Event: WWE SmackDown house show
City: Bowling Green, Kentucky
Venue: WKU E. A. Diddle Arena
Submitted by: Blake Sims
Decent crowd. Seemed like a bigger crowd than the show last year (In 2017, it was their first year back after four-years) The venue lists a capacity of 7,200, but with sectioned off areas by the entrance, I’d say there were 5000 maybe.
Randy Orton received the biggest reaction followed by Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, and the New Day. Rusev got a good reaction, but it trailed off when Orton and Hardy came out.
They didn’t say when they would be coming back though, so I’m assuming it’ll be another year.
Opening Match:
The Bludgeon Brothers vs. The Usos vs. Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods for the SmackDown tag titles
Usos and New Day worked for a while Bludgeon Bros waited on the outside. The Bludgeon Bros came in late and finally won. Fun match and opener. Luke Harper pinned Jimmy Uso after a good sequence and a big boot.
Shelton Benjamin vs. Sin Cara
Sin Cara won after a lot of selling.
Lana vs Naomi
Great reaction for Naomi and her entrance. She won with the rear view.
Rusev and Aiden English vs. Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton
Hardy worked most of the match with the heels cutting off his tag attempts. Orton got a HUGE reaction when he got the hot tag. RKO on English for the pin.
Tye Dillinger vs Big Cass
Big Cass got a decent reception. Cooled off as the match went on. Big Cass won.
Carmella vs. Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch for the SmackDown women’s title
Charlotte and Becky worked the majority. Lots of fun spots in between sections when Carmella would sneak in to spoil the pins. Carmella eventually broke up the Figure 8 on Becky, threw Charlotte out and hit Becky with a superkick to win.
AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE title
AJ won after Nakamura was DQ’d following a low blow. Great match. Hard to believe I was able to see it in my little Kentucky town after staying up late to see it at Wrestle Kingdom years ago.