WWE SmackDown 06/05/18: Batter Up
About Last Night is a quick reflection on the matches and segments, or random observations, from a wrestling show that sticks out to us the morning after we watch them. If you would like to get your comments featured, chime in below in our comments section or tweet us. You can also help support us on Patreon.
About Whether Or Not Everyone Is Ready For Asuka…
On Monday during Raw (which no one should have watched, because YIKES), they aired an ad for SmackDown promoting that Carmella would “unmask” Asuka. I was very worried about what this would mean, with WWE having terrible segments as of late with Bobby Lashley and The B-Team. But I had forgotten that those were on Raw and SmackDown can actually pull off solid segments, which was very evident in this episode.
Carmella opened the show by first showing a video package of Asuka’s previous dominance to show how she used to be, then a second package of her losing at WrestleMania and in her SmackDown debut to illustrate that she has lost her touch and that she – along with the entire arena – were ready for Asuka. This led to Asuka coming up with the former Absolution shortly behind trying to pick a fight. Carmella stirred the pot by saying that the old Asuka would take them both on, and she did just that… and won! Carmella attacked Asuka after the match with some help from Mandy Rose and stood tall to end things.
I felt like this was super effective, with Asuka regaining her heat by being in a handicap match and putting on a striking clinic with Sonya Deville, including a wild double kick to the side of the head. Carmella was on commentary putting over the match without having to wrestle and was dunking on Byron Saxton to hilarious effect. This build is great so far, even if the resulting match won’t be.
About The Contract Signing…
In probably one on the best contract signings in WWE history, we had Paige preside over the one for AJ Styles and Sinsuke Nakamura’s Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank. It was pretaped and took place backstage, and this added a whole lot to the segment. We got nice close-ups on Nakamura’s facial great facial expressions, we didn’t have any distractions from being in front of a crowd in the ring, and it gave it a unique feel. Nakamura kept tossing away pens instead of signing to get under Styles’ skin to the point where he slapped him and had to be escorted out of the room, only for Nakamura to pull out his own pen and sign the contract.
It seems like they’ve got things back on track for this match, with Paige declaring there must be a winner, and I’m really looking forward to it despite how the other ones went. I do hope this is the last match of this feud though because while it’s still been entertaining I would like to see these two branch out to new opponents.
About Charlotte Flair Vs. Becky Lynch…
We hadn’t gotten this match in a while, but Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch tend to put on some pretty damn good matches. And for a television match, this one was really solid. They had promoted on social media earlier that Charlotte had a 4-3 advantage in matches, so it was pretty clear where this was going. Regardless, these two gave it their all, with a fun spot where they both grabbed each other’s feet and then let them down gently because they’re still friends (and they watched New Japan recently). The finish came with Charlotte going for the Figure Four, but it getting reversed into the DisArmHer for a submission victory.
Becky getting a clean submission victory over Charlotte is a nice surprise, since she’s supposed to be the submission expert. It doesn’t do much for the pay-per-view match since it’s a ladder match, but perhaps this could set up another match between these two in the near future where Charlotte could lose again and turn heel. Though, in the current division perhaps there are enough heels, despite Charlotte being so great at it.
About Andrade “Cien” Almas Finally Getting A Storyline…
Last week we got a tease of Andrade “Cien” Almas giving no damn about Sin Cara backstage because… he’s Sin Cara. They did allude to the fact they had history as friends but that doesn’t seem to be a concern to Almas. Dasha interviewed Sin Cara this week to delve deeper into this issue, and he talked about how they were friends since they were younger, but some “something” happened… and that thing showed up as Zelina Vega interrupted and ranted about how she no longer let Almas hide behind a mask and now he’s succeeding more than ever. Almas doesn’t care about Sin Cara and requested a match for next week, which prompted Almas to show up and attack Sin Cara from behind.
It’s good to see Almas getting into an actual story that will result in a match that hopefully isn’t a squash. We’ve needed a better platform for Zelina to showcase her mic skills and Almas to do what he does best in the ring. Where he goes from here though is totally uncertain.
About The Main Event…
The main event of this episode of SmackDown was a 6-man tag between Samoa Joe, Rusev, and The Miz against The New Day to help hype up the men’s ladder match at Money in the Bank while also teasing which New Day member will be in it. There was a great backstage segment earlier in the show with The Miz running into Mr. Bootysworth and dipping his hand in a hat full of pancake batter when trying to figure out which New Day member it’s going to be. The actual match was great, with some really fun spots including Kofi Kingston pulling an optical illusion with his leap to the outside. When it looked like the heels were about to win, The Miz had his partners hold up Big E while he threw the platter of pancakes at him. After being tied up for a second, Miz accidentally threw them at Joe and Rusev, resulting in Miz getting his ass beaten and abandoned. New Day easily picked up the win from there.
I’m enjoying this whole mystery surrounding The New Day, as it at least gives us one thing not set in stone with these ladder matches after they decided to fill all the spots with a month left of build to the pay-per-view. I’m hoping Xavier gets the spot in the end, but with how entertaining they all are there really isn’t a bad choice.
What did you think of this week’s SmackDown? Let us know in the comments!
