WWE SmackDown Results: Winners, News And Notes On September 4, 2020

WWE Friday Night SmackDown featured the first heel promo of the heel Roman Reigns era in addition to the long-anticipated split between Bayley and Sasha Banks after Bayley attacked her now-former best friend.

SmackDown also featured the crowning of a new No. 1 Contender for the WWE Universal Championship in Jey Uso, who will take on his cousin Roman Reigns at WWE Clash of Champions. Uso was inserted into a Fatal 4-Way match to crown a new No. 1 Contender after Big E was taken out by Sheamus.

Last week’s broadcast of SmackDown garnered 2.144 million viewers.

• August 28, 2020—2.144 million viewers
• August 21, 2020—2.198 million viewers
• August 14, 2020—2.002 million viewers
• August 7, 2020—1.962 million viewers
• July 31, 2020—1.894 million viewers

WWE Friday Night SmackDown—Key Competition

• NBA Playoff Slate
• MLB Regular Season Slate

Pro Wrestling Bits—AEW’s Brodie Lee is the Best Monster Heel in Wrestling

WWE SmackDown Total YouTube Viewership Last Friday

10,075,191 views (Down from 11,204,516)

• Most-Viewed: Roman Reigns Turns to Paul Heyman Ahead of WWE Payback (3,916,100 views) 
• Least-Viewed: Kalisto vs. Cesaro (237,052 views)
• Median Viewership: 501,748

WWE Friday Night SmackDown Results—Friday, September 4, 2020

Opening Segment Featuring Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman

This great promo by a subdued Paul Heyman was filled with lines that would have gotten a rise out of a live crowd, including Heyman calling Michael Cole and Corey Graves “Anderson Cooper and Carmella’s latest boyfriend.”

Jey Uso should make a great foil for Roman Reigns, if nothing else to really get Reigns over as a heel even more than he already is.

Heavy Machinery def. Miz and Morrison

Otis walked out with both the Money in the Bank briefcase and a lunchbox version, which is a microcosm of how him and Tucker are viewed by this company.

Otis now has a Vader Bomb finisher. Otis moving toward a new finisher could be an indication that he’s getting ready to cash in under another champion, but not new heel Roman Reigns.

With fake champion gimmicks now all the rage, John Morrison has taken it to the next level by becoming a fake Money in the Bank winner.

Sheamus Destroys Big E

Big E getting taken out of this Fatal 4-Way match shows just how much WWE prioritizes him. Not only did they promote him as a participant and a top contender for the Universal title, they took him out of the match via injury storyline so:

• a) He doesn’t have to take a loss of any kind and
• b) Should he win, he doesn’t have to go on to be fed by Roman Reigns.

Sheamus’ promo after attacking Big E just went on and on.

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler def. Bayley and Sasha Banks—WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship

Bayley did everything she could to help Sasha Banks through this match, including hitting her finisher on Shayna Baszler at one point. I don’t want to hear one word about her being a bad friend until if and when she actually turns on Banks.

First Shayna Baszler beat both Bayley and Sasha Banks at the same time via submission, then Nia Jax beat Bayley and Sasha Banks at the same time via pinfall.

Between Big E and Sasha Banks, this was a busy night for the EMTs.

After years of planting the seeds for a Bayley-Sasha Banks breakup, when it finally happened, Corey Graves was surprisingly somber while discussing it during the postmortem.

This breakup spanned multiple segments, there’s no way WWE is giving this match away in three weeks at Clash of Champions.

Sami Zayn Attacks Jeff Hardy

Sami Zayn’s latest strategy to regain his Intercontinental Championship without a match was to whip some sense into the WWE production team.

It’s so ironic that Sami Zayn with a fake Intercontinental Championship is so much better than the chicken heel Sami Zayn who held the real Intercontinental Championship pre-pandemic.

Jey Uso def. Baron Corbin, Sheamus and Matt Riddle—Fatal 4-Way to Become No. 1 Contender for the WWE Universal Championship

Pre-Match Thoughts: Jey Uso vs. a heel Roman Reigns is the type of family drama wrestling fans forgot they needed.

Prior to this match, Bray Wyatt teased a new friend would be coming to the Firefly Fun House, and God I hope it’s Alexa Bliss, whose backstage encounter with Nikki Cross featured Ramblin’ Rabbit in the background.

WWE showed impressive discipline by waiting three weeks until its first “brawling into the ThunderDome” spot.

Between The IIconics, Bayley and Sasha Banks and Roman Reigns and Jey Uso, it’s been a rough week for WWE alliances.