WWE SmackDown Notes: Vic Joseph Fills In For Michael Cole on SmackDown Commentary, Nikki Bella vs. Chelsea Green for WWE Women’s Title Set for 10/30 Show, R-Truth Suffers Injury & Match With Damian Priest Called Off, Cody Rhodes Hits The Punt Kick on Baron Corbin, 10/23 Show Card

WWE
Oct 16, 2026

Vic Joseph Fills In For Michael Cole on SmackDown Commentary

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California featured NXT commentator Vic Joseph filling in for Michael Cole for the commentary team for the show.

Nikki Bella vs. Chelsea Green for WWE Women’s Title Set for Oct. 30th WWE SmackDown Show

WWE’s SmackDown show also featured one new match announced for the SmackDown show on October 30th at the Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, West Virginia.

This new match announced was a WWE Women’s Championship match of Nikki Bella vs. Chelsea Green (c).

This new match was setup following a backstage segment involving SmackDown GM Nick Aldis, Green, and Bella after Bella interrupt a conversation between Aldis and Green and demanded to be given a shot at Green’s title. Green responded accepting and stating they can do it next week, which Bella responded back refusing that date since she is busy with her work as a WWE Hall of Famer and other stuff and demanded it to take place in two weeks instead.

Current card for October 30th WWE SmackDown show:

  • WWE Women’s Championship – Nikki Bella vs. Chelsea Green (c)

R-Truth Suffers Injury & Match With Damian Priest Called Off

WWE’s SmackDown show also featured R-Truth suffering an aparent injury during his singles match against Damian Priest.

During the match, Truth went to the top rope and hit a dropkick to Priest only to land very hard on the mat. This led to the referee checking on Truth and called for the ringside doctor to attend to Truth. As the referee went to inform Priest of the situation, he threw up the “X” sign to call for the bell and officially end the match.

Following the match, Priest left the ring and grabbed a chair and went back into the ring. This led to the referee trying to stop Priest and Fraxiom (Nathan Frazer & Axiom) running out to save Truth as he was still being attending to by WWE medics. Priest left the ring and proceeded to insult Truth as he made his way to the back.

The nature nor severity of Truth’s injury is currently not known.

Cody Rhodes Hits The Punt Kick on Baron Corbin

WWE’s SmackDown show also featured Cody Rhodes hitting the Punk Kick on Baron Corbin.

During the show, Rhodes came out to the ring and demanded for Orton to show up for their face-to-face confrontation. This led to Corbin’s music playing to interrupt and came out to the ring instead. After some banter between the two, a match was set and made official right afterwards. This match ended when Orton finally appeared and pulled Rhodes out of the ring leading to the referee calling for the bell.

This led to a brawl breaking out between Orton and Rhodes at ringside that spilled into the ring. Orton attempted to hit a punt kick to Rhodes only for Rhodes to escape and laid out Orton with a Codycutter. As Rhodes attempted to hit a punk kick onto Orton, Corbin got back into the ring and stopped Rhodes. This led to Rhodes and Corbin brawling as Orton escaped to safety. As Orton looked on, Rhodes would eventually hit the punt kick to Corbin laying him out.

In recent months of shows, Rhodes had been teasing of finally going as far in his hatred of Orton to hit a punt kick on him during their bad blood feud.

Current Card for Next Week’s Show

WWE announced three new matches for the card of next week’s WWE SmackDown show on October 16 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

Among the notable new matches announced was a Street Fight match of Giulia vs. Blake Monroe.

This new match was setup following a backstage segment involving SmackDown GM Nick Aldis and Monroe.

Current card for October 23rd WWE SmackDown show:

  • WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship – B-Fab & Michin vs. Alexa Bliss & Tatum Paxley (c)
  • Street Fight match – Giulia vs. Blake Monroe
  • Bakusai (Shinsuke Nakamura & Kyoki) vs. The MFT (Tama Tonga & Talla Tonga)
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