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SmackDown In A Nutshell: WarGames And World Cup Action!

wargames and world cup
source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

It’s another live SmackDown in a Nutshell, and we’ve got WarGames and World Cup action!

And, there’s a lot more than WarGames and World Cup action tonight.

Like, we have a huge tag team title bout. The New Day battle Jimmy and Jey Uso, trying to keep their tag team record safe.

But, now that Crown Jewel is over and done with, we do indeed have our eyes on Survivor Series: WarGames.

And, SmackDown is also giving us a World Cup tournament of sorts. The winner of that gets an Intercontinental Championship match.

I am sure the roster is happy to be back in the country after a good, and uneventful, premium live event.

Survivor Series is just a couple weeks away. We already are seeing the women’s WarGames match take shape, kicked off on RAW.

Will we learn the men’s match tonight?

It’s time for things to get started, so that we might find out on…

wargames and world cup

SmackDown In A Nutshell: WarGames And World Cup Action!

Let’s crack open this Nutshell and find out!

Best Match of the night:

wargames and world cup

Worst match of the night:

Not really a match, and the segment was fun.

But we never did get the in-ring return of Zelina Vega. She was supposed to battle B-Fab…but Sarah Logan and the Viking Raiders had other ideas.

Star of the Night

The victorious team, poised to become the longest reigning tag team champs.

Spot of the Night:

Not a huge spot…but it kinda was.

How about Wyatt popping up during LA Knight’s backstage segment.

Knight wasn’t happy, got in Bray’s face…and ate a headbutt.

Jobber of the Night:

Kinda LA Knight, don’t you think?

That said, while he can’t come out on top…a Knight-Wyatt program could be fun.

Also, I’d nominate Jinder.

When was the last time we’ve even seen him on SmackDown? And he had to come back to face…Strowman.

Upset of the Night:

As established as he is, I’d say Santos Escobar defeating Shinsuke Nakamura was a bit of a surprise.

But, it was a good surprise, and I think the right call.

I’d love to see Nakamura get another title run…but Escobar needs to get established on the main roster.

Option two, and I love this one too: Shotzi won the women’s #1 contender match.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Well, once Roman declared he had something to say in the ring, it was clear him talking was the main event.

And without a men’s WarGames match announced…that seemed likely.

Reigns and the Bloodline came down.

They got interrupted by Ridge and Butch. Backed up by Sheamus…and Drew McIntyre.

So, there’s four on four. We know The Bloodline has Sami Zayn for their 5th.

Will Kevin Owens team up with the Brawling Brutes and Drew? Or who else could we see?

Not that it is even an official WarGames match…but anyone paying attention knows where that is going.

Botch of the night:

Maybe it was as planned, but it didn’t look good.

Liv leapt off the barricade to hit Raquel and Sonya Deville, as the two were working up to a table spot.

Morgan and Raquel did not land well, with Liv awkwardly hitting the table.

Again, could have been planned…but I feel like one of the women was intended to go through the table…not into the side of it.

Commentary of the night:

Not a line, but something I am going to key on.

Cole spent a lot of time emphasizing that The Usos would become the longest reigning tag team on Monday.

After defeating The New Day tonight, they have “no more scheduled title defenses”.

Why do I feel like we will see an impromptu challenge on RAW that ends their reign? The Good Brothers perhaps?

Or some other, completely unexpected team?

Maybe…or maybe it was just commentary, and the record is going to fall.

LOL Moment of the night:

Shotzi thinks Emma is crushing on Madcap. That should cover it…(the two are dating IRL).

Noteworthy Moment:

It was a big deal when we learned about it a week or so back, but to have Michael Cole actually discuss it on SmackDown is next level.

The “it” in this case is Nakamura versus Great Muta at Budokan on New Year’s Day.

Overall lowlights:

I really don’t know what I’d complain about.

Some fans on social media didn’t seem too thrilled about Shotzi getting the #1 shot…but new faces in new spots is hard to hate.

Overall highlights:

Really liked this show from top to bottom.

Honestly, figured we’d see The Bloodline in the WarGames match, but wasn’t sure who they’d go against.

Very intrigued by the match ahead of us.

Nice to see Emma, and we had some returns too. Sarah Logan is back, as was Jinder.

We almost even got Zelina in the ring…but not yet.

After the final bell:

Right back into the thick of things, we got a couple World Cup matches and WarGames is lining up as we expected.

We’ve got the SmackDown Women’s Championship match, with Shotzi getting a crack at Ronda.

The women’s WarGames match was kicked off on Monday. Our men’s match wrapped up this evening’s activities.

It will be a busy next two weeks.

Introduced to professional wrestling in the 1980’s thanks to Superstars and Saturday Night’s Main Event, John’s passion for the... More about John Deegan

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