WWE SmackDown Results – October 30th 2020

Written by Innes McVey • Published 31st October 2020
Sasha Banks holds the SmackDown Women's Championship on the October 30th episode

Keep up with all of tonight’s WWE SmackDown results as the show emanates from the WWE ThunderDome inside the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida for the first SmackDown post-Hell In A Cell!

Matches and segments announced for tonight’s show include:

Jey Uso faces his Hell In A Cell repercussions

  • We’re shown a recap of Roman & Jey’s Hell In A Cell match as Roman makes his entrance.
  • Paul Heyman starts to talk, but Jey snatches the mic out of his hands. Jey cries out that Roman didn’t beat him and said Roman used ‘a snake move’. Roman tells him he quit, so he has to take the oath and fall in line.
  • Roman said that he did what he did because that’s what you do to remain champion. Roman says that Jey will fall in line by the end of the night or he’s out of the family as Jey is left in the ring crying.

Analysis: Wow. I wasn’t sure how they were gonna portray the stipulation in the conclusion of last week’s SmackDown but I was wrong to be pessimistic. Reigns is COLD and Uso standing in the ring crying and shouting that he hated Roman was really compelling. This feud has been fantastic so far and this addition was certainly no different. Interested to see if Jey’s emotional state has any effect on his match with Daniel Bryan later in the night.

Kevin Owens defeats Dolph Ziggler via Pinfall, qualifying for the SmackDown Men’s Survivor Series Team in 10:37

  • Dolph gets help from Roode multiple times throughout – Roode tripped up Owens’ feet and delivered a clothesline whilst Owens was on the outside before being ejected after the referee caught him.
  • Ziggler focuses on Owens’ neck, hitting neckbreakers and locking in multiple headlocks after Roode’s ejection.
  • Owens manages to regain momentum though, hitting a Go-Home Driver for a near-fall. Owens hit a Superkick and attempted a Pop-Up Powerbomb but Ziggler transitioned into the Famouser in mid-air for a near-fall himself.
  • After countering several Superkick attempts from Ziggler, Owens hit the Stunner to become the first official member of Team SmackDown at Survivor Series!

Analysis: Really fun match between these two. Typical heel tag team tactics to begin with but the pace really quickened once Roode got eliminated. Was particularly impressed with how smooth the Famouser transition from the Pop-Up Powerbomb attempt was! Owens winning is the right choice, he’s a bigger singles name at the moment and could put on a fantastic match against his current Team RAW opponents on November 22nd.

Lars Sullivan Interview with Corey Graves

  • Graves calls Lars Sullivan ‘The Freak’ and Sullivan takes offence. Sullivan recalls the first time he was called The Freak by some of his classmates in school.
  • Lars says he wasn’t allowed back at school after making the kids who made fun of him pay.
  • Lars ends the interview by saying he wants to make the world his “personal hell on earth”.

Analysis: Bit of a weird turn in Lars’ story to be honest. It’s nice that they’re giving him some character beyond ‘rawwrr I’m The Freak’ but all I got from the story he told about beating up the kids who made fun of him in school is that he never made it out of grade school. I guess him having a sort of PTSD-esque reaction to being called ‘The Freak’ will be a constant trait from here on out, which could either be an interesting addition to his matches or quite cringeworthy depending on how they portray it.

Bianca Belair defeats Natalya and Billie Kay via Pinfall, qualifying for the SmackDown Women’s Survivor Series Team in 4:16

  • The three confront each other backstage beforehand, with Natalya and Billie Kay mocking Bianca for calling herself ‘The EST’ because no one knows what it means. Adam Pearce makes a match between the three with the winner becoming the first member of Team SmackDown in the Women’s Survivor Series match.
  • Billie Kay attempts to steal opportunities from the other two throughout, stealing pinfalls from both Belair & Natalya on each other.
  • Natalya locks in the Sharpshooter on Belair but Kay locks in a chinlock too. Belair sits in both submissions for around 15 seconds before Natalya breaks her hold. Natalya and Belair knock each other down and Kay attempts multiple pinfalls on each with both kicking out at 2 in all cases.
  • Billie attempts a rope-assisted pinfall but Belair kicks out before hitting the KOD on Kay for the win. She becomes Team SmackDown’s first female member at Survivor Series!

Analysis: A quick, but strong win for Belair. Match itself was fine but nothing to write home about. Bianca absolutely needed to be on the Survivor Series team far more than the other two and was made to look like a star in this! She sat in a dual-submission for nearly 20 seconds and managed to kick out of several pinfall attempts. Looks like she’s in for a dominant showing at Survivor Series if her last two weeks of SmackDown are any indication.

Carmella Announces Her In-Ring Return Next Week

  • Carmella gets served a bucket of champagne by someone off-camera and says she’s the one who calls the shots, makes the rules and is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead.
  • She announces she’ll make her in-ring return to SmackDown next week.

Analysis: Glad Carmella’s coming back, the SmackDown women’s division could use a character-focused talent. I hope it’s not just a rehash of what Emmalina was meant to be but it doesn’t entirely seem like that with the whole being served by someone off-camera. I’m intrigued, at least.

