Your neighborhood Smackdown recapper is here, and boy does he have a lot to get through! Smackdown Live last night was on fire. Some may say straight fire (hur, hur). The women were definitely all over this show. Almost every woman on the Smackdown brand was showcased. Without further ado, let us kick this off with the moonwalking, trashing talking, Princess of Staten Island, Mella in the bank, Mella is money, Smackdown Women’s Champion (phew she has a lot of names): Carmella
Carmella starts off the show and tells the Corpus Christi, TX audience to stand up and give her the praise she deserves. As the crowd meets her request with a mixed reaction, Carmella agrees that this night is not about her. This night is all about her opponent at Money In the Bank, Asuka. So Carmella shows a video package of how Asuka was during her undefeated streak and all of her accomplishments. After the video package, Carmella says how great Asuka is, or rather was. She then goes on to show a second video package that shows how Asuka lost her match at WrestleMania to Charlotte and however since her undefeated streak was broken, it has been all downhill for her since.
After the second video package, Carmella goes on to say how sad it is that Asuka hasn’t been the same since WrestleMania. She states that is why she has no fear to face Asuka at MITB and that is why Mella is money. The crowd continues to have a mixed reaction to her as she proclaims that the age of Asuka is over. Asuka says nobody is ready for Asuka, but according to the champ, everybody is now ready for Asuka. She continues to taunt the crowd. She points to the crowd to say who is ready for Asuka, including a guy who had “drool” running out of his mouth, which she blames it on her being hotter in person than she is on TV. She then says she wants to “play a game”, she asks the crowd to raise their hands if they think they are ready for Asuka. As she is doing this, Asuka’s music hits.
Asuka makes her way down to the ring. Once she gets into the ring, no words were able to be exchanged as Mandy Rose‘s music hits. Rose comes out with Sonya Deville and Rose lets Carmella know that she did not have to go through all the trouble with those video packages and the presentation. She said Carmella could have just came to her because she could have told her that Asuka is a shadow of her former self. Rose says she was a second away from beating Asuka last week. Now that Rose knows the truth, she declares that she can beat Asuka tonight. Deville interrupts Rose and lets her know that she did exactly what she was supposed to do. She left just enough of Asuka for her tonight so that she can beat her.
Carmella stirs the pot with this situation. She asks the Empress which once she will face tonight. Will it be Mandy or Sonya? She gets into Asuka’s head by saying that the former, undefeated Asuka would just take them both on. She thinks Asuka should just get an uber and gather up he robe and mask and get the hell out of there. Paige‘s music then hits and the boss lady comes out.
Paige comes out annoyed and explains that as far as she is concerned, she makes the matches. Paige gives Asuka the choice. Asuka says, “give me both”. Paige makes it official, next up will be Asuka in a handicap match against Rose and Deville.
The match starts with Deville squaring off against Asuka. Carmella joins the commentators. The match starts off with some quick tag ins, Deville to Rose, and then back to Deville. Asuka tries for a quick submission but Deville is able to get to the rope to break it up. On commentary, Carmella continues to mock Asuka by saying nobody is ready for Mella. Deville and Rose continue to reap the benefit of the 2 on 1 match and continue to tag each other in. They stay on top of Asuka. Asuka eventually gets her momentum back with a hip attack and goes after Rose. She gets a missile drop kick in on Rose from the top rope. Carmella leaves the announce table and distracts Asuka enough for Deville to get the tag and knock Asuka down. Carmella celebrates by moonwalking on the announce table.
After the commercial break, we come back to Rose and Asuka trading blows. Both Rose and Deville get shots in on Asuka. Rose rolls out of the ring and Deville almost gets a roll up pin on Asuka. Deville and Asuka then both kick each other in the face at the same time and they both fall. They both get up before the count of ten and Deville then takes a knee to the face. Deville fights back with a spear and goes for a pin, which Asuka kicks out at the count of 2. Deville goes for another pin just for Asuka to again kick out at 2. Asuka is able to get Deville in the Asuka lock and she taps out, giving Asuka the win.
After the match, Carmella takes advantage. She enters the ring and comes face to face with Asuka, much like last week. Rose comes back in the ring and attempts to attack Asuka from behind. This distracts Asuka enough that Carmella kicks her in the face to send her the message that she is ready for her at MITB.
After the match, Deville took to Twitter:
I. Want. A. Singles. Match. With. @WWEAsuka FAIR IS FAIR
— Sonya Deville (@SonyaDevilleWWE) June 6, 2018
Asuka’s response was:
In vain, in vain????? https://t.co/2LIS9FNtbF
— ASUKA / ??? (@WWEAsuka) June 6, 2018
The next match for the ladies was the mixed tag match between Lana and Aiden English facing Naomi and Jimmy Uso. The men start off the match, but after Uso uppercuts English in the throat, English proclaims that Uso went for his “money maker”. Lana then comes into the ring, and Uso and Naomi both were able to kick their opponents out of the ring. Naomi followed this up by leaping over the top rope and landed on English and Lana on the outside.
