 2019: A whole lot of Roman

This edition WWE Friday Night SmackDown on FOX saw a paint by numbers explanation from Bayley, a six-pack challenge match, and a whole lot of Roman Reigns

Friday night was the latest edition of SmackDown on FOX and it was fine for what it was. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t terrible — It was just kind of there. We got a few good matches and a lot of hype for Crown Jewel. Truth be told if you didn’t see SmackDown on Friday night you really didn’t miss a thing in the grand scheme of things, which is something WWE programming sorely needs to try and change going forward.

But worry not if you missed it, we got you covered. This is your WWE Friday Night SmackDown recap for October 18, 2019.

The King costs the Big Dog the gold

We kicked off Friday Night SmackDown this week with an Intercontinental title match between the champion, Shinsuke Nakamura, against the challenger, the No. 1 draft pick for SmackDown, Roman Reigns. We had a feeling when we heard this match announced earlier this week that we would be getting a title change, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that this wasn’t the case.

The match took a bit to find its footing but once they did, Reigns and Nakamura had a really entertaining matchup with one another. Given who these two competitors are this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

Despite all of the interference from Sami Zayn, it ended up being King Corbin of all people attacking Reigns from behind with the scepter to cause the DQ finish. After the match, Reigns was being attacked and Daniel Bryan attempted to make the save but ended up being laid out by Nakamura by the time the segment was finished. If this leads to a feud between Bryan and Nakamura we are all about it!

After that, we had a segment backstage between The New Day and Heavy Machinery. These two teams play off each other very well and it made for a pretty funny bit between the five men.

Enough of this Shorty stuff

Up next, we have Curtis Axel going one-on-one with CHAD Gable. We for one think this “Shorty” gimmick is absolutely insulting not only to the audience but Gable himself. The fact that Vince McMahon, in his 70s, still finds stuff like this entertaining is beyond us.

The match was quick and was exactly what it needed to be with Gable picking up the submission victory with the ankle lock. Hopefully, this gimmick will be short-lived and Gable can truly be appreciated for the talent that he is.

Afterward, he was interviewed in the ring and was asked about his height. He then tried to spin everything into a positive message for the kids watching. He ended it by calling himself “Shorty G.” We aren’t really sure if this is going to work but clearly they’re going to try it anyway.

The new Captain of Team Hogan to be revealed tonight

They then turn to Michael Cole and Corey Graves at ringside who talked about Seth Rollins being off Team Hogan due to him defending the Universal Championship against The Fiend at Crown Jewel. They had Hulk Hogan on Skype in what can only be called a terrible back and forth promo where he revealed that Shorty G and Ali would be joining the team and that the fifth member would be revealed before the night was over. It was pretty awful.

After that, we get an eight-man tag featuring The New Day and Heavy Machinery against the Revival, Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler. Kofi Kingston, the former WWE Champion, chose to sit this match out and watch the proceedings from ringside. We can only imagine that New Day and Heavy Machinery are being positioned as the top contenders for the Revival’s SmackDown Tag Team Championship.

The finish saw a Midnight Hour from the New Day on Scott Dawson to pick up the victory for their team. Otis really got a chance to shine tonight. The crowd loves him and his popularity is clearly on the rise and that’s definitely a good thing for the future of Heavy Machinery.

It was announced that we will now have a tag match to close the show with Reigns and Bryan teaming up to face Nakamura and King Corbin. We had an interview backstage with Bryan and he was all fired up about the match. Bryan is such a fantastic promo, few in the WWE are better than him right now when he’s just allowed to go off on the microphone.

Why Bayley why?

Prior to MizTV, we had a small video package for Ali. Clearly, with him being on Team Hogan now they have to hype him up properly, so this video package was a great way to start that. The guest on MizTV tonight was none other than the new SmackDown Women’s Champion, Bayley. Her new entrance music sure is something. We aren’t sure what … but it’s something.

Bayley was accompanied to the ring by Sasha Banks, after her tailbone injury at Hell in a Cell it’s nice to see her back on television so quickly. Miz aired a video package giving us a recap of everything we saw the previous week. It was very well done. WWE’s video packages are second to none and are always done incredibly well.

