WWE Friday Night SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Feb. 2, 2024) with a live show emanating from Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, featuring all the fallout from the Royal Rumble event that went down this past Saturday night in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Advertised for tonight: After winning the women’s Royal Rumble match, Bayley will make her decision to either challenge Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley or WWE Women’s Champion IYO SKY at WrestleMania 40.
Also on the card: Cody Rhodes and WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns are both scheduled to appear, United States Champion Logan Paul is in the house, and more!
Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on FOX. It will be below this line here. (Note: Links to illegal streams are prohibited. Pics and GIFs are allowed.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR FEB. 2
You left me outside, knocking for so long that my knuckles bleed and nobody knows what I’m trying to hide, not even me, but now it’s time to liveblog this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens with the Bloodline walking backstage.
We get a recap of the Royal Rumble.
We see Cody Rhodes and his stupid dog walking backstage, followed by footage of Damage CTRL checking the arena out earlier today.
Logan Paul makes his entrance.
Corey Graves introduces his new commentary partner on Friday Nights, Wade Barrett.
Paul gets on the mic and asks Alabama not to do him like that, saying he doesn’t want to be here any more than they want him to be here. He’ll be honest, he underestimated Kevin Owens. On first glance he looks like a pissed-off donut, but hey, in their match he made him fight and KO did more damage to him than Floyd Mayweather did.
He damn near knocked him out, and yet he still lost and he’s still the champ! When’s it gonna click for us, he’s one of the toughest people on this brittle roster. He gives himself a bunch of nicknames including “Beast From the East” (Bam Bam Bigelow’s ghost is gonna kick his asssss…) and “Best in the West.”
Enter Kevin Owens.
He says as great as being United States Champion would be, knocking the hell out of Logan feels even better, but now he wants another title shot. Paul says the brass knuckles were a setup but this is his one and only shot at the title, and face it dude, he outsmarted you.
KO advances on him, Logan says he smells terrible, Kev says he bathed in Prime before he came here, but Paul reiterates that he’s not getting another title shot.
Austin Theory and Grayson Waller make their entrance to send us to break.
Austin Theory vs. Kevin Owens
Logan Paul is on commentary for this one.
Waistlock, standing switch, back elbow, side headlock, block the shot, off the ropes, leapfrog, big arm drag into an armbar! Fight out, whip reversed, pass Owens into the turnbuckles, rolling thunder dropkick blocked, big senton connects! Cannonball follows it up… SO CLOSE!
Back body drop on the apron, KO is down and out and we go to break!
Back from commercial, Owens with a big lariat for some separation, left-hand chops, backing Theory into the corner, taking him down with headbutts! Whip to the corner, tornado DDT connects! Austin puts him into the turnbuckles, rolling thunder blockbuster… SO CLOSE!
Fighting in the turnbuckles, Theory takes him down, backbreaker rack powerbomb… NOT ENOUGH! Logan passes Austin the knucks, Owens with a superkick, he uses the knucks to knock Waller out, a right hand to Theory, Logan jawing with referee Jessika Carr…
Kevin Owens wins by pinfall with a loaded punch.
A recap of Naomi’s return in the women’s Royal Rumble follows.
She exits general Manager Nick Aldis’ office with a signed contract and celebrates with Shotzi Blackheart, Mia Yim, and Bianca Belair outside the office.
Tiffany Stratton exits shortly thereafter with her own signed contract and asks where he celebration is before slapping Yim. Nick Aldis breaks it up and Mia essentially asks for a match.
Pretty Deadly make their entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial we get a Legado del Fantasma vignette where Santos Escobar officially welcomes Elektra Lopez back and says they have to eradicate Rey Mysterio’s Latino World Order and toasts honor and loyalty.
British Strong Style (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate) vs. Latino World Order (Cruz Del Toro & Joaquin Wilde) vs. Legado del Fantasma (Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo) vs. Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) (WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship #1 Contender’s Tournament Semifinals)
Prince and Bate to start, commentary explains there’ll be another four-way on Monday and the winners of the two matches will meet to determine a #1 contender to the tag titles at Elimination Chamber. Dunne tags in, stomp to the hand, arm wringer, Elton with an elbow and a tag to Wilde!
The match breaks down, four-way stalemate between BSS and the LWO, heels run in and break it up and the babyfaces team up to go viral with a huge assisted-slingshot dive from Joaquin into the crush as we go to break!
Back from commercial, Prince has Wilde grounded, reverse chinlock, Joaquin fighting for a tag, lands on his feet, tag to Dunne! Running enzuigiris all around! Stomps to Elly’s hands, land on his feet off a German suplex, the Bruiserweight is running hot and taking everybody out!
Codebreaker from Wilson, Bate runs in, Bop and Bang and an airplane spin! A bit of “everybody do something cool,” Elektra Lopez runs interference but Zelina Vega evens the odds and the LWO dives on Legado in triplicate! Schoolboy from Kitty, no deal, Dunne goes to work on his fingers, tag to Tyler! Double underhooks…
British Strong Style win by pinfall with a double Tyler Driver ‘97 on Kit Wilson.
Backstage, the Japanese contingent of Damage CTRL are hanging out and IYO SKY says it’s done and not to worry about it. They leave together, laughing and we see Bayley hanging out in the doorway, reticent, to send us to break.
