Welcome one and all to another edition of the SMACKDOWN RECAP for Scrum Sports! Tonight the SMACKDOWN crew are obviously LIVE yet again. Because, well, that’s what they are now. They’re emanating from Nashville, TN and they’re at the Bridgestone Arena. We get things rolling immediately as we see Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan backstage with Orton and Shane having words with him about attacking Lesnar on RAW. Shane admits it was pretty awesome but says he has a lot of extra security on hand tonight to help Orton out. Orton stated he doesn’t need security, he just needs an rKo and he walks off.
The Miz and Maryse walk up next. Miz says he’s not being utilized right and wants something new. Daniel Bryan says he’s making a Triple Threat match for tonight and the person that wins will be the number one contender to the Intercontinental Championship at SUMMERSLAM in a few weeks. Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews and Kalisto are named for the match later on tonight as we go from backstage to the arena as the music for Dean Ambrose begins playing. Ambrose comes to the ring and begins talking about beating Rollins and Reigns at BATTLEGROUND to retain the WWE World Championship.
He then starts talking about Ziggler winning his match last week and becoming the number one contender to his championship. He then talks about starting from nothing and being told you’re nothing. He keeps proving everyone wrong, every day he’s WWE World Champion. At that point he asked for Ziggler to come to the ring. His music of course starts playing and he makes his way down. Ziggler says he’s been a male cheerleader, green suit and all. He knows what it’s like to start from the bottom and be told you’re nothing.
Ambrose comes back with how Ziggler has actually wasted all of his time complaining. He says that while Ziggler has been complaining, he has been overcoming all roadblocks, all obstacles and everything thrown at him. Ambrose claims that Ziggler can’t do what he does because he can’t stop worrying about what the people in the stadiums think, he can’t stop worrying about his clothes and hair. Ambrose then says he knows they’ll have a great match at SUMMERSLAM because no matter what, HE’S a winner. Ambrose says he’ll win and he’ll continue to be WWE World Champion.
A VERY impassioned promo from Ziggler hits. He says how he’s been a male cheerleader, how he’s been overlooked for seven years, how he’s busted his ass with every match and every chance, he did everything he could in college to make sure that one day he’ll get to live his dream, he says how bad it feels to be told one day that you’re not good enough and the next day that you’re too good. He says that he’s tired of it and he’s ready to prove a point to everyone because he is THAT DAMN GOOD! (Okay Triple H.) Ambrose says that Ziggler thinks he’s better than he actually is and he can’t win at SUMMERSLAM. He then walks out of the ring, leaving Ziggler standing there.
The lights go out and Bray Wyatt is in the ring, he quickly hits the Sister Abigail on Ziggler and then says that Ziggler stole his shot from him. He challenges him to a match tonight. If he wins, HE’S the number one contender to the WWE World Championship. And if Ziggler wins, he continues to be the number one contender but he’ll have proved that he deserves to be where he is. And with this, we hit our first commercial break of the evening.
We return to see Ziggler backstage with Daniel and Shane. Ziggler demands the match with Wyatt, Daniel questions it because he’s already in the match and doesn’t have anything to prove. Ziggler says he DOES have something to prove and he wants the match to shut the doubters up. Back to the ring now and the entrances begin.
MATCH. 01: TRIPLE THREAT MATCH FOR THE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP NUMBER ONE CONTENDER (KALISTO v APOLLO CREWS v BARON CORBIN)
This match was short. The messed up thing is, there was a commercial awkwardly placed again. I was hoping this would only be a one time thing but alas, it was not. The match had barely begun and we saw Kalisto and Crews kind of do a double team on Corbin. Then Kalisto tried for a pin on Crews and only got two. A few small things happened and then that commercial hit.
We come back to Corbin in control of the match. A couple highflying spots ends up getting Kalisto caught in a Samoan Drop for a two count by Crews. Corbin then hits a slam on Crews and begins stomping on Kalisto in the corner of the ring. Crews gets up and he and Corbin begin battling. Kalisto goes for a dive, caught by Corbin, Corbin dropkicked by Crews to the outside of the ring, Corbin drops Kalisto while going out of the ring, Crews then rolls Kalisto up for the three count and win.
WINNER: APOLLO CREWS VIA PINFALL AND NEW NUMBER ONE CONTENDER TO THE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
After the match, Corbin attacks Kalisto from behind and Crews makes the save, while that’s happening, The Miz comes from behind and hits the Skull Crushing Finale on Crews. While Miz gloats, Corbin hits The End Of Days on Miz as we go into another commercial break with Corbin standing tall.
MATCH. 02: SINGLES MATCH (EVA MARIE v BECKY LYNCH)
Back from commercial and were supposed to have our second match of the evening. Becky Lynch has her entrance and makes her way to he ring, then Eva Marie is set to make her debut. She comes out, has all he bells and whistles and then…. her leg hurts? There’s a random injury? The referee won’t let Becky near Eva but, who knows if this is part of a storyline or a character thing to try and get out of matches. I guess we’ll find out as the next few weeks go. I’m calling kayfabe injury and character development.
