It's five days away from "WWE Backlash," the first "WWE SmackDown Live"-exclusive pay-per-view event on the new WWE calendar, and strong statements need to be made on all championship fronts heading into the show. That means an effective go-home segment for both the WWE Championship and the SmackDown Women's Championship contenders.
This week's episode of "WWE SmackDown Live" began with a big segment involving the participants in the Six Pack Challenge for the SmackDown Women's Championship: Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella, Naomi, Carmella, Alexa Bliss, and Natalya. Chaos ensued as each woman declared that she would walk out of "WWE Backlash" as champion, and the good girls stood tall at the end. Later in the evening, the team of Natalya, Alexa Bliss, and Carmella would defeat the team of Nikki Bella, Becky Lynch, and Naomi.
Meanwhile, WWE Champion Dean Ambrose and his #1 contender AJ Styles had a confrontation to close out "WWE SmackDown Live." The war of words between the two led to violence as Styles kicked Ambrose in the crotch as payback for last week's crotching at the hands of the latter.
Other results
There wasn't a lot of other matches on this week's episode of "WWE SmackDown Live," but it made up for it for being dense with segments and progression. WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz defeated Apollo Crews in a non-title match while Dolph Ziggler was on commentary.
American Alpha defeated the Usos to advance to the finals of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship tournament on "WWE Backlash," but the Usos turned heel and attacked American Alpha out of frustration, eventually taking them out of the tournament. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno defeated the Hype Bros to advance as well—the Hype Bros and the Usos will be facing each other at "WWE Backlash" to determine the other team facing Heath Slater and Rhyno in the finals.