WWE SmackDown: Results, Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for June 12

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WWE SmackDown Live has the final show before Money in the Bank this weekend. What can we expect?

Previously on WWE SmackDown Live, Shinsuke Nakamura needed a new pen. Jimmy Uso and Naomi proved themselves as the top married performers in WWE. Big Cass said stuff no one liked. And it was, of course, Rusev Day.

This week, it’s SmackDown‘s last chance to get the WWE Universe hyped for Money in the Bank. I mean, Raw hasn’t exactly been blowing things out of the water lately. Believe me, I know — usually, I’m the one suffering through three hours of Raw every week for our live reviews. But some scheduling conflicts led to Joe Soriano and I trading reviews for a week. (Joe, once again, I am so so so sorry you had to deal with Raw this week.)

On tap for the Blue Team this week, General Manager Paige will host a “Women’s Money in the Bank Summit.” I guess she’s feeling frisky after she managed one of WWE’s least chaotic contract signings of all time last week. All four of the SmackDown superstars competing in the Women’s MITB match will be face to face. Will things break down?

Paige has also signed two matches for this week’s show. Up first, United States Champion Jeff Hardy will square up against Shinsuke Nakamura. The two have been verbally sparring on Twitter for a couple of days, so it’s time to settle things in the ring. Will Nakamura be up to the task just days before facing AJ Styles in a Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship?

The second match came from a bit out of left field, but that’s the way we like it sometimes. After Daniel Bryan responded to Big Cass with a blistering backstage promo, Shelton Benjamin of all people came at Bryan. Apparently, all it takes is a tweet to get booked on a main show lately, because Benjamin and Bryan will meet in what is sure to be a tremendous bout.

Follow along with our live WWE SmackDown review right here, starting at 8 p.m. ET.

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Come Get Summit

So Paige introduces all four women competing in Sunday’s match, to varying levels of fan applause. Then we take a trip to Exposition City as the GM goes on to explain who’s competing from Raw, and why it’s so important for a SmackDown superstar to win the briefcase.

Things very quickly go into a “I’m going to win because (BLANK)” conversation between all four competitors. Americanized Lana goes first, Naomi promises to snatch her bald, and Charlotte Flair says she’s the best. Yawn.

But once Becky Lynch starts talking, things get good. Becky was the only one of the four who seemed to realize that getting fired up is a good thing. A Becky for the here and now is something I can totally get behind, and backing it up on the mic is terrific. Oh, and the dig at Charlotte? Perfection.

As if things couldn’t get better, out come the IIconics, and it’s typical Billie and Peyton. “I’m an Irish!” had me in tears, because it’s just the kind of goofy cornball thing you’d expect from two young ladies having fun. And the impressions continued to be excellent with the two-faced Charlotte, and the hot moves dancing to Naomi’s theme. So good!

But wait — there’s more! Mandy Rose comes out with Sonya Deville to, well, bring things to a screeching halt? Her robotic delivery kind of killed the momentum, but look at what we have here: Four ostensibly babyface characters competing against each other on Sunday in the ring, and two pairs of heels outside the ring. If you had “EVERYONE BRAWLS” on your BINGO card, you win!

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Daniel Bryan vs. Shelton Benjamin

Result: Daniel Bryan defeated Shelton Benjamin via submission

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Prior to the match, part of Bryan’s excellent backstage promo from last week was shown. OH NO, HE LOOKED INTO THE CAMERA. But you can’t deny that it enhanced that particular promo, since you could tell D-Bry was speaking directly to Big Cass. Anyone who’s ever said Bryan can’t cut a promo, you can go sit down now.

And once the match got started, it was predictably awesome. I feel like Shelton is this super under-the-radar guy in 2018 because he hasn’t really done too much since returning to WWE last year. But don’t forget he’s a tremendous pro wrestler with one of the best amateur backgrounds going. Dude was Brock Lesnar’s tag team partner in OVW — and his legit wrestling coach in college! Of course he’s going to bring it against a guy like Bryan.

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say this was the best Benjamin has looked since returning to WWE. The precision attack to Bryan’s knee was some of the most focused work anyone in WWE has done lately. And Bryan answered with his own attack to Shelton’s knee, bringing a nice symmetry to the match.

The finish to the match was so damn good, too. Bryan went for the YES Lock, but the knee pain slowed him down and he was unable to properly cinch it in. Benjamin powered out and seamlessly transitioned into a half crab, which he had used earlier as part of his assault on Bryan’s knee. But Shelton’s knee also made it difficult for him to lock in the hold, and Bryan was able to reverse into a heel hook, and a quick tap out ended things.

Bryan being built up as the ultimate submission machine slash greatest technical wrestler in the world is wonderful for everyone involved. I don’t expect Sunday’s match against Big Cass to be nearly as good as this one, but Bryan can probably pull something halfway decent out of the big man.

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Paige’s Big Adventure

As all authority figures are required by law to do, Paige wanders around seemingly aimlessly backstage. Of course, she comes across some of her roster on her travels. Up first, Asuka is lurking in the shadows. Weird, but she wants a match with Carmella tonight. Paige says she can’t do that, even though her job means she literally can do that. Instead, the eight woman tag match announced earlier in the night becomes a ten woman tag, as Asuka and Carmella are added to the mix.

Then before she gets too far, Method Actor Mike Mizanin is training for his next big role in Ruff Ruff Referee, which — not gonna lie — I would totally see. Sadly, it’s just a ruse for Miz to get involved in the Samoa Joe vs. Rusev match set for later in the night — and Paige sees right through it. After some reminiscing about their time on the set of Santa’s Little Helper, Paige mocks The Miz before giving him what he wants anyway? Sure, why not; Miz is already dressed for the referee job anyway.