WINNER: NO ONE DUE TO THE MATCH BEING CALLED OFF
After that, we get introduced to Renee Young and her new “SMACKTalk” set. It looks really cool by the way, kind of like the Kickoff set but smaller desk and with Smackdown blue all over. Her first guest is Carmella. They begin discussing how Carmella feels being drafted and Natalya interferes. She says that she should be interviewing her instead of a no name person like Carmella while she’s related to Bret Hart. It kind of goes nowhere but, you know a match will happen later on…. even though they don’t say it? COMMERCIAL BREAK! YAY!
Back from break and The Vaudevillains got the jobber entrance while AMERICAN ALPHA get all the show for their main roster and SMACKDOWN debut!
MATCH. 03: TAG-TEAM MATCH (THE VAUDEVILLAINS v AMERICAN ALPHA)
Another short match here as Gable and Gotch start things off. Gable takes him down and works on the left arm. Gable tags Jordan in and he gets a knee strike for his efforts. Aiden English is then tagged in by Gotch and he goes for an arm drag on Jordan but he gets a tag on Gable instead. Gable hits a dropkick on English, he gets distracted by Gotch and gets hit in the back. Jordan gets the tag and comes in hot, hitting suplexes on both Gotch and English, Jordan hits a spear on English and they hit the “Grand Amplitude” on English and cover for the three count and win. Oh, commercial break.
WINNERS: AMERICAN ALPHA VIA PINFALL
When we get back from commercial, AJ Styles hits and makes his way to the ring. He immediately gets into his message for Cena but then his music hits and he makes his way to the ring. Cena gets in and says anything you have to say, say it to my face. AJ then goes on a tirade of how he doesn’ like Cena. How no one likes Cena and they’re tired of the same old thing. He doesn’t want Cena on SMACKDOWN and wants him to go. Cena says he’s not going anywhere because of how much he loves wrestling, how much he loves doing outside work for the company and most importantly, how he loves seeing the looks on he faces of children as he does what he does, night in and night out. They continue back and forth for a few minutes in a promo that is actually worth watching. It ends in Styles challenging Cena to a match at SUMMERSLAM and Cena accepting. Very good mic work by both guys on this one.
After that segment, were treated to another commercial. After we come back, Fandango and Tyler Breeze are in the ring, security is all around and the music for Randy Orton hits.
MATCH. 04: SINGLES MATCH (RANDY ORTON v FANDANGO)
We find out Fandango is set to face Orton and Breeze makes his way out of the ring. As the match begins, Orton gets Fandango on the ground quickly. He stomps him a bit, hits a suplex and gets a two count. Brock Lesnar jumps the guard barricade and security tries to stop him. He gets into the ring with ease and lifts Orton for the F5 and connects with a devastating one. The bell rings and Orton wins by DQ. Shane and Daniel rush the ring with more security to get Lesnar out of the building.
WINNER: RANDY ORTON VIA DQ
Commercial break hits but when we come back were treated to a video from the break that had Lesnar getting escorted out and Heyman following suit, leaving as well into a black SUV. Going backstage now into Daniel’s office, Heath Slater appears out of nowhere and tells him that he’s the hottest free agent and he needs to be signed. And in a hilarious moment Daniel tells him that if he wins a match next week, he’ll sign him. He asks who he’s facing and he gets a GORE immediately afterwards.
Daniel simply says in a small and tiny voice, Rhyno. We cut to the SMACKTalk set and Renee is interviewing Ambrose. The interview really goes nowhere and Ambrose ends up saying that anything can happen on SMACKDOWN LIVE and he really doesn’t care who he faces. After that, we go to the ring and Carmella is making her entrance when Natalya attacks. The match never happens and Natalya puts Carmella into the Sharpshooter. We then go to Shane talking to Ziggler and him telling Ziggler one last time that he doesn’t have to do the match. Ziggler tells him to screw off and then a commercial break.
MATCH. 05: WINNER OF THE MATCH IS THE NUMBER ONE CONTENDER TO THE WWE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (DOLPH ZIGGLER v BRAY WYATT)
The entrances begin right after the commercial break. When the match starts, there’s a bit of a brawl and Ziggler hits a Fameasser and tries for a pin but gets a two count. Here’s another awkward commercial break and I’m making it seem like it wasn’t there by continuing to write. As we come back Bray is in the middle of hitting a suplex and gets a two count. Bray puts Ziggler into a headlock and rests. Ziggler fights out, he hits a couple clotheslines, he throws Bray into the corner and connects with a Stinger Splash.
He hits an neckbreaker and goes for a pin. Gets a two count. They get up, Wyatt hits a backsplash for a two count. Ziggler ges up quickly and hits a Zig-Zag onto Wyatt and goes for a pin, gets a two count. Wyatt goes for Sister Abigail but Ziggler reverses it and does a quick roll for a two count. Wyatt hits that killer chokeslam and gets a two count out of it. Wyatt connects with a couple big right hands that put Ziggler on the ground. Ziggler quickly hits a back elbow and hits a crazy fast Superkick, goes for the pin and gets the three count and win!
WINNER: DOLPH ZIGGLER VIA PINFALL AND STILL NUMBER ONE CONTENDER TO THE WWE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
After the match, Dean gets up from the commentary table and they have a stare off. Erick Rowan makes a B-Line for the ring and attacks Ziggler. Ambrose gets into the ring to try and make the save but receives a sideslam for his efforts. Ziggler tries to go after Erick but Bray comes from behind and hits a Sister Abigail. He stands over Ziggler to close the show.
