WWE SmackDown Notes: Vic Joseph Fills in for Michael Cole, Corey Graves Returns, Blake Monroe Appears, Zelina Vega Explains Reason for Joining Aleister Black, Ilja Dragunov Makes Surprise Return & Wins WWE U.S. Title, Jacob Fatu Attacked & Bloodied By Mystery Attacker

WWE
Oct 17, 2025

Vic Joseph Fills in for Michael Cole & Corey Graves Returns to SD Commentary

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at SAP Center in San Jose, California featured Vic Joseph filling in for Michael Cole for SmackDown’s commentary team for the show.

It was also revealed that Corey Graves made his official return to SmackDown’s commentary team.

Blake Monroe Makes Surprise Appearance

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured NXT talent Blake Monroe making a surprise appearance.

Prior to the start of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match between ZaRuca (Zaria & Sol Ruca) and Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair, Monroe was seen standing in front row of the crowd.

Near the end of the match, Ruca got distracted by Monroe at ringside leading to Flair hitting a chop block to Ruca and tossed her back into the ring to lock in a Figure Eight for the submission victory.

Monroe is currently scheduled to challenge Ruca for her NXT Women’s North American title at WWE’s upcoming NXT Halloween Havoc 2025 event.

Zelina Vega Explains Reason for Joining Aleister Black

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured Zelina Vega explaining her reason for joining Aleister Black.

During the show, a video aired featuring Black and Vega talking about Vega showing up and helping Black defeat Damian Priest in a Last Man Standing match last week. Black stated that everything he has done has been a calculated move. Black continued stating that this was always their plan, which Zelina also reiterated. Black stated they are what they would call a necessary evil and Zelina responded stating the venom isn’t poison, it’s salvation.

Ilja Dragunov Makes Surprise Return & Wins WWE U.S. Title

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured Ilja Dragunov making his surprise return from injury.

During the show, Zayn came out to the ring for an impromptu title defense after demanding one from SmackDown GM Nick Aldis and saying he would do it on his own since he wanted to defend his title and give another shot to the WWE locker room. This led to The Miz’s music playing and him coming out to the stage. The Miz talked about him being so sick of these opened challenges and Sami treating that title like a charity. This led to Carmelo Hayes running out and attacked The Miz resulting in a brawl breaking out and WWE officials rushing out to try to stop it as The Miz and Hayes made their way to the back.

After another pause, Dragunov’s music played and he came out revealing him officially answering the challenge.

Near the end of the match, Solo Sikoa came out to the stage causing Zayn to get distracted eventually leading to Dragunov hitting a Torpedo Moscow and followed it with a H-Bomb to Zayn for the pinfall victory to become the new WWE United States Champion.

Following the match, Zayn paid his respects to the new champion and the two tried to celebrate only for the MFTs to run out and laid out both putting an end to the celebration.

This was Dragunov’s first appearance since September of 2024 due to a torn ACL injury. This was also Dragunov’s first ever WWE United States Championship victory and his first championship victory in his main roster WWE career.

Jacob Fatu Attacked & Bloodied By Mystery Attacker

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured Jacob Fatu being attacked and bloodied up by a mystery attacker.

Prior to the start of the Undisputed WWE Championship #1 Contender match, Fatu’s music played but he didn’t come out. This led to SmackDown GM Nick Aldis and WWE officials being shown backstage rushing to Fatu who was seen laid out and bloodied with equipment on top of him.

In a follow-up segment, Aldis and WWE officials were seen attending to Fatu as Drew McIntyre’s music played and McIntyre came out in a very joyous mood to the ring. McIntyre grabbed a microphone and proceeded to insult Fatu and asked the referee to raise his hand to declare him as the new number one contender.

The referee refused and an angry Aldis came out telling McIntyre that he doesn’t know what happened with Fatu but it is bad. Aldis then threatened to punish McIntyre if he finds out it was him that did it. McIntyre responded back claiming his innocence and talked about how he had to always jump through hoops for his opportunities and claimed Aldis is working for Corporate Cody. This led to Cody Rhodes’ music playing and after some angry words, he told McIntyre they should give the fans something and he can have a match right now for his Undisputed WWE title.

This led to a brawl breaking out that spread into the crowd and after some time, Rhodes tossed McIntyre back into the ring tom officially start their match. After some back-and-forth action, the match ended after Rhodes hit McIntyre with his Undisputed WWE title for the DQ and the two continued brawling before it was broken up by WWE officials.

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