WWE SmackDown recap for Oct. 25, 2019: Crown Jewel hype

This edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown on FOX (Sports 1) saw Lesnar F5-ing Velasquez, Hogan and Flair showing off their teams and the return of the Firefly Fun House.

The latest edition of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX (Sports 1 — for this week) was a pretty solid episode overall. It was heavy on Crown Jewel promotion but that’s not a surprise. The women’s segments this week very much felt like throwaways which is a shame; it seems that since they can’t wrestle at Crown Jewel WWE doesn’t care about them right now.

Let’s run it all down. Here is the WWE Friday Night SmackDown recap for Oct. 25, 2019.

Hogan and Flair kick things off on Miz TV

SmackDown opened up this week pumping up the Team Hogan versus Team Flair match happening at WWE Crown Jewel next week. They actually did this segment without the Superstars from Raw which we do appreciate. Let’s respect the draft for as long as we possibly can, please?

Miz played the hype man a bit before turning things over to Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. They ran down who was out there with them and with Sami Zayn also there for Team Flair, it’s obvious there’s going to be a six-man tag tonight. We also must say for the record that Gable’s new wrestling gear is ridiculous.

Everyone in the ring continues to take shots at each other while plenty of them are smiling throughout. None of them look like they are taking this seriously and it’s hard to blame them. Eventually, things got serious when King Corbin took the microphone and ran down Roman Reigns. But Reigns simply destroyed him afterward on the stick, so it really didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

Hogan then played the part of Teddy Long and proposed the six-man tag for the main event that we already knew was going to happen. Zayn told them they would think about it but Hogan egged him into accepting. Zayn immediately backed out of the match saying that he was injured but that he had a replacement to take his spot and out came Cesaro. We can’t really hate that.

This ended up turning into a brawl immediately and it was entertaining for what it was. Although some of the back and forth fell flat the overall segment was a fun enough way to kick off the show.

Doing it for Woodsy … with a loss?

Before the commercial break, we see Big E and Kofi Kingston walking through the backstage area talking with Xavier Woods on a tablet. Big E yelled they were doing this for “Woodsy” and it was announced they would be taking on Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode in tag team action next.

They announced during the New Day’s entrance that they would be getting a tag team title shot next week on SmackDown against The Revival. That should be a good match even though the participants will probably be exhausted after their charter flight from Crown Jewel the day before. We don’t envy the travel schedule the blue brand is going to have next week.

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The match was relatively short and Ziggler surprisingly got the win on Kingston with a roll-up. It really doesn’t make any sense to do that when the New Day have a tag title shot next week unless they are going to turn it into a multi-man match instead. And that is essentially what the post-match turned into with The Revival and Heavy Machinery getting involved. The segment ended with New Day and Heavy Machinery standing tall. That was all-around odd and clearly just more build for Crown Jewel.

We saw Cain Velasquez and Rey Mysterio speaking backstage hyping up Cain’s confrontation with Brock Lesnar later on tonight.

Squash matches are a Woman’s Right

When SmackDown returned from the commercial break we got a promo package for Braun Strowman and Tyson Fury, highlighted by the attack from Strowman on Fury at the WWE Performance Center earlier this week. Corey Graves and Michael Cole sold the ankle injury afterward so it will be interesting to see how they handle that in their match next week.

Up next we had a Lacey Evans squash match. She played it up like she wouldn’t face her opponent and to count her out. The referee made it to nine and Evans then got into the ring and hit the Women’s Right to pick up the victory. It was what it was.

We then had an interview with Nikki Cross on the Titantron with Michael Cole. Cross talks about her upcoming title match with Bayley. She then mentions that she’s facing Mandy Rose later on tonight. Let’s hope that this match is a bit more competitive than what we just got.

It was then announced that the Firefly Fun House was coming up next and that Bray Wyatt had managed to rebuild it.

The return of the Firefly Fun House

The Firefly Fun House segment was short and sweet this week with a funeral for Ramblin’ Rabbit. Bray used his “Heal” glove to bring him back to life, only for Rabbit to be eaten again by Mercy the Buzzard. Poor Rabbit, he dies more than Kenny.

At least it has been explained now for people paying attention that Wyatt’s “Heal” glove is the reason why the Rabbit keeps coming back after dying. The Fiend and Rollins will face off at Crown Jewel next Thursday, and we can only imagine how badly WWE is going to screw that one up (again).

We then had a match between Drew Gulak and Kalisto. Gulak tried to continue his Powerpoint presentation from last week involving Tyson Fury and Braun Strowman but again it was interrupted and he didn’t get to run with it. Eventually, Strowman came out and distracted Gulak which led to Kalisto picking up the win.

