WWE SmackDown Spoilers: Complete Results and Analysis for October 17

Monday night on Raw, Dean Ambrose earned the right to square off with Seth Rollins inside Hell in a Cell on October 26 by defeating John Cena in a No Holds Barred Contract-on-a-Pole match. Before he makes it to Dallas for the huge pay-per-view clash with his former Shield teammate, Ambrose will have to fell the Big Red Monster, Kane, in the Friday Night SmackDown main event.

But Rollins will not get to enjoy an off-night. Instead, he will square off with current Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler in a non-title match.

How will the Hell in a Cell opponents fair when SmackDown hits the SyFy Network airwaves this Friday night?

Find out now, courtesy of our friends at WrestlingInc.com.

Venue

BJCC Arena in Birmingham, Alabama

Broadcast Team

Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield and Tom Phillips

Quick Results

• Seth Rollins kicked off the show with an in-ring promo. Dolph Ziggler interrupted. A match between the two Superstars ensued.
• Rollins defeated intercontinental champion Ziggler in a non-title match with the Curb Stomp. Dean Ambrose came to the ring and cut a promo regarding Hell in a Cell. Kane appeared and booked himself against the Lunatic Fringe in the night's main event.
• AJ Lee defeated Layla with the Black Widow. Paige and Alicia Fox sat at ringside for the match. After the bell, AJ cut off an attacking Fox but fell victim to Paige's finisher.
• Sheamus and The Usos defeated Gold & Stardust and The Miz when Sheamus pinned Goldust.
• Big Show cut a promo on Hell in a Cell and asked Mark Henry to join him. He asked Henry not to interfere in the match between he and Rusev at the pay-per-view. Henry agreed. Rusev and Lana interfered and cut a promo.
• Nikki Bella defeated Naomi.
• Dean Ambrose defeated Kane via disqualification when Seth Rollins interfered. After the match, Ambrose evaded a Curb Stomp and blasted Kane with a chair to close out the show.

Analysis

After an excellent episode of Monday Night Raw, it appears as though WWE takes a step back Friday with an episode of SmackDown that could very well have a handful of excellent matches but, on paper, is highly repetitive.

Rollins and Ziggler have wrestled countless times on WWE television since his heel turn last June. Thankfully, the Superstars are so good from bell-to-bell that it masks the issues with booking. We get it; Rollins is a main event guy and Ziggler is champion of the perpetual midcarders. Why consistently devalue Ziggler just to prove that point or to deliver a great match?

It waters down the effectiveness of the match and gives fans disenfranchised by the rinse-and-repeat nature of SmackDown further ammunition.

Ambrose vs. Kane is nothing new to fans, especially those watching over the last two months. This week's finish sounds eerily familiar to a show-closing bout that occurred about a month ago. When things are that repetitive with that much consistency, it is never good for the overall success of the product or the growth and evolution of the stars.

The wrestling figures to be very good, including the Six-Man Tag Team match pitting Sheamus and The Usos against Miz, Goldust and Stardust, but great wrestling only goes so far. Lack of angle advancement and story development make this week's show skippable.