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King Kicks it Old School with the WWE Champion

Look, you can hate on Jerry Lawler all you want — lord knows I have. But the visual presentation of the interview, being off to the side of the stage like WWE used to do in the 1980s and 1990s, was excellent.

And the interview itself was short, sweet, and to the point — just like back in the 1980s and 1990s. AJ Styles puts himself over and leaves no doubt that he’s both walking in and walking out of Money in the Bank as WWE Champion.

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Rusev (w/ Aiden English) vs. Samoa Joe; Special Guest Referee: The Miz

Result: Rusev defeated Samoa Joe via pinfall

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

If there’s one thing I love, it’s hoss fights. Maybe it’s because I share a physical appearance with the hoss. Well, at least the hosses in this match. Throw some big guys out in the ring and let them beat the bag out of each other, and I will cheer it like no tomorrow.

Anyway, Samoa Joe has a new haircut, and somehow it makes him look both more silly and more tough. That’s a fine line to walk — like, Joe is out there looking like he’s the baddest man in Miss Knight’s seventh grade math class. But don’t tell him I said that, because he may literally kill me.

Without question, the wrinkle in this match between MITB participants is the third man in the match — special guest ref The Miz. He played it cool and down the middle early, but the odds of him somehow causing trouble were insanely high. Sure enough, Miz got distracted while Joe had the Coquina Clutch locked in, and eventually took an inadvertent running charge from Joe.

Joe then attempted a pin, but Miz refused to count due to the discomfort in his ribs. Understandable. Joe looked like he was about to snap Miz’s finger off, but Rusev connected with a Machka Kick and scored the upset. Per Graham Matthews, Rusev joins Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Brock Lesnar as the only superstars to pin Samoa Joe in singles matches on the main roster. Wow.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1006705003296219138

After the match, there’s shenanigans with the ladder, and Miz grabs the briefcase to retrieve the contract early, even though it doesn’t work like that. But there’s no paper — just pancakes, because New Day are such wacky pranksters! Look at them sharing one shirt and laughing maniacally!

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Jeff Hardy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Result: Jeff Hardy defeated Shinsuke Nakamura via disqualification

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Hey, how did Raw get in my WWE SmackDown?

I hate to be the party pooper, but Jeff Hardy matches in 2018 just don’t do it for me. His best asset was always his ability to do things that others couldn’t, but now he moves so slowly and gingerly at all times it’s just painful to watch. I just want to see him curled up with a heating pad, not bumping his butt off.

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And Nakamura? The heel turn was probably good for his character, but he’s lost that “special” kind of feeling he had during his NXT run. There’s definitely something great hidden underneath the protective shell that keeps the stink of bad booking from totally breaking through to him.

There were some positives in here: Hardy is still the United States Champion, so at least he didn’t get pinned and devalue the title. And Nakamura definitely did more to up his stock heading into MITB than AJ Styles did. So, yay.

But in general, I couldn’t get invested in this one. Every time Jeff limped over to the turnbuckles, I felt sad. Whenever Nakamura made a weird face, it just seemed like too much overcompensation. I don’t know what the hangup has been with getting Nakamura to just be Nakamura — is it Shinsuke himself, or creative, or Vince, or a little of everything?

I still hope Nakamura wins at MITB — Styles has had a great run with the title, but there’s more he can do without the championship. And maybe winning the title will be the Kinshasa in the pants Shin needs to get to the next level he’s capable of.

Let’s Talk

There were a pair of promos bookending a commercial break before the main event. Up first was Carmella being rude to a makeup girls and taking selfies while Renee Young tried to interview her. Meh.

After the break, Big Cass responded to Daniel Bryan by stealing from a county fair. Real nice, bro.

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Naomi, Charlotte Flair, Asuka, Becky Lynch, & Lana vs. Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, & Carmella

Result: Asuka forced Carmella to submit

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

A couple of weird things about the setup of this match before we get into the action itself. First, Lana is pretty much defined by her entrance, right? So it makes little sense for her to come out during the commercial break. Same goes for Becky Lynch, but for a slightly different reason: Becky is one of the most popular superstars on either roster. Why deprive the television audience of hearing the pop?

Finally, I noticed something about the two briefcases back when Miz was grabbing the green case. Is anyone else catching that the green case for the men is a little bit bigger than the white case for the women?  Maybe people have been talking about this, but I haven’t seen it on line anywhere. Unless WWE is looking at it like watches — men’s watches are typically larger, but not always, especially in the age of the smartwatch — it seems a little off to have the women’s case be about 80% the size of the men’s case.

But once the match got started, it was organized chaos from the opening bell until the commercial break. No let up, just constant movement, quick tags, and fast paced action. It slowed down a bit after the break, but it had to — all build and no release doesn’t give the crowd (live in the building or watching on television) a chance to appreciate what they already saw.

Of course, you can’t have a chaotic match that doesn’t end with chaos, so things picked up in a big way later on. Moonsaults to the outside, blind tags, total team brawls, everything. I want to give a special shout out to Billie Kay and Peyton Royce for their selling — it’s a thing of beauty, and they’ve got a long future in WWE if they keep making everyone look so good.

Asuka withstood everything Carmella threw at her, and forced the champ to tap out quickly to the Asuka Lock to end the match. Then the four participants in the ladder match surrounded the Empress of Tomorrow as they looked up at the briefcase. Um, they do realize that Asuka didn’t win the title yet, right? What a strange ending to a great match.

Next: 5 Potential WWE MVPs at the Midway Point of 2018

Money in the Bank should be a great show, and this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown Live helped the build in a big way. What did you think of this week’s show?