Welcome to Bleacher Report’s live coverage of WWE SmackDown on May 31.
This week’s show featured a ceremony to officially crown Nia Jax as the Queen of the Ring after she successfully defeated Lyra Valkyria in the finals of the tournament on Saturday.
We saw Tonga Loa and Tama Tonga in action this week when they battled Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins in Loa’s official in-ring debut for WWE.
Andrade was also looking to build some momentum when he took on Apollo Crews in singles competition.
Let’s take a look at everything that happened during Friday’s episode of SmackDown.
After a recap video from King and Queen of the Ring, Nick Aldis welcomed us to the show and brought out Jax to celebrate winning the Queen of the Ring tournament. She demanded Bayley come to the ring and the champion was all too happy to oblige.
Before Bayley could even get down the aisle, Piper Niven and Chelsea Green attacked her. They told Jax it would be Niven facing Jax at SummerSlam because she is going to win the title from Bayley. Jax ended the segment by saying she would beat whoever she faced.
The first match of the night was booked before the show in a backstage segment. Johnny Gargano accompanied Ciampa to the ring to take on Theory, who had Grayson Waller by his side.
This was a pretty standard match. Both men hit a few signature moves, the guys at ringside got involved a bit, and they both came close to winning once or twice. Ciampa ended up using Waller’s distraction to his advantage to pin Theory and score the win.
While both of these men are fun to watch, it was hard to be invested in the outcome because no matter what happened, we all know DIY is going to get a title shot soon.
Result: Ciampa defeated Theory
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
- The crown fits perfectly on Jax’s head this time. It didn’t fit so well at the PPV but having her hair up helped.
- AJ Styles was shown asking Aldis for some time on the mic. He looked emotional and was obviously teasing a retirement announcement.
- Theory’s neckbreaker looks good when it hits but looks way too awkward to set up with his opponent.
The next matchup saw Crews take on Andrade, who declined an offer from Legado Del Fantasma before the show.
These two have had several matches in NXT and on the main roster over the years, so they came into this bout with established chemistry.
The great thing about both men is they are two of the more powerful high-flyers working today. Both men are built like tanks but can do a moonsault with almost no effort, so this match had some fun exchanges.
Angel Garza showed up at ringside and cheered on El Idolo as he picked up the win with a little bit of help. The rest of Legado Del Fantasma came out on the stage but Andrade walked right past them. Garza looked worried and assured Santos Escobar he could fix this.
Result: Andrade defeated Crews
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
- During a backstage segment, Aldis granted Naomi and Bayley a tag match against Green and Nive, and LA Knight was shown asking about Logan Paul.
- Poor Crews. Andrade landed right on his face after hitting a dropkick.