Murphy Attempts to Apologise to Rey & Dominik Mysterio

  • Backstage, Aalyah and Murphy talk: Aalyah’s mum accepts their relationship but Rey & Dominik aren’t so open about it. Murphy says he’s going to go out and publicly apologise to the two of them.
  • Later, Murphy says he needs to be a man and apologise to both of them face-to-face and he knows he’s done bad things. He calls them out twice but they do not appear. Seth Rollins, however, does.
  • Rollins says Rey & Dominik will never forgive him and accept him & Aalyah’s relationship, but that he will. He says there’s a place for all of them in The Greater Good and that he accepts BOTH Murphy & Aalyah, regardless of Aalyah’s last name.
  • Dominik attacks Rollins from behind and Murphy pulls him off him to attack Rollins himself. Dominik attacks Murphy and Murphy retaliates before Rey makes his way to the ring.
  • Aalyah gets in Dominik & Rey’s way and says she loves Murphy, refusing to go with her dad & brother. Rey calls out to her to follow one last time, but she kisses Murphy instead as the two walk away.

Analysis: The twist that I’d say the majority saw coming, Aalyah gets together with Murphy despite Rey & Dominik not approving. Rollins trying to manipulate both into rejoining him was great but Murphy defiantly shut that down by attacking Rollins yet again. I kinda hope Rollins fades away from this story and the focus moves moreso onto Murphy trying to get Rey & Dominik to accept him rather than yet MORE Rollins Vs. Mysterio.

The Street Profits defeat Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura via Pinfall in 9:29

  • During their entrance, Michael Cole announces The Street Profits will face the New Day at Survivor Series in a Champion Vs. Champion match. In response to this, Street Profits say they’re not handing out Booty-O’s, they’re handing out Ls.
  • Cesaro drives Ford over the barricade as we cut to ads, significantly hindering Ford throughout the rest of the match. Shinsuke attempts to isolate him from Dawkins but Ford gets the hot tag and Dawkins cleans house.
  • Street Profits pick up the win with a Superplex from Dawkins into a Frog Splash from Ford on Nakamura.

Analysis: Good match between these two to hype up Street Profits Survivor Series match. Bit of a shame Cesaro & Shinsuke are losing AGAIN, having not picked up a win since losing the tag titles to New Day, but hopefully they get back to their winning ways soon. New Day Vs. Profits should be a really fun match, especially with the amount of athletic stuff Ford & Kingston could do together.

Sami Zayn Calls Out Bobby Lashley

  • Sami Zayn is out to prove the Intercontinental Championship is superior over the United States.
  • Sami says he represents multiple countries, listing off several including Ireland and Lebanon, and that he’s “the champion of the people” whereas Lashley only represents one and he hesitates when mentioning why that one country is bad.

Analysis: Decent enough little promo to announce Lashley Vs. Zayn with Zayn goading the US audience with his obvious underhanded put down of the country. Should be a very interesting match as Lashley is a very dominant performer versus Zayn’s underhanded and sneaky style. Not sure who that’ll benefit in three weeks time but excited to see the match!

Sasha Banks Celebrates Her First SmackDown Women’s Championship Win

  • Cole announces Asuka Vs. Sasha at Survivor Series.
  • Sasha says she’s secretly thankful for Bayley betraying her because it made her realise that it wasn’t their friendship that was unstoppable, it was her.
  • Bayley interrupts and says she didn’t technically beat her for the title because she forced Bayley to sign the contract to the match.
  • Bayley says that Sasha can’t beat Asuka without her, so she challenges Sasha for the title next week.

Analysis: Not sure how I feel about Bayley getting a rematch already. There’s a chance Bayley could win the title back next week, especially with her bringing up Sasha never having successfully defended a singles main roster title ever, but I suspect that Sasha will retain and that’ll be the end of their feud for now, which’ll be a shame if it is. Asuka Vs. Sasha could be EXCELLENT though – Both have had great matches on pay-per-view before but never against each other so nice to see a fresh match-up at Survivor Series.

Jey Uso defeats Daniel Bryan via Pinfall, qualifying for the SmackDown Men’s Survivor Series Team in 9:50

  • Bryan is interviewed before the match saying he’s excited to face ‘the best Jey Uso’, who Roman Reigns has technically been unable to defeat.
  • Uso looks almost disturbed as he makes his way to the ring, his mind clearly on Reigns rather than the match. Jey starts off very aggressive which Bryan returns in kind with a series of brutal Yes Kicks. The two exchanged hard-hitting blows throughout from then on.
  • Roman Reigns made his way to ringside mid-match as we cut to an ad break.
  • Jey managed to counter one of Bryan’s diving tackle to the outside with a Superkick, before delivering a second in the ring along with the Frog Splash to pick up the win.
  • Roman enters the ring in the aftermath and Jey says he understands now. He says he loves Roman and attacks Bryan, hitting another Superkick and Frog Splash. Roman tells Jey to make Bryan understand, so Jey delivers an Uso Splash from the top rope through the announce table on Bryan and continues brutalising Bryan as the show goes off the air.

Analysis: Very compelling segment to end the show. The match was a little quick for my liking as Jey defeated one of the top stars of the last decade clean in less than 10 minutes without much fanfare, but the aftermath is where the real focus of this section of the show lies. Uso seems to have finally snapped and fully aligned with Reigns now, being brainwashed in an almost 1984-esque style. Interestingly, we don’t see Jimmy at all despite his clear involvement in the stipulation but I imagine he’ll come into play in the next few weeks.

And that was the October 30th 2020 episode of SmackDown!

Another really strong showing from the blue brand yet again! Maybe not as strong as the last two or three weeks due to the generic build they had to do for a lot of the Survivor Series matches that took up the majority of the show, but the Reigns/Uso storyline continues to be the most engaging and compelling story WWE have told in years. At the very least, the best since Becky’s rise to the main event of WrestleMania but I believe this has far more intriguing storytelling than Becky’s story ever did.

Inside The Ropes will keep you updated with all the news coming out of SmackDown as well as all the latest WWE news generally.