Afterward, Strowman got in the ring and hit a running powerslam on Gulak and cut a promo on Fury to hype up their match for next week. At this point, if you aren’t excited about this match nothing they can do is going to change your mind.

Is the Yes Movement back?

Up next, we have Michael Cole conducting an interview with Daniel Bryan in the ring. Cole brought up Bryan’s win last week against Shinsuke Nakamura. He tells Bryan that the crowd erupted in “Yes!” chants but Bryan resisted in taking part. Cole asked Bryan if the Yes Movement was back.

Before he could answer, Sami Zayn and Nakamura come out and interrupt things reminding Bryan what he said months ago about killing the Yes Movement and that he was the “New” Daniel Bryan. Zayn ran down all the reasons why they are similar and why he shouldn’t move backward but go forward with them.

Zayn extends his hand for Bryan to shake. Bryan doesn’t accept it and just walks away without saying a word. This certainly seems like a storyline that they are going to drag out for a while. It was reported weeks ago that FOX wanted Bryan as a face on their brand so we think it’s only a matter of time until the Yes Movement returns for good.

Bayley watches her challenger

We have an actual women’s matchup next as Nikki Cross goes one-on-one with Mandy Rose. Bayley and Sasha Banks are at ringside on commentary watching the match. Unfortunately for the women in the ring, most of the match was focused on the two women on commentary instead of what was actually going on inside the ring.

From what we saw of the match it was good; these two normally work well together. Cross got the win with her swinging neck breaker as she stared down Bayley after the match. We then go backstage and see Velasquez and Mysterio walking down the hall. The face-to-face with Lesnar is up next.

Time for a face to face … or not

When SmackDown returns from commercial Velasquez and Mysterio make their way to the ring. The crowd really didn’t have much of a reaction, something WWE is going to need to fix going forward as they signed Cain guy to a multi-year deal. They need to give the fans a reason to get behind him and relate to him but it’s obvious a lot of WWE fans simply don’t know, or care, who he is.

Mysterio cuts a promo and talks about his son Dominic(k) and the beating he had to suffer at the hands of Lesnar. He said his son is doing better and that he appreciates the support of the WWE Universe in wishing him well. Mysterio also says Velasquez will give Lesnar a matching scar at Crown Jewel.

Eventually, Mysterio asks Lesnar to come out and meet them face to face. Heyman and Lesnar show up on the ‘Tron and say they have more important things to do than meet up with them. It was eventually revealed that Lesnar once again attacked Mysterio’s son backstage tonight which caused Mysterio and Velasquez to rush backstage as SmackDown went to a commercial.

Let’s speak logically for a moment. When you know that Lesnar is going to be in the building tonight, why on Earth would Mysterio bring his son? This makes absolutely no sense. This is the kind of stuff that really frustrates the average wrestling fan.

When SmackDown returns from another commercial we are backstage in the trainers’ room with Mysterio and Velasquez and the doctor looking over Dominick. Lesnar came charging in with a trash can, laying everyone out with it. Mysterio then took an F5 against the wall and Velasquez took one as well, landing right on top of Mysterio’s son before Lesnar stormed out of the room. So they got, or tried to get, the sympathy heat on Velasquez. Will they capitalize on it next week?

Team Hogan and Flair represented in the main event

The show breezed by relatively quickly this week as we’ve already arrived at the main event of the evening. As we were informed at the beginning of the show, we have a six-man tag as Roman Reigns, Ali, and Gable faced off against King Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Cesaro. Before the match, however, we got a fired up promo from Velasquez. Short, sweet, and to the point and obviously just done to show how angry he is. We don’t think we should have seen him again tonight after being laid out.

It was a good main event, and the type of six-man tag match you would expect out of the people involved in it. The last few minutes featured the typical fun sequences that expected in a match like this with all of the wrestlers hitting their big signature moves on each other one after another.

The finish of the match saw Reigns hit the spear on Cesaro before tagging in Ali, letting him hit a 450 splash on Cesaro to pick up the win. Cesaro eating the loss made perfect sense since he’s not actually involved in the 10-man tag at Crown Jewel next week.

That wraps up the Oct. 25 episode of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX (Sports 1). It was a pretty solid episode all things considered. It will be interesting to see what the ratings look like for the show this weekend since they were on FS1 rather than FOX due to the World Series.

What did you think of SmackDown? What was your favorite match? Sound off in the comments section below!