Battle Royal Match, Playa, Playa – Smackdown Live February 21, 2017

Congrats again to Teddy Long on his Hall of Fame selection.

Ontario, California plays host to tonight’s episode of Smackdown Live, and we start the evening off with some sadness.

With an injured knee, Naomi will be out of action for a while, maybe even beyond Wrestlemania in her home city of Orlando, Florida.  Naomi is forced to relinquish her Smackdown Women’s Championship.  Cue the Alexa Bliss music.

Bliss makes the claim that she’s been eagerly awaiting her rematch for the belt, but with an injured Naomi, she was denied and should simply be given the title.  Daniel Bryan, who reluctantly asked the Champ to hand over her title (as someone who had to do the same thing due to injury), denies the request and informs Alexa that she will have to earn it in a match, against Becky Lynch and it happens right now….after this commercial break.

In case you aren’t aware, Chrisley Knows Best returns tonight.  And in that spirit, so do my ridiculously Chrisley filled recaps.  You know you’re excited about both.

The Stuff in the Middle:

• Becky Lynch vs Alexa Bliss for the WWE Women’s Championship:  You’ve seen this match a number of time, so there aren’t a lot of surprises in the bulk of what happens here.  Alexa chops Becky in the throat and gets a roll up for the win and is the new Smackdown Women’s Champion.  That was kind of a weird ending to a match that went long enough for two commercial breaks.  Speaking of commercial breaks…

• American Alpha vs Breezango:  They’ve been giving Breezango more television time of late, which I do greatly appreciate.  They also got a chance to look quite strong in this match, but Alpha proved too much.  As would be expected, the Usos came out to talk trash.  Have I mentioned of late that I hate The Usos?  Well, I hate the Usos.  These heel Usos are even worse than the face paint Usos.
• Nikki Bella vs Natalya – Falls Count Anywhere:   I am more impressed with Nikki Bella nearly every time she has a match where she’s given the opportunity to really perform.  I really do wish they’d have her at least wear some kind of pants.  She’s literally wrestling in a pair of camo panties that she constantly had to pull up because her ass was showing.  They battled into the backstage area where Natalya threw Nikki into Maryse (so further setting up for the rumored Bella-Cena vs Miz-Maryse match).  Bella would get the Fearless Lock locked in, but Maryse came out and assaulted her with a “steel pipe” before Miz ran down to pull her away.  Natalya pinned Bella after the attack for the victory.

The Main Event

I see no world in which Mojo Rawley wins this match, but damn good on WWE for putting him in this match.  If you’ve followed us for any length of time, you know I am a huge Mojo mark.  I am a huge Hype Bros mark, for that matter.  Get well soon, Ryder.

For the most part, 10 men in the ring at once is chaos, so let’s do this the easy way, shall we?

Eliminations:

1. Mojo Rawley by Baron Corbin
2. Kalisto by Dolph Ziggler
3. Dolph Ziggler by Apollo Crews
4. Apollo Crews by Baron Corbin
5. The Miz by John Cena
6. Baron Corbin by Dean Ambrose (Corbin pulled Ambrose out and hit an End of Days on the ringside mat, leaving Ambrose still in the match but on the floor outside)
7. John Cena by The Miz (who slid back in from nowhere and threw him over the top)
8. Dean Ambrose by Luke Harper
9. AJ Styles and Luke Harper hit at the same time*.

Match is declared a draw, with a Number One Contender to be determined next Tuesday night.

*AJ Styles was pretty clearly on the floor well before Luke Harper, but that wasn’t the story they’d already decided to go with.

We’ll be back next week, same Smackdown time, same Smackdown channel.  Now watch Chrisley Knows Best.