WWE SmackDown: Kevin Owens channels his inner Stone Cold Steve Austin
Wednesday 3 July 2019 12:49, UK
Kevin Owens channeled his inner Stone Cold as SmackDown came to a chaotic conclusion last night.
Owens first formed an unlikely alliance with Dolph Ziggler to face off against the 'blue collar solid' team of Heavy Machinery, with the stipulation that the winner would be added to the Extreme Rules match between SmackDown tag champions Daniel Bryan & Rowan and The New Day.
Both of those teams, along with several plates of pancakes, were at ringside for a close-up view of the action - which quickly spiralled out of control.
WWE Late Night Smackdown
Big E and Xavier Woods began brawling with Bryan and Rowan and the champions got the best of the exchange when Rowan viciously dropped Woods through a table, leading to all four to be ejected from ringside.
Heavy Machinery's experience as a team put them over a top when they capitalised on a miscue between Ziggler and Owens that saw KO get accidentally superkicked in the face by The Showoff. The inadvertent strike opened the door for to obliterate Owens with the Compactor to seal their title shot.
KO then dropped his temporary tag partner with a Stunner and went even more 'Stone Cold' with an expletive, which was censored by the broadcast team.
Kingston and Joe clash
With their WWE title match at Extreme Rules less than two weeks away, Kofi Kingston and Samoa Joe went face to face on SmackDown, just 24 hours after from Joe's brutal assault of Kingston on Raw.
Joe was in his typically abrasive mood, challenging Kofi's motives for using his 'WrestleMania moment' with his family as a means for generating merchandising income.
Even this, however, did not get a reaction from Kingston, leading Joe to offer him a handshake; with it, he said, he would guarantee the safety of him and his friends and family for the build-up to Extreme Rules.
Kingston contemplated it before issuing a middle-finger salute and a Trouble in Paradise to leave his challenger down and out.
Bayley silences Cross challenge
Alexa Bliss was nowhere to be seen on SmackDown, leaving her acolyte Nikki Cross to host the Moment of Bliss talk show segment, which again had Bayley as its guest.
The SmackDown women's champion was keen to remind Cross that Bliss is increasingly using her to 'do her bidding', an accusation which did not sit well with the fiery Scot and led to an immediate match between the two.
Cross showed plenty of her trademark intensity but Bayley picked up the win with a Bayley-to-belly in a match which might have created more questions than answers.
