WWE SmackDown Results, Highlights, and Grades May 8, 2018

Following an awful Backlash Pay Per View, WWE SmackDown Live needs to hit all the right notes tonight. Samoa Joe will be making his “real” debut on the Blue Brand after losing to Roman Reigns on Sunday night, and the Samoan Submission Machine figures to be the focal point of the show.

There were no title changes for either brand at Backlash, which is the real “reset” point. WWE SmackDown Live will proceed with new storylines after the Pay Per View, as Jeff Hardy remains United States Champion, AJ Styles is the WWE Champion, and Carmella is riding high after defeating Charlotte Flair to retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Expect to see hints of Carmella’s next challenger. Becky Lynch has the history with Carmella and has defeated the Princess of Staten Island time after time. She’s also a fan favorite. But Lynch supposedly has a match against former Absolution member Mandy Rose tonight. That could leave Asuka, whom Carmella has been insulting in the aftermath of her “shock” victory over Charlotte, in pole position.

AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura failed to resolve their conflict (yet again) at Backlash, thanks to a double count-out finish. This rivalry isn’t close to being over, but last week on SmackDown Live, Samoa Joe already asserted that he’s coming after Styles’s WWE Championship. Things are about to get interesting, which is welcome, since the main title on the Blue Brand hasn’t felt like a big enough deal.

Last night on Raw, Ember Moon, Braun Strowman, and Finn Balor all qualified for their respective Money in the Bank ladder matches. Tonight on WWE SmackDown, The Miz and US Champion Jeff Hardy will battle it out for an opportunity to be in the MITB match. The Miz should be considered the favorite here. He’s on a path for the WWE Championship, and most people see him as the ideal briefcase-holder in 2018. Look for him to find some cheap way to cost Hardy, who scraped by Randy Orton at Backlash.

There will be two more Money in the Bank qualifiers. Daniel Bryan and The Miz have plenty of beef, but Bryan will take on Rusev for a shot at MITB gold. These are two fan favorites, and this one could go either way, despite Bryan coming off of a key win over Big Cass.

Charlotte Flair will be desperate to reclaim that SmackDown Women’s Championship, but imagine how good the briefcase would look in the hands of either Peyton Royce or Billie Kay? Royce will have her chance to enter the MITB match tonight in a qualifier against Charlotte, which will invariably involve either Lynch or Naomi coming to help Flair against Kay’s interference.

All in all, the build to the Money in the Bank Pay Per View should be exciting, and tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live has the potential to partially wash away the offensive taste of Backlash. Check back here at 8 p.m. ET for all the highlights, grades, and analysis you could ever want for tonight’s show.

The Miz vs. Jeff Hardy

Result: The Miz defeats Jeff Hardy by Roll-Up

Grade: A+

Paige came out and called Backlash a “smashing success”, and most of the crowd cheered. That was quite the surprise, since, uh, Backlash was anything but a success.

Anyway, she hypes up Money in the Bank and announces that the first qualifying match will take place to kick off the show.

Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz is up, and it’s a match between two wrestlers we love seeing in ladder matches. I mean, that is Hardy’s forte, and maybe nobody in the history of WWE is better with this stipulation. Meanwhile, The Miz is a former Money in the Bank winner, with most fans hoping that he secures the briefcase again this year.

Man, this match was SO good that I’ll forgive Tom Phillips for bringing up that Hardy once lost the title via cash-in…without mentioning who cashed in on him. Nice shade, Mr. McMahon.

The Miz absolutely tore the house down with Seth Rollins at Backlash, doing his best to salvage a show that was destined to fail. Tonight on SmackDown Live, he was still at his best, and it’s honestly remarkable how good Miz has become in the ring. Like, even though the fanbase has turned around on the guy, I still don’t think people praise how crisp of a worker he is. Every move means something, and he does ALL the little things.

For example, he dropped Jeff on top off the barricade, and while Jeff was sitting there, he started jawing to some kids nearby. Miz tried to show the kids that he’s the boss of their hero, taking two huge swings at Hardy. He missed each time, and Hardy was able to get out of the vulnerable position on top of the barricade.

The finish of this match was brilliant. Jeff Hardy hit the Swanton Bomb, but he took just a little too long to climb up to the top rope due to midsection damage. That gave The Miz enough time to kick out and resourcefully pin Hardy.

Watch this. It earned the “This is awesome!” chant the crowd gave it.

The Bar Backstage

Grade: B

Cesaro ribbed Sheamus a little bit for losing to Xavier Woods last week, clearly showing that he underestimates Woods as a competitor. Sheamus, who is committing the unforgivable crime of eating Lucky Charms instead of Booty O’s, challenges Cesaro to do better against Woods this week. Cesaro accepts, so obviously he’s going to lose.

The Bar at their best when Sheamus and Cesaro are trying to out-do each other, which is basically what this partnership initially was at the end of 2016.

Nakamura Segment

Grade: B-

Shinsuke Nakamura is still pretending that he can’t speak English. Renee Young calls him on his BS, but Nakmaura says that he’s “forgotten” how to speak English.

Young responds, “So before you forget how to speak English again, can you give me your thoughts on AJ Styles?”

To which Nakamura delivers the line of the night, “AJ Styles is nuts, but so am I.”

Does King of Strong Puns work here as a nickname? No? OK…

Carmella

Grade: B-

I BEAT CHARLOTTE FLAIR!

