On Monday night, RAW delivered a lackluster show that had its moments. The biggest moment of all was Dean Ambrose’s long awaited return. On this week’s Smackdown, people possibly look for a better go-home, leaving a good impression heading into Summerslam. Let’s look at how the show kicked off.
Smackdown started off with Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Carmella having a “face-to-face-to-face” before their triple threat match on Sunday. Carmella says she is not happy that she is forced to do this segment, but since she is the champ “life is good, baby.” After trash talk between the three, which was lead by Carmella, Paige came out to the ramp. She sets up a tag match including Charlotte and Becky, as Carmella joins the commentary team. This wasn’t a good nor bad segment, but it did show how well Carmella is at cutting promos.
Charlotte & Becky Lynch vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville
The first match of the evening is Charlotte and Becky versus Mandy and Sonya. After a few minutes of messing around Becky Lynch won the match for her team via the Disarmer. This match was consumed by commercials but didn’t have anything that interesting in it anyways.
The program airs a video of The Miz and Maryse announcing that their show “Miz and Mrs” has been renewed for season 2.
The Triple Threat (locals) vs. The Bludgeon Brothers
Up next we get a three-on-two handicap match, with the Smackdown Tag Team Champions facing locals who are called “The Triple Threat.” It feels so odd, or even lazy that this is how The Bludgeon Brothers are being booked on the final show before Summerslam. A squash match? Seriously? It feels like these guys have been doing squash matches for a whole year now. The match never got started since, I don’t know. But they murdered these guys. This felt cheap.
Sanity vs. New Day
In what is quite the matchup for a go-home show, Sanity faced New Day in a 6-man match. When I saw that this match was happening, almost did not believe it. I was pretty excited to see it. It was Kofi Kingston’s birthday. Because of this he got a birthday chant from the crowd. After Kofi hit Trouble In Paradise, he was thrown over the ropes. He went to the top rope right after and did a dive onto two Sanity members outside the ring. Big E impressively lifted up Killian Dain to do the Up Up Down Down, with the help of Xavier Woods. This match was tons of fun. I don’t know how I feel about Sanity losing clean though.
Aiden English vs. Andrade Almas w/ Zelina Vega
Tonight, Aiden English says he fights for Rusev. He faces Almas. Almas made light word of English, winning the match in under a minute. After the match both Vega and Almas cut a promo on Rusev and Lana. They then come out to the stage and say that they will win on Rusev Day.
Throughout the night there was a series of clips showing the kayfabe history between Daniel Bryan and The Miz. These were very well put together. While they probably weren’t pleasing for the live crowd, I thought this was a nice bowtie on the build up to this rivalry.
Shelton Benjamin vs. Jeff Hardy
This weekend at Summerslam Jeff Hardy aims to retake his United State Championship from Shinsuke Nakamura. As a big of a warmup, he faces Shelton Benjamin. The match started during the commercial break, with Shelton ahead when we came back. To Benjamin’s detriment, Hardy won the match. Almost right after the bell rang, Nakamura came out, charging at a tired Jeff Hardy. Hardy got distracted by Shelton Benjamin, letting Nakamura strike. Hardy reversed a Kinshasa into a Twist Of Fate and a Swanton Bomb. Jeff Hardy got the last laugh heading into Sunday. We see Orton creeping in the curtains watching the segment.
AJ Styles Ending Segment
To end off Smackdown Live, AJ Styles comes to talk to the crowd. He talks about his opponent this Sunday, Samoa Joe. Joe reads a letter that was sent to him from someone in AJ’s family. It talks about how he doesn’t take care of his family because the title is all he cares about. This seems to upset AJ. If we’re being honest, why would you want to cheer for someone like AJ if that was actually someone in his family? This segment made the babyface look like a heel. This ends Smackdown Live for this week.
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