SmackDown Results and Recap: Everything Bexplodes

The October 9, 2018 episode of SmackDown Live includes a hard-hitting Women’s Championship match, qualifying matches for the WWE World Cup at the upcoming Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia, and a Miz TV segment between WWE Champion AJ Styles and his next challenger, Daniel Bryan.

The show opens with a nearly half-hour Smackdown Women’s Championship match between Becky Lynch (c) and Charlotte Flair. Unlike their other matches, there’s a stipulation that Lynch will lose both the match and her title if she gets disqualified. Both women are fired up and aggressive, as well as informed by their previous matches with and against each other. 

At one point, Lynch starts to walk out of the arena, intending to lose the match via count-out while retaining her title. Flair takes her back into the ring and Lynch nearly gets DQ’ed after trying to hit her with her championship belt. It looks like it could be either woman’s match, but ends with both being counted out while brawling outside the ring.

Flair attacks Lynch as she starts to exit up the ramp, and while Lynch initially fends her off, the encounter comes to a violent end when Flair spears the champion through the LED wall at the end of the entrance way. As officials pull the wrestlers apart and out of the wreckage, blood can be seen on one of Flair’s arms.

Later in the show, commentary reveals that Flair received medical attention and would be able to wrestle on the Mixed Match Challenge directly after this episode of SmackDown. General Manager Paige also announces that Flair and Lynch will compete for this championship again at the WWE Evolution PPV, this time in the company’s first-ever Last Woman Standing match.

Next, Jeff Hardy defeats Samoa Joe to earn a place in the WWE World Cup. Despite extensive damage to his knee at the Super Show-Down, Joe brings it to Hardy early with strikes and works Hardy’s neck in the ropes. Hardy soon gets in some of his own offense though, and the men look evenly matched. Hardy wins the match via referee stoppage when Joe cannot continue due to damage to his knee.

On Miz TV, we see the man who defeated Joe at Super Show-Down to remain the WWE Champion, AJ Styles, with his next challenger, Daniel Bryan. When the two men shake hands respectfully, Miz mocks them for not selling their upcoming fight. Bryan retorts by bringing up how quickly he beat The Miz in Australia.

Bryan says Styles has “earned the right” to think he’s better than him and says he knows he still has a lot to prove since returning from injury, but deep down he knows he can beat Styles. After wisecracks from both guests at The Miz, an impassioned Bryan reveals that the reason he worked so hard to get back in the ring was to regain the WWE Championship, and the only obstacle between him and this dream is AJ Styles.

Tension builds between champion and challenger, but they soon bond over making fun of The Miz. The A-Lister freaks out and claims Bryan’s win at the Super Show-Down was a fluke and that Styles has made the WWE Championship “irrelevant.” Miz declares he will be the next challenger to whoever wins the title in Saudi Arabia.

After a commercial break, we join the AJ Styles vs. Shelton Benjamin match already in progress with both the Miz and Daniel Bryan sitting in on commentary. Veteran competitor Benjamin brings it to the champ, but Styles pins him after a flying forearm. Bryan stands and applauds his future opponent as he poses with the title. 

After Aiden English’s presentation last week, English reveals that the next part of Lana’s “I want you” to English in “One Night In Milwaukee” is her saying she wants him to know how much she and Rusev appreciate having him on their team. The singer pauses the video just as he puts his hand suggestively on Lana’s arm, and tells Rusev that everyone can tell what’s coming up next, and he’ll destroy the video if the Rusev Day team is reunited.

But Rusev calls his bluff and tells English to play the tape. Lana reveals that she hacked English’s computer and plays the rest of the video herself. The video reveals that Lana rejected English’s advances in Milwaukee. Still, English has the cajones to proposition Lana again right there in the ring. At that, Rusev attacks him, runs him off, and stands in the ring united with his wife.

Before the main event, we see a video package for Rey Mysterio’s return at SmackDown 1000 next week and learn that he will wrestle Shinsuke Nakamura for his first match back in WWE. 

The show’s main event is another World Cup qualifying match, this one between Randy Orton and Big Show. We see hype videos for both WWE veterans earlier in the episode, reminding us of Orton’s newfound sadism and Show’s, who hasn’t competed in WWE for over a year, accomplishments. 

Big Show looks dominant in the ring, clobbering the Apex Predator with clotheslines and scoring a nearfall after a chokeslam. But Orton fights dirty and pins Show after an RKO. The WWE World Cup now includes John Cena, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, and Randy Orton.