The journey towards Money In The Bank begins. SmackDown Live reveals matches planned and a a turn of events. A a few awaited matches happen, New Day gets a new villain, and a new Corporate champion. Let’s dive into what happened on SmackDown Live tonight.
Money is the start. The Demon gets revenge. Pirate Princess soars.
Shane McMahon enters.
The Best In The WOOOOOOORRRRRRRLLLLLLLDDD!!!!! arrives. Shane McMahon quickly berates announcer Greg Hamilton and forces him to announces his title again. Shortly afteerwards, Shane calls out Roman Reigns for landing a Superman Punch on a “National Treasure” Vince McMahon. Roman walks out to Shane’s challenge, but is met by Elias attempting an ambush. For the first part it worked, with Shane getting some hits in, but the Big Dog overcomes his adversity and sends both packing.
Finn Balor vs Andrade. Finn Balor wins via Coup De Grace pinfall.
The Intercontinental Champion, Finn Balor faces offs against the NXT star that pinned him clean, Andrade. The two stars trade offensive moves, left and right. Making for an exiting match up, in which Andreda takes control after a launching corkscrew dive. During the picture-in-picture break, we see Andrade and Finn exchange counters and near pinfalls. It was a shame that it was during a “PIP” break, afterwards Andreda is in control with an armbar and goes for a Powerbomb. However, Finn counters with a DDT, then Zelina decides to get involved. Andrade’s manager’s interference backfires and allows Balor to hit the Coup De Grace for the pinfall
Kari Sane vs Peyton Royce of the IIconis. Kari wins via Insane Elbow pinfall.
The WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions come out after Kari and cuts another bad promo. Seriously, like Corey Graves said on Raw “Who’s writing this?!”. With a failed promo/joke the match begins, Peyton’s flexibility played a short role. However, The Pirate Princess had other plans. Kari lands a Dragon Screw, to Interceptor ( a spear), to Insane Elbow! In which is probably the greatest elbow drop I have seen in years, from a Superstar. Kari gets the pinfall for the win, in much of The IIconics rage.
The newest WWE monster continues his destruction. Bayley challenges the Queen. Kofi is a King, with a new enemy.
Jinder Mahal vs Chad Gable. Umm, it never happened.
Jinder Mahal and his lackeys arrive for Jinder’s opponent Chad Gable, but the newest WWE “monster” arrives Lars Sullivan. Lars quickly tears apart Gable, then turns his attention to Jinder’s lackey’s. After dispatching Mahal’s entourage, R-Truth comes out for revenge from last week. The “Freak” of WWE is too much for R-Truth as he plants him after a Crescent Kick attempt. The Freak, Lars Sullivan stands tall.
The Queen arrives, then The Man, then competition. Flair vs Bayley. Flair wins via Spear for pinfall.
The Queen has an option.
Charlotte Flair arrives and cuts a promo on how The Queen was not pinned. Becky comes out to retort that The Man, Becky has beaten Flair the Queen many times. Flair says she is next in line for the for the title, But Flair is holding the roster from doing so. Bayley enters and states that Flair has never beaten her and “get in the back in the line”. Flair tries to retort, but Bayley gives her face a hambone sandwich to the face and a match begins.
The two warriors face of with familiarity, as they grew together in NXT. Bayley shows an aggressive side that is not on display for the most part. The Hugger is control for the first part of the match, but the Queen has other plans, targeting Bayley’s leg for a decent amount of time. The ever fan favorite will not go down, launching an assault. However, the ring savvy Queen knocks Bayley off the top ropes, counters a roll with a Spear for the pinfall. Charlotte provides evidence again on why she is always in title contention.
Kofi Kingston vs Shinuke Nakamura. Kofi wins via DQ from Rusev. But wait, there’s more.
Cheerful participation, ends in a heel in waiting for the newest New Day version. Just like before, “Big O” *Kevin Owens* gave the “Big E” intro. As Shinsuke and Kofi fought a brilliant match, WWE decided it was more entertaining to have a “PIP” commentary from Woods/Owens during the match, along with normal commentary. This where my anger set in, just like before in past episodes. We have GREAT in ring preformers giving us a story in the ring, but the cameras keep “pip-ing” what the producers think we want to see.
For the most part Kofi and Shinsuke played off each ther VERY WELL. Nakamura came off as a true (not gimmick) heel and Kofi is the “Underdog” despite being Champion. After a one sided beating, Kofi lands the S.O.S and was about to pin Shinsuke, but Rusev at ringside interferes. This leads to an all out brawl. Just as New Day was about to stand tall, Kevin Owens turns on New Day. Owens completes his Heel status and finishes his attack on Kofi. Ensuring what we will be seeing for the title match at MITB>
