Bonnie Hammer's Last Blue Hurrah - WWE SmackDown (9/24/19)

WWE SmackDown
Chase Center - San Francisco, CA
Live on USA Network - September 24, 2019
Rating: 0.67 (18-49), 2.099M viewers

Erick Rowan opens the show, and it's running at the improper frame rate which makes it VERY distracting to me. This week's shirt of choice is Killswitch Engage... ehh. His promo is a standard heel promo, "I deserve respect," "things have changed," I'm really having a problem paying attention because of the frame rate issue. Out comes Daniel Bryan to interrupt and say a few words: "If you want respect, fight me RIGHT NOW!" And with a referee in the ring, here we go!

Erick Rowan vs. Daniel Bryan - fierce offense from Rowan off the gate, a hard elbow and a splash before throwing Bryan out and hitting a cross-body to the floor. Please fix the frame rate, this is really bothering me. Bryan is definitely playing the babyface in this match, Rowan hits a fierce spinning kick, only gets a 2 count before heading to break.

Back from break, the frame rate is still off - is this a shutter speed test for Fox? - and Rowan is still dominating the match. Bryan gets back in the ring before the 10 count and tries to get his momentum back, targeting Rowan's leg with chop blocks and ramming it into the ring post before landing a running dropkick on that leg on the apron. A running knee to Rowan, then a running dropkick, only leads to Rowan hitting a power slam, just for a 2. Next sequence ends with a powerbomb on Bryan, another 2 count, going to the second (and split-screen) break.

Back from break, Bryan is looking for a tope, but gets caught by Rowan, and powers out to slam Rowan back into the ring post. On the top rope, Bryan launches a missile drop kick to Rowan's back and connects, followed by a set of YES! Kicks, with Rowan powering out of a pin attempt. Guillotine is locked onto Rowan, followed by the LeBell Lock, when a WILD LUKE HARPER APPEARS. His shirt of choice is Hatebreed, not bad. Rowan plants Bryan with a clawed choke slam, the Iron Claw, but gets his foot caught in the rope, and with another Iron Claw, gets the win. The beatdown angle comes next with Rowan and Harper clearing the announce table, but wait - A WILD BIG DOG APPEARS! BIG DOG to Harper, BIG DOG to Harper on the apron, but both Rowan and Harper regain the offensive on both men. Bryan comes back up and hits a running knee on Harper, but Rowan comes back in for another Iron Claw, until BIG DOG hits the BIG DOG on Rowan to clear house.

Bryan grabs the mic and asks if the crowd wants him and Roman to "kick their disrespecting asses?!?" Looks like we're gonna have a tag team match in Sacramento, holla holla holla. Not a bad match, they had plenty of time for this, it had heat and had a hot angle to build around it, so now we wait to see what happens next.

Members of the San Francisco 49ers are in attendance tonight, along with MY BOY JIMMY G! The Niners are 3-0 (right now) so I'm taking whatever I can get. Anyway, time for a hype package, one for Brock Lesnar as we near the title match between him and Kofi next week. This leads to another Michael Cole interview, with Kofi Kingston, all about his match with Lesnar for the first SmackDown on FOX, and it feels pretty off the cuff - wouldn't surprise me if this was one of those "bulletpoint" promos we've heard rumors about.

Chad Gable comes out for his scheduled match, when out comes... Mike Bennett? Guess we're doing more short jokes with this guy, ugh.

Chad Gable vs. Mike Kanellis - Immediate overhead throw to start the match, followed by another, then an ankle lock for the super-fast win for Gable. No time to celebrate, with Elias on the big screen for his next "song"... which is just more short jokes. What a fantastic use of our time.

Backstage, Charlotte finds R-Truth and asks where the new 24/7 Champion, Carmella, is. Not to try and win the title, but to tell her to keep focus for their tag match against Sasha and Bayley tonight. But I have to ask: if you're the champion and you get pinned in a tag match, does you lose the title?

Tom Phillips gives thanks to everyone at USA for being a great home for SmackDown, what with the show moving to FOX next week.

Charlotte Flair & Carmella vs. Bayley & Sasha Banks - I mean, this was an alright tag match but it didn't give me much to write about. It was all a setup for the cavalcade of geeks going after Carmella after the match ended (Sasha and Bayley won, by the way), and a setup for a surprise run-in: BECKY LYNCH! Pretty hype, as always. That being said, Asuka has NO business going after the geek belt. At least she has YouTube to serve as a backup for all of us - go check out KanaChan TV, it's fun.

Mustafa Ali vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - okay, let's try this again? Yep, it's an official match, with Ali getting a lot of offense in at the start, before being thrown into the ring post to head to the split-screen break. After a sliding snap suplex to Ali, Nakamura goes for the finish, but runs into a fierce superkick from Ali, just for a 2 count. Nakamura regains his offense with a set of kicks, only for Ali to power back and land a Bret's rope tilt-a-whirl DDT, but gets his top rope move denied by Zayn. Cue the leaping moonsault over the top rope, but from the distraction, gets caught with the Kinshasa and eats the pin. Dang.

Backstage, Shane McMahon is standing by with... LAWYERS! Because this feud must keep going. I love wrestling, it's FUN.

The tag team match is confirmed for Hell in a Cell, Bryan and Roman vs. Harper and Rowan. Cool.

Big E & Xavier Woods vs. The Frigging B Team - This match had Axel doing the stupid-ass floss dance. Groan.

Backstage, Mandy Rose is handing out copies of Maxim backstage, when who would show up but Otis of Heavy Machinery. So that happened.

Kairi Sane & Asuka vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville - THEY EXIST IT'S A MIRACLE. Amazingly, this is only their THIRD match on SmackDown in FOUR MONTHS. And for some reason, we needed a "look at my Maxim cover" spot in this match. So yeah, the match went about just how you thought it would: snarmy heel spots, broken pin, finishers, babyface team wins.

Up next... LAWYERS. HOW VERY FUN.

Announced for next week's SmackDown, Becky and Charlotte versus Sasha and Bayley - yes, the same match we saw at MSG two weeks ago.

Shane and his lawyers are in the ring and... ugh, let's just hit the bullet points. KO enters through the crowd, Shane offers two options: spend years in court, or drop the lawsuit and Shane'll drop the fine, KO runs Shane down and calls him an idiot and offers a match: Shane wins, then KO drops the suit and leaves, but if KO wins, then Shane is gone, and the match is? A ladder match. Shane says "you're on!", but you can barely hear him, and then it's TO THE BACK!

Becky is backstage for an interview when Sasha comes out for a fight; the brawl is on, and we close the era of SmackDown on cable with quite a fight that... kinda just ended after a minute. See you on FOX, everybody.

Verdict: Well... that certainly was another SmackDown. Didn't feel all too special, just felt like another episode of SmackDown. Probably not the best feeling to have, going into your big and grand FOX premiere, but whatever.