That’s the only way to sum up this phone promo, though she was 100% spot-on with her diss of Baltimore. She then knocks the Royal Family and tells them they aren’t invited to her MellaBration.

Carmella finished off with this blow on Charlotte Flair, “Speaking of Ric Flair, do you know he has a daughter? And her name is Charlotte Flair…AND I BEAT HER!”

Ladies and gentlemen, she is the undisputed champion of cell phone promos.

Charlotte Flair vs. Peyton Royce

Result: Charlotte taps out Peyton Royce

Grade: C-

Before the match starts, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay absolutely eviscerate Charlotte Flair on the mic, using her reaction to her loss at Backlash against Carmella as fodder for their insults. At one point, Kay says she wants to bottle Charlotte’s emotions in that moment and sell it as a fragrance called “Disappointment”, which Corey Graves unsurprisingly has fun with later.

Royce is just asking to get her butt kicked by Charlotte, and that’s exactly what happens at the beginning of the match. Flair starts throwing her around like a bad-ass, confidently moving around the ring against her less athletic foe.

Charlotte Flair got her win back after the fluke title loss to Carmella at Backlash, and she did it with the Figure Eight The match itself wasn’t bad, but it was difficult to get interested in it or care about it. At no point did I buy into the idea of Royce winning, and that’s a problem, especially with Kay at ringside. I expected more from these two, particularly Royce, whose offense looked soft. Again, this match wasn’t bad, but if you are pressed for time and are rewatching the show, I would skim over this one. These two are capable of better matches than this, which is honestly fine, since they’ll cross paths again in the future.

Cesaro vs. Xavier Woods

Result: Cesaro defeats Xavier Woods via uppercut

Grade: B+

For a filler match on SmackDown Live, this was excellent, and it was a reminder that Sheamus, Cesaro, Xavier Woods, Big E, and Kofi Kingston are five of the most creative wrestlers on the planet. Any time they are given a backstage segment or match, they make the absolute most out of it.

Woods pulled out a nice hurricanrana in this match and walked the ropes like Gran Metalik-lite. Sheamus tried to interfere on several occasions, and his final move was effective. Big E responded by throwing pancakes at Sheamus, which slowed down Woods, who was poised to hit his finishing move from the top rope. Instead, Cesaro jumped up, hit Woods with an uppercut, and won the match to one-up Sheamus (in a way).

It comes as no surprise, but I am absolutely loving this feud. I honestly can’t wrap my head around how stacked the SmackDown Live Tag Team Division is, because we don’t even need the champions or their previous challengers on television to have multiple compelling tag segments. And oh yeah, The Club are on the show and Sanity are coming.

So to recap, Woods was 1-1 against members of The Bar. Let’s see if these guys start getting into tag matches where their creative spots will undoubtedly blow our collective minds. I mean, it might not be Usos vs. New Day, but with a guy like Cesaro involved, it’ll be close, especially in terms of innovative offense.

Becky Lynch vs. Mandy Rose

Result: Mandy Rose Defeats Becky Lynch By Roll-Up

Grade: C

I can just hear the fans on Twitter preemptively sharpening their pitchforks in case Becky Lynch loses this match to Mandy Rose.

Before the match, we get a super creepy Bludgeon Brothers segment with the type of children-singing music that WWE loves using to throw us off.

Anyway, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville speak to each other, stating that they can both be in the Money in the Bank match. Rose and Deville are told by Paige that they don’t have to go together to the match because Absolution “is dead”. Deville and Rose are having none of it, reminding Paige that she isn’t their “mom” (yes, you may cringe) and defiantly telling the woman who is totally not their mom that they are sticking together no matter what.

Paige bars Deville from ringside in response.

Rose’s new theme is, um, interesting. It’s not bad, but give it a listen and you’ll see why.

Speaking of pitchforks…yep….Becky lost. Again. To Mandy Rose. By Roll Up. Vince is cackling. We’re all crying. We can’t have nice things.

But in all seriousness, this match was short, sweet, and surprisingly good. Becky is a beast in the ring, and Mandy has improved significantly since making her out-of-nowhere debut on the WWE main roster.

Daniel Bryan vs. Rusev

Result: Rusev wins with the Machka Kick

Grade: A

I still can’t believe the two are in a match together, and the dueling chants were a dream come true. The fans on both sides were trying so hard to outdo the others, bellowing “Daniel Bryan!” or “Rusev Day!” This is the kind of atmosphere in a wrestling match that I live for.

Daniel Bryan received an ovation from the crowd after the match, despite losing to Rusev via a Machka kick. He came so close to winning on multiple occasions, and I thought he had the match won at one point. Early on, he injured Rusev’s wrists, which prevented The Bulgarian George Clooney from locking in the Accolade on Bryan. At that point, I thought that there would be no way for Rusev to win and that Bryan would be able to hit the critical blow.

Instead, Aiden English saved Rusev from a running knee strike inside the ring, just when it seemed like Bryan had the match won. Bryan would hit a knee to the outside, but he couldn’t get the job done after suffering a post-match beatdown at Backlash at the hands of Big Cass.

Next: Could Cedric Alexander vs. Hideo Itami Happen One Day?

So Rusev will qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match, and I honestly couldn’t be happier. It was a huge win for him, and he’s certainly earned it. In general, this was a great match with excellent wrestling from both. Bryan always knows how to tell the right story in the ring and with his facial expressions, which have been his biggest improvement over the years. Oh, and did I mention the atmosphere?