Welcome Everybody To The First Edition Of Our Live Coverages Here At SmarkDown. My name is Tanner, but I’m also known as Viper on our Youtube Page. Thank you for tuning in and lets get right on into this
We are live in my home city of Cleveland, Ohio and also at the Rolling Loud Festival!
John Cena Opens The Show
We kick off with the recently returned John Cena! He takes a moment to feel the mostly positive reactions from the Cleveland crowd. He talks about how fun it was to be at Money In The Bank, and makes it official that he is challenging Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. He jokes about The Cleveland Indians changing their name to The Cleveland Guardians. He then says that SmackDown with Roman Reigns sucks. He once again gives light to the fact that the crowds are back. He says that SummerSlam is an opportunity to stand up for what you believe in. Who’s team are we on? He says that Roman Reigns will realize that after SummerSlam the champ is here. After asking for Roman to come out several times, Paul Heyman appears with his signature “Ladies & Gentlemen” which I personally haven’t heard in that variant in quite some time. He says that Cena has it all wrong. He mocks Cena’s You Can’t See Me and says that Roman is simply not listening to Cena because he isn’t worthy. He then gives Cena his word that Roman will answer the challenge when he decides to tonight. We close with Heyman mocking Cena’s theme song.
Finn Balor takes on Sami Zayn
Balor hit the sling blade, two shot gun drop kicks, and the finishing Coup de Grace blow to defeat Sami Zayn @ (stopwatch issues)
This was a good match here. Sami Zayn is a nice worker and Balor is looking as great as ever. Nice return match for Finn! [***]
Backstage Baron Corbin claims the person that funded his CorbinFundMe stole all of his money (this is both sad and hilarious!)
Big E Celebrates His Big Money In The Bank Win!
Big E exclaims how he won the MITB Contract in front of a crowd after a grueling ladder match. Out comes Apollo Crews who brags about actually having a title, then come out Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode (for some reason), and THEN comes King Nakamura with Rick Boogs, AND THEN Cesaro comes out and seemingly challenges Apollo Crews before a big brawl explodes throughout the ring! This seems to set up a 6 man tag team match for later tonight
We switch over to the Rolling Loud Festival where…
Angelo Dawkins takes on Chad Gable!
Dawkins defeated Chad Gable after a spinebuster @ (more stopwatch issues :/)
The crowd wasn’t really into it, but I honestly loved the work here from Gable and Dawkins had some nice counters to Gable’s offense. Finish to me may have been anti climatic because I’m not too familiar with Angelo’s moveset, but I assume that was his finisher. Overall enjoyable match here [***1/4]
Bianca BelAir defends the Smackdown Women’s Championship against Carmella!
Bianca retained her championship after hitting a KOD on Carmella @ 4:44
This felt longer then it was in my perspective. A way shorter, more simpler title match then the one last week, and it was overall an ok contest [**]
Nox and Shotzi are backstage trying to fix their tank with Kevin Owens when Baron Corbin shows up. He begs Owens for money which he obliges to before the tank suddenly shoots at Corbin’s GROIN and Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode steal it while Owens tells them to get outta there. (An unlikely friendship?)
The Rated R Superstar Edge speaks Live!
Edge celebrates the crowds being back and celebrates how hard he worked to get back into the business. He claims he should be standing there as the Universal Championship, but isn’t because of Seth Rollins. He said he didn’t except Rollins to attack him, but rather attack the champion. He then mentions THAT segment in 2015 where Rollins threatened Edge’s life practically. He then basically says that Seth Rollins has no idea what the consequences are gonna be for his actions. He brags about being in The Brood and The Ministry Of Darkness. Seth Rollins then interrupts Edge with his rock music of greatness. Rollins then calls Edge old and laughs about the man that Edge USED to be all those years ago. Edge then simply tells Seth to shut up. He then offers Rollins down to the ring who was already going to do so anyways. He then insults my city which is just great, and insults Edge and Cena’s part timing ways in the WWE. He mentions that they take away from guys like him who DESERVE the title shot. He then calls Edge a scumbag and says nothing would make him happier then being the man to end Edge’s career. He says that when they talk about Edge’s career they’ll be talking more about the man who ended it, Seth Rollins. He mentions all those years ago when Rollins threatened Edge’s life practically. He threatens Edge’s neck. Edge then attacks Rollins who fights back. Edge was able to hit the Edgecution, but Rollins is able to avoid a spear to end the segment. (Brilliant segment!)
Up Next Toni Storm Makes Her Main Roster Debut Against Zelina Vega!
Storm is able to finish off Zelina with a Storm-1 in a nice debut @ 2:35
This is too short to be given a rating, but it was a very nice debut for Storm who seems to be on Vince’s good side which is rare these days. Hoping for the best for her! [N/R]
Jimmy Uso takes on Rey Mysterio’s son Dominik!
Jimmy won after a roll up to Dominik was assisted by his brother Jey @ 7:56
Overall this was just ok. A couple botches at the end were very noticeable. Nothing really to note except for the finish I guess [**]
Roman Reigns Is Here!!
Reigns is wearing a nice white version of his Head Of The Table T-Shirt (might have to cop that). Right off the bat he tells us to acknowledge him and claims that John Cena acknowledged him at Money In The Bank, Raw, and tonight on Smackdown! He basically says that John Cena has never changed and did the same thing he’s always did. He then compares it to a certain sex position that I guess happens every single night. He says that he doesn’t WANT to see John Cena and that he will not be facing Cena in the main event. Then out comes….FINN BALOR????!!! What’s he doing here? Balor says that if Roman’s not interested in Cena’s challenge then he’ll interested in HIS. (Holy SHIT!!)”Roman’s scared” chants erupt and Roman silences them by…..ACCEPTING BALOR’S CHALLENGE!!!! This is gonna be huge!
And that concludes our very first coverage of Friday Night Smackdown. I personally give this a 7/10 as there were some nice matches, nice segments, new developments. This was pretty good!