The road to WWE Bad Blood 2024 continues tonight in “The Golden State.”
WWE SmackDown returns with their second show on USA Network this evening at 8/7c from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California.
On tap for tonight’s show is Nia Jax & Tiffany Stratton vs. Bayley & Naomi in a match where if Bayley & Naomi win, the person who scores the fall faces Nia Jax at WWE Bad Blood 2024 for the WWE Women’s Championship. If Bayley & Naomi lose, the person who loses the fall must leave WWE SmackDown.
Additionally, the show will feature Giovanni Vinci vs. Apollo Crews II, LA Knight puts the WWE United States Championship on-the-line against Andrade, Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns seek common ground against The Bloodline and more.
Featured below are complete WWE SmackDown results from Friday, September 20, 2024. The following report was written by PWMania.com reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) as the show aired live from 8-10pm EST. on USA Network.
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS – SEPTEMBER 20, 2024
We see footage of The Bloodline arriving to the building and going through metal detectors, which go off. They keep walking anyways, except for Jacob Fatu, who beats up the security guards who tried patting him down.
From there, we see a shot of Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes at Georgia Tech in a tease for their face-to-face segment scheduled for later in the show.
WWE United States Championship
LA Knight (c) vs. Andrade
The theme for “The Mega Star” hits and out comes WWE United States Champion LA Knight to kick off this week’s show with our first match of the evening.
Andrade’s entrance tune hits next and out he comes for the title shot he earned with his victory over Carmelo Hayes to go 3-2 in their series of five matches in recent weeks.
Once the bell sounds, this one gets started with a bang, as Knight gets off to a quick start. He looks for a BFT early to try and end this one before it begins, but it was not meant to be. As the action continues, we head into a mid-match commercial break.
When the show returns, we see Andrade starting to settle into a comfortable offensive lead. The action spills out to the floor, where Knight starts to take over. The U.S. champ bounces the dome of Andrade off of the commentary desk as fans chant “YEAH!” each time.
Back inside the ring, the action continues as we head into a second mid-match commercial break. When we return, Knight is fighting from underneath, but begins to take over. He stomps away at Andrade as fans chant “YEAH! YEAH!” He takes him up the ropes as fans chant “This is Awesome!”
Andrade elbows his way free, knocking Knight of the ropes. He goes for a big moonsault but Knight moves. He lands on his feet and immediately shifts into another move, which connects for a close two-count. Andrade hits the running knees to a slumped over Knight in the corner for another super close pin attempt.
Moments later, the two collide and Knight gets a cut on his right eye. Regardless, he connects with his BFT for the win to retain the U.S. title. After the match, the two had an awkward showing of mutual respect. Knight went to fist bump Andrade, who insisted on a handshake, so he ended up pulling Knight’s arm towards him, holding it still and shaking hands with the champ’s fist. Odd.
Winner and STILL WWE United States Champion: LA Knight
Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes’ Meeting At Georgia Tech
Backstage, we see Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax talking after footage is shown from last week’s show to remind fans about their high stakes tag-team tilt later in the evening. Jax tells Stratton if she loses, she might want to think about leaving SmackDown as a way of threatening and intimidating her.
She mocks her “Tootles!” catchphrase and walks off as Stratton looks nervous. After that, Michael Cole informs us that after the break, we check in at Georgia Tech with Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, as they seek to find common ground ahead of their battle against The Bloodline at WWE Bad Blood in Atlanta, GA. on October 5.
When we return, we head right into the very well-produced, slick pre-recorded segment with Rhodes and Reigns at Georgia Tech. After a five minute music video with clips cut in plays as the two walk to center field from opposite ends of the stadium, the music cuts off and the two begin talking like a serious pivotal scene in a movie.
They talk about their respective issues with The Bloodline, vow that they will have each other’s back at WWE Bad Blood 2024, but then Reigns makes it clear once that is taken care of, he’s taking back the title that belongs to him.
When it wraps up, Byron Saxton sees Kevin Owens watching it on a monitor and tries asking for his thoughts. Owens just walks off. We head to another commercial break on that note. Really good stuff. As advertised.
Giovanni Vinci vs. Apollo Crews II
When the show returns, Kevin Owens is shown sitting by himself looking lost in thought and dejected still after seeing the Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns segment from Georgia Tech.
Inside the arena, we see Apollo Crews in the ring ready for our next match of the evening. Out comes the repackaged Giovanni Vinci for his second match since getting his new character.
The bell sounds and Vinci goes to work on Crews. He beats him up for about a minute before hoisting him up, only for Crews to counter with a roll-up for the unexpected upset victory once again. After the match, Vinci attacks Crews and leaves him laying.
Winner: Apollo Crews
Kevin Owens & DIY Brawl With The Bloodline
Backstage we see Byron Saxton once again approach a down-in-the-dumps-looking Kevin Owens. He asks him if now is a better time to get his thoughts on the Rhodes/Reigns segment. You know, since he waited all of three or four minutes since asking him and getting blown off the first time.