Miz simply asks Bayley why and it took her forever to answer. After a while, she said that she didn’t owe anyone an explanation. At this point, Miz, Bayley and Banks got a bunch of digs in on each other. Bayley finally got to the point, eventually saying that she gave the fans everything and tried to be a role model for the children and that when she needed them the most they abandoned her.

She kept on going until she was cut off by the members of the six-pack challenge to determine the No. 1 contender for Bayley’s championship, starting with Nikki Cross, followed by Dana Brooke and then Lacey Evans before the show went to a commercial break. That match happened next. The reasoning for Bayley’s turn was pretty much WWE paint by numbers at this rate. Nothing new or groundbreaking here; if you’ve watched this programming long enough you knew exactly what she was going to say. We also got the classic, “Live sucks and then you die” quip out of her.

Six-Pack Challenge time

By the time we got back from commercial break Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, and Carmella were already in the ring and the match began relatively quickly. It’s been a while since WWE had a Six-Pack Challenge and the talent involved in this match made it a good one.

The match ended up being relatively short but all six women worked hard to make the match as good as it possibly could be. It featured a great sequence to end the match, culminating with Cross hitting a swinging neck breaker on Rose to pick up the victory. Cross is now the No. 1 contender for Bayley’s championship.

Bayley and Cross then had a stare-down after the match, Cross from the ring and Bayley at ringside by the commentator’s table. There was no timetable given for when this title match would take place, however. We then got a video package on Braun Strowman to hype his match with Tyson Fury at Crown Jewel. It should certainly be a spectacle, that’s for sure. But Bayley versus Cross won’t be part of that card.

The Monster Among Men doesn’t like PowerPoint, plus more Crown Jewel hype

Braun Strowman was supposed to be in action next but instead, we got a recap of the feud between Rollins and Wyatt. After Hell in a Cell, they really should have just let this die but, unfortunately, it continues. Rollins and The Fiend will face off in a Falls Count Anywhere match at Crown Jewel and now we can’t help but worry about the long term future of the latest iteration of Bray Wyatt.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1185370492061933573

Unfortunately for Drew Gulak, he was chosen to be Strowman’s opponent tonight. Before it begins Gulak gets on the microphone and introduces himself and tells Strowman if he goes into the match with his usual strategy that Fury is going to knock him out cold. He tried to present Strowman a PowerPoint presentation (a signature Gulak move) and the Monster Among Men just flat out destroyed him in no time instead.

The crowd ate it up as Strowman gave us his greatest hits. He finished it off with the running power slam and that was all she wrote. We think Gulak got like one kick’s worth of offense which was, honestly, probably more than some people expected.

Let’s close the show how we opened the show

Before we forget, we should mention that due to the MLB World Series next Friday, SmackDown will air on FS1 instead of FOX proper. They advertised it as a one-time-only deal but we can’t help but think this might be the first time of many SmackDown gets bumped from FOX to FS1.

And then it’s time for the main event, with Bryan and Reigns teaming up to face King Corbin and Nakamura. We can only hope this match leads to a feud between Bryan and Nakamura. It is well-known that Nakamura has gone on record saying Bryan was one of the main reasons he signed with WWE to begin with a few years back. To get an actual feud between those two men would be absolutely fantastic.

As we predicted, it was announced that Reigns would be the captain of Team Hogan at Crown Jewel on Oct. 31. No one is shocked. It truly couldn’t have been anybody else as Seth Rollins’ replacement. WWE also announced that both Hogan and Flair will be on SmackDown next week.

To the delight of fans everywhere, we got a lot of interaction between Bryan and Nakamura in this match. A taste of things to come, we hope? The finish saw Bryan pick up the win for his team, hitting the running knee on Nakamura. This all but confirms a title match in Bryan’s future and also served as a very good way to end a rather lackluster episode of SmackDown.

And that wraps up the October 18 recap for WWE Friday Night SmackDown on FOX. It’s a shame to see the blue brand on a downward trend in the last few weeks since moving to FOX. Just a few short years ago, SmackDown was easily the better show between it and Raw. Now it’s basically even. We guess Vince McMahon  is happy about that, but as fans, we can’t help but be looking for more.

What did you think of SmackDown this week What was your favorite match? Is Bayley an angry teenager now? Sound off in the comments section below!