Back from commercial, we get a video package where Seth Rollins asks Cody Rhodes what kind of champion he wants to be.
Damage CTRL make their entrance, sans Dakota Kai.
Bayley gets on the mic and says she’s done just about everything when it comes to WrestleMania, but this year is different and special because she didn’t get here on her own and she can admit that. She’s had ups and downs and more downs, but she’s had her girls the whole way.
They supported her, and Damage CTRL is more than just the best women’s faction of all time, they’re family. The Japanese contingent giggle through this and Bayley shoots them a look before continuing. She says to prove that she’s the best, she has to fight the best, and that brings her to Rhea Ripley.
Or she can go a different route, because sometimes it’s more personal and it comes down to what’s in your heart and proving the doubters wrong, and sometimes the people you thought were your friends— she shoots Damage CTRL a meaningful look— you have to prove them wrong.
She asks if they’re done laughing and reveals that she speaks a little Japanese and knows about all the ways they talk behind her back. And why? All she wanted was for Damage CTRL to be the best and to make it to the top at WrestleMania? She closes on IYO and the Kabuki Warriors go behind her as she tearfully asks IYO SKY what happened— KABUKI WARRIORS ATTACK AND PUT BOOTS TO BAYLEY!
BAYLEY GETS AN IRON PIPE AND SHE FIGHTS THEM OFF! Pipe vs. title, standing off with IYO and SKY gets a “what am I doing?” look in her eye but she retreats to the floor with Asuka and Kairi Sane! Bayley grabs the mic and says she’ll see IYO at WrestleMania!
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get a recap of what we just saw.
Final Testament and Bobby Lashley and his boys set to do battle, all out chaos before the bell, Profits send the Authors packing and bowl them over on the floor! Lashley with a forearm on Kross, big spinebuster follows it up, Hurt Lock blocked when Scarlett Bordeaux jumps on her back and B-Fab makes the save! Bob off the ropes, spear and referee DA Brewer tries to restore order and fails, no match.
Nick Aldis is backstage trying to sign Bron Breakker when Adam Pearce rolls up and tells him not to sign anything until he can talk to him on Monday. Nick gets hot, Bron says he’s gonna sit on it for a little bit and leaves.
Jade Cargill walks in, Aldis tells Pearce to leave and Adam gets a parting shot in before leaving the top of them to chat.
Tiffany Stratton makes her entrance and we go to break.
“Michin” Mia Yim vs. Tiffany Stratton
Tiffany in control early and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Yim on the second rope, running hip attack and a dropkick lay her out for two! Whip across, Mia on the comeback, thrust kick, dropkick, running neckbreaker! Setting Tiffany up in the turnbuckles, hanging Codebreaker… FOOT ON THE ROPES! Big Alabama Slam from Stratton… SO CLOSE!
Float over a slam, rolling solebutt, falling gamengiri, Tiffany shoves her into the corner, fireman’s carry for the Finlay Roll and then the triple jump…
Tiffany Stratton wins by pinfall with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever.
We see Cody Rhodes walking backstage to send us to break.
Back from commercial, commentary hypes next week’s show up.
Roman Reigns makes his entrance, flanked by Paul Heyman, “Big” Jim Uso, and Solo Sikoa.
Roman demands to be acknowledged and says some things were said on Monday that he cannot let slide. His little brother, Seth Rollins— no pop— said he’s got THE title and he had to think about it, didn’t he beat everybody competing for that title? Doesn’t that make them number twos? Isn’t it the loser’s bracket title?
Then Seth had the audacity to say he’s the guy, but you can’t run around for two years in your wife’s clothes and be the guy. He says he’s a workhorse, but three months in he broke his back, and he hobbles and asks if workhorses walk like that. And then he wants to attack his schedule?
It’s true he works ten times less than Rollins but he still makes ten times more than he does! He polls the crowd if they want Seth Rollins money or Tribal Chief money. He says he’s not gonna beg like the other guy, but Cody can fight number two at WrestleMania or he can have another crack at number one.
Cody Rhodes makes his entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Cody Rhodes gets on the mic and asks Birmingham, Alabama and Roman Reigns what they want to talk about.
Rhodes says he imagined the conversation a bit more private and asks Roman to indulge him and let them have the ring to themselves. Reigns waves the Bloodline off. Cody says he’s spoken with friends, family, and legends this week and he thinks he had Roman spooked. Roman knew he had him and it got him spooked. One thing that Seth Rollins said that he disagrees with is that the Universal Championship is a Hollywood title.
It’s still the same title Bruno Sammartino held, that was taken away from his father, and he still wants that title whatever you call it. He asks what “finishing the story” is and he’s heard Roman say all of this is his, the ring, the equipment, the fans, so is finishing the story taking the title or taking everything from him?
He’s moving the goalpost, because he doesn’t want just the title, he wants everything and he’s coming for Roman… but not at WrestleMania. He mentioned taking counsel, and one of the individuals he spoke to knows Reigns very well…
Enter Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson.
He shakes hands with Cody and they hug, and Rhodes takes his leave.
The Rock and Roman face off silently as we get into “uh the local news needs to come on” territory time-wise.
Dwayne steps real close to him.
That’s the show, folks.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