Owens stands up and says if he’s going to address it, he might as well go out and do it in the ring. We head to another commercial break on that note. When we return, the theme for “The Prize Fighter” hits and out comes Owens to the ring.
He begins on the mic and builds up his response to the Rhodes/Reigns stuff, but before he can come out with it, he is cut off by the sounds of The Bloodline theme. Tama Tonga comes out cutting the worst promo in the history of top acts in WWE, before a brawl breaks out.
As Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa and Jacob Fatu are brawling with Kevin Owens, the DIY duo of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa come out and the brawl intensifies. SmackDown G.M. Nick Aldis comes out and says he’s sick of these guys fighting without a bell sounding first. He announces a six-man main event with them for tonight.
High Stakes Tornado Tag-Team Match
Bayley & Naomi vs. Nia Jax & Tiffany Stratton
Backstage, Bayley and Naomi talk about their high stakes showdown against Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton tonight, which could see one of them forced to leave SmackDown if they lose. They talk about the reality of that before heading out for battle.
The team of Naomi and Bayley make their way to the ring as we shift gears and head into a quick pre-match commercial break. When we return, 2024 Ms. Money In The Bank Tiffany Stratton and 2024 Queen of the Ring and reigning WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax make their way out.
After the bell sounds to get things started, all four women start brawling in this Tornado Tag-Team rules bout, where there are no tags and everyone is legal at all times. We see some basic back-and-forth early action and as Stratton and Jax settle into a comfortable offensive lead, we head into a mid-match commercial time out.
When we return, the four continue duking it out, with Naomi and Bayley running into some issues over who is going to score the pin for their team, since a title shot is on-the-line for them with a victory. Stratton almost costs Jax the win with a moonsault that connects on Jax instead of the intended target.
Moments later Jax loses anyways, as Bayley and Naomi both pin her. There is confusion upon the sound of the bell. The only thing for sure is that Naoni and Bayley won and aren’t leaving SmackDown. Who gets the title shot remains to be seen.
Winners: Bayley AND Naomi
Kevin Owens & The Street Profits vs. The Bloodline
It’s main event time!
But first, a pre-taped segment showing Chelsea Green practicing for her Dumpster Match against Michin airs. It is announced that the bout will take place on WWE SmackDown in two weeks from Nashville, TN.
Additionally, Carmelo Hayes vs. Andrade VI is announced for next week’s SmackDown in Oklahoma City, OK. Backstage, SmackDown G.M. Nick Aldis is with Bayley and Naomi. He says since they both won, they will be squaring off against each other next week to determine Nia Jax’s title challenger for WWE Bad Blood 2024.
Inside the arena, the theme for Kevin Owens hits and “The Prize Fighter” makes his way to the ring for our final match of the evening. On the big screen, we see The Bloodline are attacking his scheduled partners, DIY duo Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa backstage.
Owens heads back to deal with it, and ends up getting gobbled up by the dangerous trio as well, until finally The Street Profits team of Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins show up to make the save. We head to a commercial break with Cole questioning if we’re going to still get a six-man match after all.
When we return, the bell sounds and it indeed will be Ford and Dawkins filling in for Gargano and Ciampa alongside Owens. We see a few minutes of back-and-forth action before we head into a mid-match commercial break.
When we return, we see Owens stranded on the apron forced to watch as The Bloodline dismantle Dawkins and Ford. Eventually, Owens gets the hot tag and the crowd goes wild as he hits his trademark spots, such as the cannonball in the corner, etc.
We see Tonga try and fight back and go for a super-plex on Owens, but we all know how that story plays out. After Owens hits a counter super-plex off the top, things come unglued as everyone starts brawling and the referee calls for the bell.
After the match, the brawl continues. Ford is brought in the ring and slammed by Tonga. Jacob Fatu then hits a huge splash off the top-rope. They head out and begin beating down Owens, who tries fighting back until he is guzzled up by the numbers disadvantage.
The three throw up the 1s and then prepare to hit a triple power bomb on Owens through the commentary desk. Before they can do so, however, DIY comes out. Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano sell their injuries from the attack before the match, but head to ringside anyways.
They immediately get beat down by The Bloodline guys. They head back over to Owens, who again tries fighting back, but is ultimately beat down once more by the smothering three-on-one attack by The Bloodline.
They bring Owens into the ring and get ready to finish him off, but the familiar sounds of Cody Rhodes’ theme hits and “The American Nightmare” runs out with a steel chair in-hand. He begins clearing house of all of The Bloodline guys.
After he clears them out of the ring, Cody stares them down as Owens recovers behind him and grabs the steel chair he brought into the ring. Owens looks to be contemplating hitting Rhodes with the chair. Cody does the slow turn and notices this.
Owens throws the chair down and decides against it. Cody extends his hand, but Owens does what appears to be a begrudging hug. Cody turns and Owens picks up the chair again as the credits flash on the screen and Cody’s music plays again to wrap up the sophomore installment of WWE SmackDown on its’ new home on the USA Network. That’s how this week’s show goes off the air. Thanks for joining us, and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter (X) for more WWE news and coverage!
Winners: No Contest