After the commercial break, Naomi attempts numerous roundhouse kicks on Lana to where she kept ducking. Naomi ends up kneeing Lana in the chest. As Lana attempts to get back up, Naomi is distracted by English which gives Lana the chance to be on offense. Lana stays on offense for a good bit of the match. She goes for several failed pin falls. Lana makes the mistake of mocking Uso and allows Naomi to take control, but for just a moment. Lana then takes control and as Naomi lays in the ring, Lana drops numerous elbows to the throat of her opponent. The ladies play a slight game of tug if war as Naomi tries to tag in her husband. Lana grabs the hair of Naomi. Naomi attempts to do a neck breaker on Lana, but it ends up with a roll up pin which Lana kicked out.
The men then get tagged in. Lana breaks up a pin between the men and then slaps Uso. Naomi then leaps over Uso and takes out Lana. The women roll to the outside. Naomi capitalizes by doing a crossbody off the top rope onto English. This allows Uso to super kick the throat of English to get the pin and the win for his team.
Paige continues her managerial duties by conducting the contract signing between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. She went over the conditions of the last man standing match. Paige asked either man if they had any questions before they signed. Styles said he had a statement more than a question. He went on to explain how even Nakamura knows he can’t beat him. This is why he hides behind his low blows and his inability to speak English. Nakamura continues to play games during the contract signing by saying the pens do not work. The contract signing ended after Styles was dragged away and Nakamura signed the contract proclaiming he is the last man standing.
With the women continuing to dominate the show, two best friends will face each other next. Charlotte Flair takes on Becky Lynch. The tea sisters face off in a friendly bout. The match was the typical back and forth match between two friends who know each other better than they know themselves. They both attempted and/or hit their signature moves. Lynch executes a leg drop off the top rope to which Flair kicked out at a 2 count. She attempted to get Flair in a disarm-her but Flair managed to stay out of it. Flair followed this up with a spear. Lynch smartly rolls out of the ring, but that allows Flair to jump over the top rope and come crashing down on her opponent on the outside of the ring.
Both Flair and Lynch have fun in the middle of the match where they have their tea together. Flair goes for the moonsault, however Lynch gets the knees up. Flair attempts to get the figure four locked in twice, but Lynch counters both and gets Flair into the disarm-her. She was able to make Flair tap for the win.
After the match, the ladies hug to show their mutual respect for each other and that their friendship is still strong.
Lynch after the match explains in a wwe.com exclusive that she is focused on becoming Ms. Money In The Bank.
Lynch took to twitter saying this will be her year:
This will be my year. #beckygotbank #SdLive pic.twitter.com/VABogQJjRD
— Rebecca Quin (@BeckyLynchWWE) June 6, 2018
Flair may be thinking she has to start doing something different:
Sometimes, people solve the riddle. Time to change the question. #SDLive pic.twitter.com/Y2GKb3O4I5
— Charlotte Flair (@MsCharlotteWWE) June 6, 2018
Lastly, Zelina Vega interrupts a backstage interview that Dasha Fuentes was having with Sin Cara. Vega explains how when Cara was the role model of Andrade Cien Almas, Almas was weak. Now he is not. Vega announced that Almas will face Cara next week on Smackdown.
Next week Paige will host a Summit with all 4 of Smackdown’s women participants for the MITB match.
JUST ANNOUNCED: #SDLive General Manager @RealPaigeWWE will host a Women's #MITB Summit NEXT WEEK between @MsCharlotteWWE @BeckyLynchWWE @NaomiWWE & @LanaWWE! pic.twitter.com/ummqIzt99h
— WWE (@WWE) June 6, 2018
Thoughts: Great show for the ladies. Besides the IIconics, every woman was highlighted in some way on last nights show. The 3 matches were pretty good. Each match was given a good time frame, and told stories.
Carmella continues to kill it on the mic. I love how great of a heel she is. She makes fun of everyone which is what a good heel can accomplish. I also enjoy that she isn’t running away from Asuka.
Lana did pretty well in her match. The only move I saw that was messed up was when Naomi attempted to give her that neckbreaker. I hope Lana gets some good spots in at MITB. I wish the women would have taken the pin in this match though. English and Uso deciding the fall means nothing for MITB as neither one of them have a match.
The Becky and Charlotte match was good also. I kind of wish that Charlotte would turn heel, because I much prefer her that way, now may not be the time. I was actually surprised they gave Becky the win and I like it.
My only real complaint from this Smackdown and the build up for the MITB match as it is, is there is never any ladders being brought out. The men have been including ladders somewhat in their matches or promos. The women haven’t even touched a ladder at all yet. Hopefully they can include them in next weeks show as it is the last one before the big event.
I want Zelina in a match, there I said it.
I don’t know what to expect from this “summit” next week, but I hope the ladders are involved.
What did everyone think of this weeks Smackdown? Do we think a woman from the blue brand will take home the briefcase? Let’s discuss in the comments!!
