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My Thoughts on SmackDown (7/26/16): Stealing the Show


  • We kick off the show with Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon welcoming everybody to SmackDown. After the new opening, we see the entire SmackDown roster standing on the ring apron with Shane & D-Bry in the ring. Shane announces that September 11th will mark the first SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view Backlash. He then brings out the WWE Champion Dean Ambrose, who says he's ready for his next challenge and ask's who's first, and Bryan announces a #1 Contenders Six-Pack Challenge tonight, with the winner facing Ambrose at SummerSlam. Bryan announces the first five participants as John Cena, Bray Wyatt, Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin, and AJ Styles, with the sixth participant being decided in a battle royal next.
  • Battle Royal for the 6th Spot in the #1 Contenders Six-Pack Challenge-The match kicks off with everyone trying to eliminate Kane & Erick Rowan. Simon Gitch gets tossed first (gee, wonder why?) followed by Kane eliminating both members of the Ascension and Breezango teaming up to eliminate Jey Uso before the commercial break. We come back to find out that Aiden English & Erick Rowan have been tossed, the latter of which by Mojo Rawley. Mojo is quickly eliminated after by Alberto Del Rio, who is then eliminated by Apollo Crews & Zack Ryder. Kane eliminates Breezango, leaving him, Kalisto, Ryder, and Crews. The  smaller guys (for lack of a better term) beat down Kane, leaving them to fight themselves. Ryder ends up overshooting a dropkick to a seated Kalisto and ends up knee Kalisto in the back of the head. Kalisto hits the Salida del Sol, and Ryder falls off the top rope going for the El-Bro Drop. Kane springs back up and eliminates Kalisto before taking a Broski Boot from Ryder. Ryder calls for the Rough Ryder, but Kane catches him and throws him over the top rope, leaving him & Crews. Kane goes for the chokeslam on Crews, but Crews flips out of it and makes a charging Kane fall out of the ring, winning the match and the spot in the main event, and he celebrates with a backflip. Afterwards, Renee Young interviews Crews, who says he's not going to celebrate now, but after he wins in the main event tonight. Jesus, rough match for Ryder, he messed up quite a bit.
  • We get a vignette hyping up the return of SHELTON BENJAMIN! He's coming back to SmackDown soon.
  • Becky Lynch vs Natalya-We kick off with the two exchanging holds before Natalya takes Becky down with a shoulder tackle. Becky then sends Natalya out of the ring with a single leg dropkick before Natalya gets back in the ring and takes control. Natalya does a kip up, only to get clotheslined down by Becky. The two go back and forth again before Becky goes to the second rope, only to get yanked off the second rope by Natalya before the commercial break. We come back to Becky escaping a hold and hammering away on Natalya. Becky knocks Natalya down with an enziguri before hitting a top rope leg drop for a near fall. Becky blocks a Sharpshooter attempt but takes a German suplex soon after. The two trade submission attempts before Natalya hits Nattie by Nature for a near fall. Natalya goes for the Sharpshooter again, but Becky is able to reverse it into the Dis-Arm-Her for the submission win. Good match. Renee Young tries to interview Becky afterwards, but they are interrupted by Alexa Bliss. She says she is the personification of what the new era stands for, only to be interrupted by Naomi. She doesn't get to say much before being interrupted by Carmella. She doesn't get to say much either as she is interrupted by Eva Marie, who absolutely steals the show at that moment. The entire arena goes red for her, and she has a voiceover talk about how great she is before she walks out. It's amazing. I'm glad they've kept her as a heel like she was in NXT instead of trying to push her as a babyface like they did at WrestleMania.
  • It's MizTV time. He announces that his guest tonight is "the Legend Killer" and a former world champion...himself. He interviews himself, complete with switching chairs after he asks himself a question, and then going back after he answers. He gets interrupted by Randy Orton. We all know how this ends. Orton says that Lesnar is a legend, but he's still a legend killer. He says the same line from Battleground about Viperville minus the "No Enhancement Needed" joke. Miz says that his match with Lesnar could be his last. Orton says it won't be, and it's not going to be his first match back either and challenges Miz tonight. Miz says no, and brings up that he beat Orton for the WWE Championship years ago. Orton responds with a "Maryse pegs Miz" joke, so Maryse accepts the match on Miz's behalf.
  • Randy Orton vs The Miz-Miz rolls out of the ring before re-entering and tossing Orton out of the ring. As if by fate, Orton lands bad outside of the ring and the next thing we see is him clutching his shoulder, smacking the barricade and cursing. Miz proceeds to work over Orton's shoulder. Orton manages to hit the RKO when Miz tries to get back in the ring but doesn't cover him. He instead calls for another one, planting Miz with a second RKO for the win. 
  • There's some jobber in the ring, only for Heath Slater to show up from the crowd and boot him from the ring. He says it's ridiculous that he didn't get drafted, demands the main event be made a Seven-Pack Challenge and starts a "Sign Heath Slater" chant. Shane shows up to tell him there are other ways he could have tried to get signed. Slater runs down his accomplishments and all the stables he's been in before saying he's the hottest free agent in WWE today. Suddenly, out from the crowd comes RHYNO! He Gores Slater to end the segment. Slater's promo was pretty solid, in all honesty.
  • Bray Wyatt vs Apollo Crews vs Baron Corbin vs Dolph Ziggler vs AJ Styles vs John Cena for the #1 Contendership for the WWE Championship-Everyone brawls before the commercial break. We come back to Wyatt and Styles beating up Crews in the ring, with everyone else down at ringside. Wyatt & Styles have a pissing contest beating up Crews before Wyatt goads Styles into going for a move, only to clothesline him down. Ziggler runs in and gets a near fall off an elbow drop on Wyatt before being pulled back out of the ring by Corbin. Styles kicks Corbin to the ground before hitting a springboard 450 splash. Crews hits three German suplexes on Styles before taking an STO from Corbin for a near fall. Corbin continues to work over Crews in the ring as we go to commercial. We come back to see two Tower of Doom spots, leaving Crews & Corbin in the ring again. Corbin hits a Deep Six for the near fall, which Corbin gives out to the ref about before Crews flips out of the End of Days and hits the spin-out powerbomb. Wyatt yanks the referee out of the ring and hits Sister Abigail. This is followed by Ziggler running up and hitting the Zig Zag on Wyatt, but the referee is still down. Ziggler calls for the superkick, but Cena catches him and hits and hits an AA. Styles hits a Pele kick on Wyatt before taking an AA from Cena for a near fall. Cena rolls through on a crossbody from Crews and hits another AA, followed by one on Wyatt, and another on Corbin. Nice to see the new guys getting put over by Cena. Styles Phenomenal Forearms Cena from the ring, only to eat a superkick from Ziggler, which gets the win for Ziggler. Holy sh*t, was not expecting Ziggler to be the winner. The match was good, not much else to say.
And that's about it. Overall, a pretty good start to the new era of SmackDown. Crews & Corbin got elevated nicely, especially Corbin since he was chosen by Shane and D-Bry for the main event. Ziggler getting the shot at Ambrose for the championship at SummerSlam is huge, and it looks like he's finally being elevated to the main event scene for the first time in a long time. However, I do have one complaint. Aside from having the roll call for the women, what's going to happen with the women's and tag team division was not addressed at all. As of now, they don't have anything to fight for, so hopefully, they address those next week.

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