WWE SmackDown airs tonight on the USA Network from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It’s the go-home show for Saturday’s Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia
The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) vs. Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince and Kit Wilson)
WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan and WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax go face-to-face
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton vs. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther and Ludvig Kaiser
IYO SKY vs. Bianca Belair, Lash Legend and Piper Niven
Naomi and Bayley vs. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell
WWE Crown Jewel – Saturday November 2, 2024 from Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Special start time of 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT
CARD
MEN’S CROWN JEWEL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. World Heavyweight Champion Gunther
WOMEN’S CROWN JEWEL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax vs. Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan
Big Bronson Reed vs. Seth “Freakin’” Rollins
Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton
WWE WOMEN’S TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair (c) vs. Damage CTRL (Kairi Sane and Iyo Sky) vs. Meta-Four (Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven
WWE UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP: LA Knight (c) vs. Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes
Former AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks were last seen shredding documents and hightailing out of Wednesday’s “AEW Dynamite,” following their loss of the titles to Private Party. The dramatic exit, as well as The Bucks shaking Private Party’s hand after the match has some wondering what the future of Matt and Nick Jackson looks like. In a new update on PWInsider, Mike Johnson said the EVPs are saying goodbye for now, but not for good.
“Yes, last night was the end of the current Young Bucks storyline. We are told they are not planned to return to TV for some time,” Johnson wrote, addressing a number of questions the PWInsider team received about the storyline developments. “NO, they are not done with the company. They signed a new AEW deal awhile back, which was announced publicly at the time.” The Bucks signed a new contract that only required a limited number of appearances each year, and word back in August was that AEW President Tony Khan had no interest in paying them for extra appearances, leading to the Bucks not being heavily involved in the build to August’s All In event.
The Bucks are set for the upcoming Wrestle Dynasty event in the Tokyo Dome on January 5, possibly to face Hiroshi Tanahashi and their former friend Kenny Omega in Omega’s return to NJPW. Set for the night after Wrestle Kingdom, the event will see wrestlers from NJPW, CMLL, ROH, and AEW compete in the historic venue.
Former WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley was attacked by Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez on Tuesday. Ripley left bloodied next to her car by an unseen attack after visiting the “NXT” locker room to give the women’s roster words of support. It appears the attack was a way of writing Ripley off television while she deals with a legitimate injury.
“[Rhea has] got a fractured orbital bone,” Dave Meltzer said on “Wrestling Observer Radio” recently. “So the injury they announced is pretty much legit. It happened last week…Probably the last TV thing because she didn’t work any house shows.”
Meltzer believes it was the confrontation and physicality with Rodriguez on the October 21 “Raw” that injured Ripley. There is no timetable on Ripley’s return but Meltzer doesn’t sound optimistic about the chance at a speedy recovery.
“She is going to be out for a while,” Meltzer said. “It happened last week and then they did [the NXT attack] as a cover.”
The injury is Ripley’s second major injury of the year; Ripley was forced to vacate the WWE Women’s World Championship earlier this year after suffering a shoulder injury. She’s has been embroiled in her feud with Morgan, not only because of Morgan’s budding relationship with Rhea’s former beau “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio, but also to get back the very title she never lost. As it stands, it will be a while before Ripley can pick up where she left off with her historic 380-day title run.
As seen on Tuesday night’s episode of WWE NXT, former WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley was attacked by Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez in the parking lot.
WWE announced Ripley suffered a fractured right orbital socket and will be out of action for an undisclosed amount of time.
Additionally, the following statement was issued via WWE.com:
Last night on NXT, Rhea Ripley was heinously attacked in the parking lot by Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan and her enforcer Raquel Rodriguez.
Following the brutal attack, it has been revealed that The Nightmare has suffered a fractured right orbital socket, which will put Ripley out of action for an undisclosed amount of time.
Make sure to follow all WWE social media platforms as this story develops.
Fightful Select adds, “Internal claims are that this is a legitimate injury and the X-ray is the real deal.”
All Elite Wrestling’s Jeff Jarrett has reached a major milestone in his sobriety in a huge accomplishment for the professional wrestling veteran.
On a recent edition of his “My World” podcast, Jarrett shared how long he’s been sober. He said,
“This past Friday was seven years to the day of my sobriety date. And you talked about it, we just kind of joked about it, putting the bread in the can down seven years ago. When I, by the grace of God, started on my sobriety journey, I had no idea what to expect. But early [on], I came to the real realization ‘Damn, I’m not just glad that, you know, I could start checking all the boxes. Hell, I’m lucky to be alive in so many ways.’
“So Conrad, it’s almost as if I have no idea what’s coming next. I really don’t. Now, there’s scripture that you can plan things, but God knows what’s in front. And something like that, Conrad, a retirement match, you know, one of those things, I think you just joked on a title or whatever, that is so far out of my scope of things. I’ll let others plan that, because I’m not in control of that.”
Jarrett struggled for years with substance abuse and appeared to wrestle while intoxicated at AAA TripleMania XV in 2017.
After a similar incident in October of that same year, Jarrett entered rehab with the help of WWE and his wife Karen and has remained sober ever since.
Jarrett most recently competed on the September 25th episode of AEW Collision where he lost to ‘Hangman’ Adam Page.
The Hurt Syndicate may be near completion, as Bobby Lashley made his AEW debut following the main event of “AEW Dynamite” Wednesday night, after reports of his signing emerged back when Shelton Benjamin officially became “All Elite.” The main event saw former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland take on Benjamin, with MVP at ringside, who relentlessly taunted Prince Nana throughout the bout. The match was made following Strickland’s decision to stay with his manager rather than join MVP’s new stable.
The match was Strickland’s first following his brutal loss against “Hangman” Adam Page in an unsanctioned steel cage match at All Out. Strickland started off the match hot, but Benjamin quickly took control for a good portion of the bout. When Strickland was able to battle back, he hit the House Call and went to the top rope, but hit a 450 Splash instead of a Swerve Stomp. Benjamin kicked out and quickly got Strickland into a waist lock. Strickland hit a desperation cutter and took them both out. Strickland got back to the top, but Benjamin followed, and Strickland countered with a Liger Bomb. He followed up with the Swerve Stomp to get the victory.
The camera then panned to MVP at ringside, who made a call while staring down Strickland in the ring. The lights went out quickly, then Lashley’s music hit. He got in the ring and got face-to-face with Strickland, and Benjamin distracted Strickland, taking him out and both men beat up the former champion. MVP choked out Nana with his cane, and Lashley got Strickland in a full nelson hold and made him pass out. Referees and security came running down to the ring, and MVP got on the microphone to ask the fans to guess “who’s back in business” as the show ended.
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