Tonight’s WWE Smackdown Live was held at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California.
This week we got a Money in the Bank Refund that focused primarily on the women’s division. Let’s see who got a payout, and who got their hopes and dreams repossessed.
Show Open
We started out the Smackdown Live being shown a recap of the events from the past two weeks concerning the main players in the big matches from Money In The Bank. This being the ladder match, Naomi’s title defense against Lana, and the ongoing feud between the WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton.
Daniel Bryan opened the live show. As per usual he was welcomed with the type of love from the crowd that 95% of the main roster can only wish to enjoy at this point. He talked about how proud he is in the evolution of the Smackdown Live women’s division. He attempted to discuss the two matches that night that involved those very women, only to be cut off a few words into his speech by Carmella and James Ellsworth.
Staten Island Injustice
Carmella did another great job on the mic. There wasn’t anything particularly new in her speech, it was basically the same points from last week. She added that it was a complete injustice being stripped of the contract last week on Smackdown Live. Reiterating the points that there have been Money In The Bank matches where there was interference, but the winner wasn’t forced to forfeit their briefcase. Carmella even went so far as to rename Smackdown Live from the “Land of Opportunity” to the “Land of Injustice”.
Daniel Bryan responded with acknowledgment that Carmella had some good points. However there was never a time where a superstar was actually handed the briefcase when someone actually got it down for them. He proved that he made the right choice for the WWE Universe by asking the crowd whether they thought he should give the briefcase back to Carmella, or have the rematch tonight. Obviously the crowd wanted the match. He attempted to continue his point but James Ellsworth needed to be heard.
Ellsworth called Bryan a puppet of the WWE Universe. He said that both Daniel and the crowd were pathetic, and that Bryan wasn’t the same man who he had idolized in the past. He put the exclamation point on his speech by calling Daniel a “gutless, spineless coward”. Ellsworth thinks that Bryan probably faked his injury to cover up the fact that he couldn’t hang anymore in the ring. Bryan responded to this by not just banning Ellsworth from ringside tonight, but from the entire building. Security then came to the ring and carried the chinless wonder from ringside.
Hype Bros vs. The Usos – Winner: The Usos
The Good
Zack Ryder looks really great after his six months of rehab. He looks healthy and doesn’t seem to be favoring or protecting the knee he injured. After the match was over The New Day came down to inform the crowd that they wanted a rematch for the titles at WWE Battleground. The ensuing verbal back and forth was great, as are all of the interactions between them and The Usos. Next week there will apparently be a rap battle between the two teams, which I am really looking forward to.
The Bad
This match was really just a vehicle to get to the post match interaction between The New Day and The Usos. Even though there as a bit of legitimacy for the match (the Hype Bros winning a battle royal six month ago that awarded them a future title shot), it still didn’t get me emotionally invested.
The Ugly
The fact that someone of Zack Ryder’s caliber has to be teamed up with Mojo Rawley. I’m sorry I just don’t think Mojo should be on the main roster. His attitude, gimmick, whatever you want to call it is garbage. He may be a strong guy but he has a limited move arsenal and isn’t exciting in the ring. I can’t even get hyped to stay hyped.
Fashion Files Vice – “Under Pressure”
I looked for the full video of this segment but could not find it from a legit WWE account so I can’t post it. I would suggest looking for it in a few days. It, like all the others, are far more entertaining than I could ever describe them. The subject of this week’s segment was The Ascension being interrogated by Breezango regarding the attack on Tyler and the Fashion Police HQ being trashed a few weeks back.
Naomi vs Lana (Title Match) – Winner:Naomi
The Good
It was such a short match there was hardly anything that stood out as good. Lana jumping Naomi before the bell even rang was a great heel move.
The Bad
The length of the match was the worst part. The WWE has been focusing on the fact that Lana came really close to beating Naomi at Money In The Bank. Naomi’s crazy fast win this week completely negated any implied danger that Lana posed in the division. I don’t get it. Smackdown Live heavily promoted Lana. They had her give a decent showing at a pay per view, and watched her get over with the crowd. So this week to capitalize on that momentum you have her get beat with the quickness?
The Ugly
Someone please get someone to design something better for Lana than that odd one piece they got her rocking.
