WWE SmackDown Results: Winners, Live Grades and Highlights Before Money in the Bank

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of the go-home episode of SmackDown before Saturday's Money in the Bank PLE.

The card for MITB is set, so this week's SmackDown was all about hyping up the event. Here is a look at what WWE advertised for Friday's show:

• Randy Orton, Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes address The Bloodline
• DIY to challenge A-Town Down Under
• Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill vs. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell

Let's take a look at what happened on this week's episode of SmackDown.

Jey Uso kicked off this week's SmackDown with a promo talking about Money in the Bank. It didn't take long for LA Knight to interrupt.

Predictably, they were soon joined by the other MITB competitors. Carmelo Hayes, Chad Gable, Andrade and Drew McIntyre all tried to speak as they came out, but they were all cut off by the music of the person who followed them.

McIntyre was met with loud CM Punk chants. He ran down each competitor before Andrade attacked him to kickstart a brawl. Knight and Uso worked together to take out McIntyre to end the segment.

Piper Niven and Chelsea Green attacked Bayley backstage during an interview before we went back to the ring for Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford's entrance. B-Fab was with them but they were back in their old gear again instead of the newer stuff they have been wearing since aligning with Bobby Lashley.

They were taking on Elton Prince and Kit Wilson in a rematch from two weeks ago. Ford had a nice run against both opponents before tagging in Dawkins, who was cornered and double-teamed by Pretty Deadly almost immediately.

This was a solid match that featured two teams who should be pillars of the SmackDown tag team division. All four men are great athletes with defined gimmicks and the ability to work well with anyone.

Ford picked up the win for his team with a sky-high frog splash. This was a good, clean match with no shenanigans. It's always nice to get a definitive conclusion.

Result: Street Profits defeated Pretty Deadly

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• The dueling Yeah and Yeet chants were fun. 
• Wade Barrett being such a big fan of Pretty Deadly's catchphrase is hilarious. 
• WWE was doing something weird with the crowd audio at some points. It's hard to explain what it was, but the way it sounded did not reflect what you could see in the crowd. 
• The way Wilson had to roll to get into position for Dawkins' swanton bomb is one of those things you wish the camera would miss. It was the only bad part of the final sequence. 

The former women's tag team champions were in action against the former NXT women's tag champs this week when Belair and Cargill took on LeRae and Hartwell.

We saw everyone's entrances but the match itself got started during the break. Cargill took a lot of punishment from LeRae and Hartwell before she was able to tag in The EST.

After a short but competitive contest, Cargill and Belair hit their finishers at the same time to get the victory. They did a great job packing a lot into only a few minutes.

Cathy Kelley interviewed them as soon as it was over and they declared their intentions to regain the women's tag titles from Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre.

Result: Belair and Cargill defeated Hartwell and LeRae

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Cargill and Belair have two of the best entrances in WWE. They are totally different and fit their characters so well. 
• Cargill hit a nice superkick right when the break ended. 
• Belair's corner backflip over Hartwell was timed perfectly.

Orton, Rhodes and Owens came to the ring to talk about facing The Bloodline at Money in the Bank. Owens talked about how his mom had a health scare and he's only at the show because he knows she would want him to be there.

After a break, Bayley took on Niven after their encounter earlier in the show, but Iyo Sky was shown watching from the crowd.

The powerhouse took control early and almost won with a running senton, but The Role Model kicked out and recovered enough to hit a bulldog from the corner.

They built on the chemistry they developed at Clash at the Castle and put on a fun show, but the arrival of some of the other MITB competitors distracted from what was going on in the ring.

Green and Naomi began fighting and it caused everyone around the ring to start brawling. Tiffany Stratton hit a big moonsault to take everyone out shortly before Bayley won with the Rose Plant, Her celebration was cut short by Nia Jax.

Result: Bayley defeated Niven

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• KO's promo was the right mix of emotional and energetic.
• The way Niven swung Bayley's body so her head hit the ring post was brutal. 
• Where did everyone go after Stratton hit a moonsault? 

The WWE tag titles were on the line when Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa challenged Grayson Waller and Austin Theory in the main event.

WWE did a good job building this bout up with segments and videos throughout the show. It felt like this contest mattered, which is not something you can say about every title match on TV.

They wasted no time turning this into a fast-paced and furious exchange. All four men fought in and out of the ring but managed to ensure all the action was easy to follow.

Waller accidentally hit Theory off the apron but A-Town Down was able to recover and save his partner from being pinned. The crowd was going nuts with each near-fall because it was hard to predict how it would all end.

Ciampa and Gargano locked both men in submissions to win the match and the tag titles in a moment similar to one of their matches with FTR in NXT.

Result: DIY defeated A-Town Down Under to win the WWE tag titles

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• WWE has been planting a lot of seeds for an A-Town Down Under breakup recently and played that up during the show leading to the match. 
• DIY's double-team moves always look so smooth. 
• Gargano's twisting destroyer at ringside was a little wonky. It didn't look like it would be possible for him to have the leverage to pull it off. 

SmackDown ended with a video package featuring Solo Sikoa talking about why he needed to become the Tribal Chief and why he would win at MITB.

This week's show was a standard WWE go-home show before a PPV, but the matches and segments all did a good job hyping the PLE.

The two men's tag matches were the highlights of the show, but it was the main event that was the most entertaining and provided us with a feel-good moment to end the episode.

DIY being the tag champs is going to make a lot of fans happy, but their win may be overshadowed by Saturday's MITB event if we get some big surprises.

All in all, this was a good show that helped set the stage for this weekend. WWE seems to have found a good balance with four matches on SmackDown, but one more would help from time to time.

Grade: B