WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER 9/17: Bianca Homecoming, Seth Answers for Actions, Boogs vs. Roode

WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER
SEPTEMBER 17, 2021
KNOXVILLE, TN. AT THE THOMSON-BOLING ARENA
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

• Brock Lesnar questioned his (advocate?) Paul Heyman as to why he didn’t tell Universal Champion Roman Reigns he would be at SummerSlam. He asked Paul to accept his challenge to Roman for the Universal Championship and nearly gave him an F5 before being stopped by Roman.
• Big E, Rick Boogs, Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, and Rey & Dominik Mysterio defeated Sami Zayn, Apollo Crews, Otis (w/Chad Gable), and Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode. Sami introduced Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young, much to the dismay of the New York crowd. The Hawks defeated the New York Knicks in the first round of the NBA playoffs last season.
• Smackdown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair signed the contract for their match at Extreme Rules.
• Seth Rollins defeated Edge. Edge was taken to a medical facility after the match as a result of taking the Stomp from Rollins after a vicious finishing sequence.
• It was announced that the 2021 Draft would take place over two nights, starting with the October 1 edition of Smackdown and concluding with the October 4.
• The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) defeated Smackdown Tag Team Champions the Usos (Jimmy & Jey) via DQ when Roman Reigns intervened. The Profits did not win the titles per WWE rules (lol WWE rules). After the match, Roman accepted Brock Lesnar’s challenge after he “got through” with Finn Balor. Balor emerged, but as his Demon character. The Demon challenges Roman at Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship.

Arena

Smackdown returns to the Thomson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. for the first time in nearly six years. WWE’s last appearance was two years ago yesterday (yours truly’s birthday) for an episode of Raw. The arena opened in 1987 and is home to the collegiate Tennessee Volunteers (men’s) and Lady Vols basketball teams.
It’s a quiet night in terms of what’s advertised as they only show one match and two talking segments. Here’s the hype video for the show:

Advertised Matches & Segments

Rick Boogs vs. Robert Roode

Rick Boogs continues his singles push, going one-one-one with Robert Roode tonight. Two weeks ago, he defeated Roode’s partner Dolph Ziggler in about two minutes. Last week, he was on the winning end of the 10-man tag match mentioned earlier. Boogs has been doing Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance for a while and been getting more involved with in-ring action.

Bianca Belair Homecoming

Bianca Belair will be coming home tonight as she is originally from Knoxville, TN. WWE is planning a “homecoming celebration” for the 2021 Royal Rumble winner and former Smackdown women’s champion. Last week she signed the contract to face current champion Becky Lynch at Extreme Rules in a little over a week.

Seth Rollins Answers

Seth Rollins defeated Edge by giving him three superkicks followed by his signature Stomp for the win. Edge was taken to a medical facility as I mentioned earlier. After Edge was loaded into the ambulance, Rollins was questioned about his actions. He said he wasn’t sure how he felt, and perhaps he didn’t feel anything at all. Tonight, WWE has advertised that he will answer for his actions. Here’s Rollins on Twitter:

After some deep introspection this past week, I believe my true feelings have come to the surface. I’m very excited to share this experience with you all tonight on #smackdown

— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) September 17, 2021

Frank’s Analysis: In terms of what’s advertised, I don’t have a ton to say. It’s not worth predicting how talking segments will go, and Rick Boogs vs. Robert Roode is not much of a match to talk about. Boogs is getting his chance to prove himself, that’s for sure. I’m more interested in how things play out with the Demon Finn Balor vs. Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules, with Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar now official for Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia. It’s interesting that the Demon has been put in a losing situation given that Balor has never lost while using that character. I’m not totally ruling out Balor beating Reigns for the title, but it seems they’re committed to Roman holding the title for a longer period.

I liked Seth in his reaction to what happened with Edge. A heel not having any feeling for his actions is intriguing, and you wonder to what depths he will sink if they have another match. I get the sense that will take place in Saudi Arabia. That gives them time to sell Edge’s “injury.” They don’t need to have a match at Extreme Rules.

As far as Bianca’s homecoming goes, they’ll just lead to something with Becky Lynch. With only one match advertised, I could see Bianca finding a partner and Becky doing the same and having an impromptu tag match. These days, somebody can drop a banana peel in front of someone and that would lead to a match.

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