Randy Orton Segment
Randy saved us from Smackdown Live’s resident Drifter Aiden English singing a tune to make a point. After hitting him with an RKO when English would not leave the ring, Randy set up a chair and wouldn’t move. He said that he would not leave until he got what he wanted, what he wanted being a rematch against Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship. He responded to the obvious question as to why he deserves another title shot with a simple answer. If he did not get that title shot, he would never stop finding Jinder wherever he is, and beating the holy hell out of him every single time they crossed paths. After a few minutes of not seeing any results from his sit in Randy said that he would just have to start his reign of terror on Mahal tonight, and started to make his way backstage.
Enter the WWE Smackdown Live commissioner Shane McMahon. Shane told Orton that he couldn’t have him running wild all across the country attacking the WWE Champion. Randy told McMahon that he didn’t care. If he fired him he would just buy tickets to each show and sit in the crowd. Being arrested didn’t bother him either. It was either Randy making things really complicated or Shane making it a whole lot more simple. Give the Viper what he wants.
Wish Granted
Shane responded to this by empathizing with Randy’s situation. Dealing with the emotions that come from an attack on family is something Shane knows all to well. Even though he understands where Randy is coming from, he reminded the Viper that Orton has used the same underhanded strategy in the past. In the end it was the look in Orton’s eyes that Shane had never seen that worried Shane enough to grant Orton his wish. The only catch is that if Orton gets the match, Jinder Mahal would be the one to make whatever stipulation he wanted involving that match.
This prompted Jinder Mahal to come out from the back and address both men in the ring. He started off with his typical rhetoric, saying that this was the problem with the WWE and management. The prejudice against the champion allowed this rematch to happen. In despite of this perceived prejudice, Mahal made his decision on the match stipulation right away. In honor of The Great Kali, the title match at Battleground will be a Punjabi Prison match. That match can get pretty brutal, I hope no one gets “curry-ed away”.
Backstage Segments
AJ Styles and Kevin Owens
There was a short interaction between AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens. AJ was questioning the rules of Kevin Owens’ “Open Challenge”. Kevin came in almost immediately accusing AJ of talking behind his back. AJ said that Kevin was Ron Burgandy’s definition of San Diego (which I snorted at). In the end Bryan made a match to celebrate July 4th and created a “Independence Day Battle Royal”. The winner of this match will get a shot at KO’s United States Championship. How much you wanna bet that John Cena shows up in the match. It would make sense as John’s first appearance was in Kurt Angle’s open challenge 15 years ago. I would be OK with this, it would be interesting to see the interactions between KO and Cena at this point in Cena’s career.
WWE 2K18 Trailer
Here is the trailer posted by IGN. I think it looks amazing.
Sami Zayn vs Baron Corbin – Winner: Baron Corbin
The Good
Both superstars looked good, but Baron kind of pulled away from Zayn in terms of clean moves and overall effort.
The Bad
This feud has run it’s course and anything going forward doesn’t do anything for either superstar in terms of story line. Corbin already has the best thing he could possibly have for his character by having the Money In The Bank contract. Both of these superstars need character development in the worst way. At this point Sami more than Corbin. WWE, you have to give us something.
The Ugly
Shinsuke Nakamura was shown watching the match backstage. I swear WWE, I swear. If you waste the greatness of Nakamura in a program with either Sami or Corbin you are making a huge mistake. Anything less than an AJ Styles vs Nakamura feud right now is not going to go over well with me. After watching the great match between Dolph and Nakamura I think AJ is the only person on the roster right now that can top it, plus they have legit history to make a great story. GET ON IT!!
Women’s Money In The Bank Ladder Match #2 – Winner: Carmella
The Good
Becky and Charlotte really shined in this match. Charlotte is always very animated and aggressive, but I think Becky overshadowed her in this match. Becky was doing so well in the match I really thought that the writers were going to have her win. After last week’s impassioned speech from Becky to Daniel Bryan I think the crowd would have reacted favorably to it.
The Bad
Being in the same ring as Becky, Charlotte and Natty is really starting to expose just how lacking Tamina is in the in ring skills department. At this point she is definitely the weakest link in the women’s division in my eyes. Also, it was very obvious at several points that the person climbing the ladder was going intentionally slow to wait for the other superstars to to stop them. It should be the responsibility of the superstars not on the ladder to react to someone climbing it. Slowing down like that takes away from an urgency that anyone climbing that ladder should have.
The Ugly
Tamina’s attempt at the Superfly Splash from the top rope was the ugliest thing I saw all night. Stick to the brawling Tamina. There was also a point where Natty powerbombed Becky and nearly broke her neck by over-rotating her. Natty is far too seasoned to be messing up like that and hurting someone.
