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WWE

SmackDown Live aired for the final time Tuesday night on USA Network with a solid offering featuring meaningful plot advancement and good in-ring action. As the show gets set for its transition to FOX next Friday night, fans were given a final reminder at what has made the blue brand WWE's best TV show for the latter half of the decade.

Let's take a look now at what happened when SmackDown touched down in the Chase Center in San Francisco on Tuesday night.

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Four Horsewomen beef escalates

Sasha Banks & Bayley def. Carmella & Charlotte Flair via submission when Banks made Carmella tap to the Banks Statement. After the match, R-Truth helped Carmella escape as the women's locker room emptied to go after the 24/7 champion. That left Flair alone with Bayley and Banks, who attacked until Becky Lynch ran out to make the save. Later in the show, it was announced that Lynch and Flair would face Bayley and Banks in a tag match on the SmackDown on FOX debut next week.

The show ended with Banks attacking Lynch as "The Man" was cutting a backstage promo. After a brief back-and-forth scuffle, Lynch was left laid out as officials got involved to break things up.

The FOX debut needed at least one more enticing match announced on TV this week, and this fits the bill. The top four women on the WWE roster in a tag match is exactly the kind of showcase that makes sense without lowering the stakes at Hell in a Cell. The final bit of Banks attacking and laying out Lynch also added some punch (no pun intended) to the match while escalating things for their meeting in the cell. Nothing that happened here was groundbreaking, but it served bigger purposes in valuable ways. Grade: B+

Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan forge alliance

Erick Rowan def. Daniel Bryan via pinfall after an Iron Claw Slam. This was a solid match, and it was predictable Luke Harper would get involved to tip the scales in Rowan's favor. After the match, as Rowan and Harper were about to continue their beating of Bryan, Roman Reigns ran out to make the save. After chasing the heels off, Bryan asked the crowd if they'd like to see him team with Reigns to "kick their disrespectful asses" and was met with significant support and "YES!" chants.

Bryan is the best professional wrestler on the planet, and his ability to push Rowan in a match like he did here is a big reason why he's earned that distinction. The match won't make any Best of the Year lists, but it's exactly the kind of TV match that boosts a show. It's wild to see Rowan get TV time for 25 percent of the show as the segment ended about half an hour after the SmackDown came on the air, but he's pulling his weight in the ring and on the mic over the past few weeks. If there's any downside to the whole situation, it's that we seem to be sliding away from Bryan's excellent heel run. But that just means more excellent Bryan work as a face for the foreseeable future. Grade: B

What else happened on SmackDown?

  • A sit-down interview with Kofi Kingston aired where the WWE champion discussed his title defense against Brock Lesnar next week on the SmackDown on FOX premiere. Kingston promised to leave the show still champion despite everyone believing Lesnar will destroy him.
  • Chad Gable def. Mike Kanellis via submission with the ankle lock. Kanellis interrupted a Gable in-ring promo about Baron Corbin and claimed he wanted to prove to his wife that "size does matter." Gable hit a pair of suplexes and locked in the ankle lock all in a matter of seconds to score the win. After the match, Elias appeared on the Titantron to sing a song about "shorty" Gable.
  • Shinsuke Nakamura def. Ali via pinfall after a Kinshasa. Ali took a very scary bump on a tope suicida, landing almost on top of his head. He appeared to be fine, however, and continued his blazing fast offense as the match continued. Nakamura won after the kind of interference from Sami Zayn that makes it really difficult to understand how this match didn't end in a disqualification. That said, Ali and Nakamura were given time to give this show another solid TV match.
  • New Day def. The B Team via pinfall with the Midnight Hour on Bo Dallas. This was a time-filler tag match, but Big E stole the show by sneaking his way into the "B Train."
  • The Kabuki Warriors def. Fire & Desire via pinfall when Kairi Sane hit the elbow drop on Mandy Rose. Much of the match and commentary was focused on Rose being featured in Australian Maxim, including Sane kicking the magazine out of Rose's hands at one point. Still, a more serviceable and valuable tag than the Heavy Machinery squash matches SmackDown has featured the past few weeks. Otis did get a selfie with Rose prior to the match, though.
  • Shane McMahon threatened Kevin Owens over his lawsuit, saying he'd keep the former universal champ in court spending millions on appeals and drawn out legal processes. Rather than accept McMahon's offer to drop the suit and come back to WWE with a clean slate, Owens threw down a challenge for one final match wherein he would leave WWE and drop the lawsuit if he loses. Meanwhile, McMahon would be gone if he was the one who lost the match. Upping the stakes more to end the segment, Owens advanced the challenge to make it a ladder match with the legal documents hanging in a briefcase above the ring.