WWE Smackdown Live Hits and Misses 6.19.18 w/ The Chairman

Smackdown Live didn’t leave Money in the Bank with any briefcases, but the superstars of the blue brand had some great matches. AJ Styles successfully defended his WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura in a Last Man Standing Match, Carmella retained her Smackdown Live Women’s Championship, and the Bludgeon Brothers retained their Smackdown Live Tag Team Championship on the preshow. All in all, the champs are here to stay. Smackdown Live is however minus one superstar as Big Cass was released earlier today. Not sure why yet, but I’m sure something will surface in the coming days. Regardless, the road to Extreme Rules has begun and this is tonight’s hits and misses.

 

HIT: Today Was Rusev’s Day

 

It was announced that a gauntlet match would take place on Smackdown Live between Daniel Bryan, Big E, Samoa Joe, Miz, and Rusev with the winner facing AJ Styles at Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship. Bryan and Big E started and it was a great showing for these two. Big E is usually seen as a tag team wrestler, but he brought it tonight. Definitely think there’s some potential here for a singles run for him. Though that suicide dive of his scares me. Bryan did survive however and next was Joe. Joe was a heavy favorite to win this match, but he was counted out. Strangely the Bludgeon Brothers showed up and attacked Bryan. There was a weird moment between Harper, Rowan, and Bryan as the tag champs made their way backstage as Bryan came out. Miz ran to the ring to pick up the pieces for the easy win. It was down to Miz and Rusev. I predicted Miz thinking he’s the biggest heel of these five competing and with his TV show coming up, they would want to promote him. However the wrestling world got a surprise and Rusev won the match. Rusev will be getting his first WWE Championship match. This will definitely get people interested in Extreme Rules real quick. Good for WWE giving us this match.

 

MISS: Bludgeon Brothers vs The Club Part II

 

Not really sure why these two are facing each other for a title match again? They just did it Sunday and the Bludgeon Brothers got a clean win. No reason for the Club to get another shot this quick. They had a good showing in the match tonight, but still couldn’t overthrow the champs. Now that the Bludgeons have literally ran thru the tag division for the most part, what’s next? With this random Daniel Bryan altercation, does Bryan find a partner and go after the Bludgeon Brothers? This is definitely a possibility.

 

HIT: It’s Insanity We Had To Wait This Long For Sanity

 

It took how many months, but Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Killian Dain have finally arrived to Smackdown Live. They were booked to face the Usos tonight, but Sanity had other plans. They took advantage of the numbers game and assaulted the Usos before the bell could ring. Sanity is going back to their heelish ways and a feud with the Usos is now underway.

 

MISS: Carmella and Asuka Revisited

 

It’s a shame how far Asuka has fallen since losing her streak and arriving to Smackdown Live. She was made to look absolutely foolish at the hands of Carmella and James Ellsworth at Money in the Bank and now it looks like we’re going down this road again. Many fans want to see Becky Lynch in the title scene, but it doesn’t appear that is going to be happening anytime soon.

 

HIT: Nakamura Doing Amazing Heel Things Already With New Rival

 

Looks like the Shinsuke Nakamura chase for the WWE Championship has ended and he’s now swung and missed how many times now between last years attempts against Jinder Mahal and this year with AJ Styles. Nakamura however may look to capture another title in WWE. Jeff Hardy hasn’t forgotten about the events from last week and is looking for payback. This has potential to be a great feud with how on fire Nakamura has been in his cocky heel ways and Jeff Hardy is finally getting his facepaint back. Hopefully they take it one step further and give Jeff his solo theme back as well.

 

MISS: No Almas Again

 

There wasn’t much wrong with Smackdown Live tonight in all honesty. So I’ll close this week’s miss out by complaining we didn’t get Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega again. Just blows my mind how we can’t even get a quick backstage promo at least….

 

Anyways that does it for me. Follow my twitter @ChairmanSV for the latest thoughts and thanks for reading!