How will Daniel Bryan respond to The Miz’s outburst on Talking Smack last week? (WWE.com)
Tonight on SmackDown, the Tag Team Tournament continues, and Daniel Bryan responds to The Miz’s rant on Talking Smack last week. The show will be broadcast live from Dallas, Texas at 8:00 p.m. on the USA Network. Read on for live match results and spoilers, followed by a full preview of the night’s events written earlier this afternoon.
8:00 – The show opens with a replay of The Miz blowing up at Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack.
8:03 – Shane McMahon tells Daniel Bryan that he owes The Miz an apology for provoking him, even though he agrees with what Bryan said. Bryan says he finds this advice ironic considering Shane has a beef with Brock Lesnar.
8:05 – The Miz enters. He says that he has been pushed aside every week and he scolds the audience for booing him. He also says the Intercontinental Championship has been tarnished, but he’s helping to make it prestigious. Responding to Bryan’s complaints, he says that he’s smart and talented enough to find a way not to get hurt. When the audience looks at The Miz as unworthy, it makes them cowards.
He’s interrupted by Dolph Ziggler’s entrance. Ziggler says The Miz is making some good points, but there’s a reason the audience won’t get behind him: they see through everything The Miz does. WWE superstars live for the business, but The Miz just wants to be famous. That’s why he’s accused of being soft and a coward. Every week The Miz has a chance to change that perception, Ziggler says, but he never does.
Ziggler challenges The Miz to a fight right now as proof that he’s not a coward. Ziggler prepares for a match, but The Miz starts walking away. As he’s leaving, Ziggler says Daniel Bryan was right, which leads Miz to rush back towards the ring. He’s contained by Maryse and walks backstage, as the entire crowd chance “Coward!”
8:17 – The Hype Bros defeat The Vaudevillains.
8:24 – Backstage, AJ Styles runs into Apollo Crews, whose name he can’t remember. He tells Crews he is the face that runs the place.
8:30 – AJ Styles enters, wearing John Cena’s “never give up” wristband again. He again calls himself the face that runs the place. Just like he beat John Cena, he will now beat Dean Ambrose for the World Championship.
He’s interrupted by Apollo Crews. He challenges AJ Styles to a match, something which Daniel Bryan apparently permitted. The match immediately begins.
8:34 – AJ Styles defeats Apollo Crews.
8:47 – In a prerecorded segment, Heath Slater shows Renee Young around his trailer, introducing her to his wife. Slater says that he assumes not getting picked in the 2016 draft was an oversight. He reflects on his past few weeks of trying to get on the roster and says he’s lucky to stand side by side with Rhyno. When asked why he decided to team up with Heath, Rhyno shrugs. Slater also says he’s doing this all for his kids, who are currently outside picking up cans and bottles.
8:57 – Bray Wyatt enters. He says that he fears no man because he is fear. When he thinks of Randy Orton, he thinks of him being just a man, though one who believes he has venom running through his veins. At SummerSlam, Orton’s flaws were exposed, and he recommends that Orton run.
Randy Orton enters, asking who Bray Wyatt thinks he is. He isn’t damaged because of his injury. Wyatt says Orton is no longer the predator; he’s damaged and weak, and Wyatt is the predator now. At Backlash, Wyatt says he’s going to cut the serpent’s head off.
Orton accepts the challenge, saying he’s not afraid of a man who calls himself a god. Orton enters the ring, ready to beat up Wyatt, but the lights go off and the segment ends.
9:10 – Natalya and Alexa Bliss defeat Naomi and Becky Lynch after Lynch gets distracted by Nikki Bella getting beat up outside of the ring by Carmella.
9:29 – Heath Slater & Rhyno defeat The Headbangers.
9:40 – Some random jobber shows up in the ring and says he won’t leave until someone fights in. Kane enters, immediately crushes him, and leaves.
9:44 – The match between Baron Corbin and Dean Ambrose ends when AJ Styles steps in and begins beating up both competitors. Ambrose injures Styles quite badly, and the show ends with Styles screaming in pain and Ambrose leaving the ring.
The biggest SmackDown related moment of last week actually did not even happen on SmackDown; it happened on Talking Smack, the WWE Network’s aftershow. Towards the end of the episode, Daniel Bryan insulted The Miz by saying that his in-ring style is cowardly, and that really touched a nerve with Miz, who went off on a rant about how he wrestles in a way that ensures he is not injured, as opposed to Bryan, who was reckless in the ring and let his fans down by having to retire. Daniel Bryan walked off the set, and even though that incident happened in a Network-exclusive program, it will be incorporated into the show this evening, and WWE.com’s official preview speculates there could be some repercussions for The Miz.
Plus, the battle for the new Smackdown Tag Team Championship continues, with the second round taking place this evening. We don’t know who might advance, but we’ll almost certainly see more of Heath Slater and his new partner, Rhyno. Could Slater get one step closer to being signed to the roster, or will increasingly hilarious circumstances continue to keep him out of a job?
As well, a conflict between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt is brewing, as is a feud between AJ Styles and WWE World Champion Dean Ambrose. And on the women’s division side of things, we’ll see some of the fallout of Carmella’s brutal attack on Nikki Bella, both in the ring and on Talking Smack. It all goes down tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on USA.