Smackdown Results and Recap: 1000

Kimberly Schueler
source: WWE

The October 16, 2018 installment of WWE SmackDown Live celebrated one thousand episodes of the show. It commemorated its past with the return of Rey Mysterio and an appearance by the Undertaker but also looked to the future with matches between current stars, like Rusev vs. The Miz in a WWE World Cup Qualifying match.

The show opened with a video montage showing the history of Smackdown, from emotional highs, over the top comedy, and the overall unique craziness of professional wrestling.


The actual live portion of the show opened with Truth TV, which it turns out wasn’t canceled after all. After a talk show intro that included two dance breaks, R-Truth and Carmella welcomed their first guest: current RAW Commissioner, but also former SmackDown General Manager, Stephanie McMahon. And they welcomed her to overwhelming boos from the audience. She was soon interrupted by her brother, current Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon.

Shane thanked the fans for making one thousand episodes of the show possible, and Stephanie criticized him and the “B-Show.” As Shane started to defend his brand, another iconic theme song hit, and Vince McMahon entered the arena.  The McMahon patriarch was a lot friendlier than usual and said the audience didn’t want to see his kids talking, they wanted entertainment. All the McMahons then joined a Truth TV dance break.


WWE Champion AJ Styles entered the house that he built right before the commercial break. After the break and a montage of photographs of memorable SmackDown moments, we returned to a tag match between The Usos and the team of Styles and his next challenger, Daniel Bryan. The accomplished tag team and makeshift team of singles competitors looked pretty evenly-matched for a while, but The Usos picked up the win after Bryan hit Styles by accident, leaving one of the brothers room to make a tag behind Bryan’s back. The Usos scored a pinfall victory over Styles and Bryan after a double superkick.


Evolution (Triple H, Batista, Randy Orton, and Ric Flair), one of WWE’s most dominant factions and possibly the most dominant of the 2000s, reunited. Triple H, then Flair, then Orton cut promos about the show—with Orton making cracks about this stablemates’ careers and saying he would continue to build his legacy.

Batista made a longer speech about his life and wrestling career to his hometown crowd and said he loved all the fans, even the ones who called him “Blue-tista” and “Boo-tista.” He continued his speech, putting over each of his Evolution teammates…. and pointing out that Triple H has never beaten him. Tension spiked between the two vets, but they ended up hugging rather than fighting.


Next, Rusev and The Miz faced off in a WWE World Cup Qualifying match, with Kurt Angle on commentary. The match ended in under a minute with The Miz victorious after interference by Aiden English. Rusev beat up his former teammate outside of the ring, and Lana kicked the singer in the nuts.



Before the next commercial break we saw Edge and Curt Hawkins backstage, with the former Edgehead mocking Zack Ryder to their former mentor. When we returned, Edge started a Cutting Edge segment with SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch. After describing his accomplishments on the blue brand, the Rated-R Superstar said he aimed to be Smackdown’s “moral compass,” and called out the champ.

He told Lynch he sees a lot of similarities between them, so he knew she made the wrong choice in ending her friendship with Flair, and choices like these will make her stop liking herself. Lynch said, “I don’t like myself. I love myself,” and told Edge to get out of her ring. After she made a crack about Edge’s career-ending neck injury, Flair entered the arena with a microphone. The women started brawling and had to be separated by WWE officials.


The New Day defended their tag team championships against The Bar with a special guest commentary team of Jerry Lawler and Booker T. With Xavier Woods and Big E in the ring, the teams faced off in a hard-hitting match that included a dramatic nearfall for the challengers after a Neutralizer from Cesaro.

When it looked like The Bar was about to attack Kofi Kingston against the announce table, The Big Show entered the arena and they backed off… only for Show to chokeslam Kingston onto that same table. Sheamus used this distraction to set up a Brogue Kick, which he hit on E before pinning him to become five-time tag team champions. They posed with Show after the match.


We then saw a selfie promo from John Cena about how he started his WWE career on SmackDown.

After this, Rey Mysterio made his long-anticipated return to the show for a dream match main event against Shinsuke Nakamura. The crowd chanted “You’ve still got it” as Mysterio showed off his skills at innovative wrestling offense. Nakamura got in a lot of his own offense on the legend, but Mysterio ultimately picked up the win after a 619.

Right after this match, the familiar bells of The Undertaker rang. He entered the ring and told DX they would “Rest in peace” after the Brothers of Destruction vs. Triple H and Shawn Michaels tag team match at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view.

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