WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER 9/24: Final Hype for Extreme Rules, Liv vs. Zelina, Nakamura vs. Apollo for IC Title, Happy Talk

WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER
SEPTEMBER 24, 2021
PHILADELPHIA, PA. AT THE WELLS FARGO CENTER
AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole and Pat McAfee

Match Results, Key Segments and Exclusives from Last Week

• WWE Champion Big E & Finn Balor defeated Smackdown Tag Team Champions the Usos (Jimmy & Jey).
• Rick Boogs (w/Intercontinental Champion King Nakamura) defeated Robert Roode (w/Dolph Ziggler). After the match, former champion Apollo Crews and Commander Azeez attacked Nakamura and Boogs and demanded a match for the title.
• Happy Corbin attacked Kevin Owens as he was making his entrance for their match. The match never started.
• The Usos attacked Big E backstage as he was talking to Paul Heyman about a potential champion vs. champion match against Roman Reigns at Survivor Series.
• Seth Rollins cut a promo wondering why everyone was upset at him. He used a legal wrestling move and defeated Edge two weeks ago. Edge was carried out on a stretcher (to write him off television for a while since he’s part-time).
• Liv Morgan & Toni Storm defeated Carmella & Zelina Vega via count out.
• Finn Balor talked about the origins of his Demon character and hyped his match with Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules for the Universal Championship, which will now be contested under Extreme Rules.
• Sami Zayn defeated Dominik Mysterio.
• Glenn Jacobs, the mayor of Knoxville, TN. better known to us as WWE Hall of Famer Kane, gave Knoxville’s own Bianca Belair a key to the city. Smackdown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch interrupted the proceedings. The two shook hands and when Bianca wouldn’t let Becky leave, she got treated to a Man Handle Slam. The two women face off at Extreme Rules for the title.

Arena

Smackdown returns to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA., a frequent venue for WWE television and PPV events going back to 1996. Oddly enough the last PPV before the pandemic, the 2020 edition of Elimination chamber, took place in this arena. Smackdown last appeared in the building in November of 2019. One of the more infamous PPVs to take place here was the 2015 Royal Rumble, where Roman Reigns won the aforementioned match with his cousin, The Rock in the building. The Rock celebrated with Roman which was not enough to please the crowd which viscously booed him starting with his entrance.

Two matches and a new talk show are advertised for tonight in WWE’s preview.

Advertised Matches & Segments

Liv Morgan vs. Zelina Vega

Liv Morgan and Zelina Vega go one-on-one because of Zelina demanding Liv face her before she faces Carmella in a match at Extreme Rules. Liv challenged Carmella after their tag match last week which saw Carmella and Vega get counted out. Carmella was worried that she broke her nose.

Intercontinental Championship: King Nakamura (champ) vs. Apollo Crews

After the post-match attack last week, Apollo Crews was granted a shot at the Intercontinental Championship. Apollo held the title from WrestleMania, where he defeated Big E, until August when he was defeated by King Nakamura. Nakamura is in his second reign. Ironically his first reign began in this building where he defeated Finn Balor on the Extreme Rules kickoff show back in 2019.

Tonight, Apollo gets a chance to regain the title.

Happy Corbin Debuts “Happy Talk”

Happy Corbin reversed his fortunes around SummerSlam where he went from having nothing after losing the crown to winning a whole bunch of money. He’s appeared on Smackdown driving expensive cars and wearing fancy suits and jewelry.

Tonight, he debuts the latest talk show for WWE called “Happy Talk.” No specific quest is advertised.

Frank’s Analysis: For a show before a PPV, there sure isn’t a lot advertised that would get me excited to watch the show. Back in the 1980s or 90s, I would be excited about an Intercontinental Championship match, but not now the way they pass the title around. That’s not to say I’m not interested in the match. I’m just not excited and that’s the best thing advertised. That’s just me. There’s not much to say about Liv vs. Zelina. I appreciate trying to elevate Liv, but we’ve been there before. And what’s going on with Toni Storm? When Vince gets a new act, he likes to feature him or her as often as possible, so something is up there. What it is remains to be seen, perhaps it’s a matter of him trying to figure out what he wants from her. As far as Happy Talk, it’s a talking segment. We’ve seen a million of these. It’s probably a fine enough role for Corbin. It’s neither here nor there for me.

Obviously, we can expect a lot more from tonight’s show. On Monday we got an impromptu triple threat match between Bobby Lashley, Big E, and Roman Reigns. This past Wednesday, AEW put on an amazing episode of Dynamite at Arthur Ashe Stadium (of which I was excited to be in the building) and had over 1.2 million viewers and were very close to WWE in the key demographic ratings. I don’t expect anything less than to see them come out swinging.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!