5 Takeaways from this week's WWE SmackDown Live (26 June 2018)

Five matches took place as WWE SmackDown Live emanated from Ontario, California this week.

The show began with The Miz hosting an edition of Miz TV with special guests The Bludgeon Brothers. Following an interruption from Daniel Bryan, it was confirmed that “The Leader of the Yes Movement” would take on Harper later in the night.

The first match of the show took place in the second segment between Rusev and Xavier Woods. The New Day member put in an impressive showing but the #1 contender for the WWE Championship picked up the win after locking in The Accolade.

Next up, in the absence of the injured Shinsuke Nakamura, Jeff Hardy issued a United States Championship open challenge, which was accepted by Eric Young. After interference from The Usos and SAnitY, the match became a six-man tag, which Jeff won for his team after he pinned Alexander Wolfe.

Elsewhere on the show, Becky Lynch defeated Sonya Deville via submission and Paige interrupted James Ellsworth to announce that he will have to face Asuka in a match next week.

In the main event, Bryan looked set to defeat Harper but Rowan interfered to cause a disqualification, leading to the return of Kane, D-Bry’s former Team Hell No tag partner, who helped fend off The Bludgeon Brothers to close the show.

Let’s take a look at five things we learned from this week’s episode.

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#5 The New Day should compete in singles matches more often

The former champions have been in the tag-team spotlight for a long time

Between late 2014 and early 2018, The New Day dominated the tag divisions on Raw and SmackDown Live and they rarely found themselves without a meaningful tag-team storyline no matter which brand they were on.

Now, for the first time since they formed as a trio, WWE is testing Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods out as singles performers again, with one man competing in a match while the other two watch on from ringside or from backstage.

While the four-time Tag Team champions always keep their act fresh with new ideas and gimmicks (cereal, trombones, pancakes etc), it’s fair to say that their continued presence in tag storylines had become a little tedious, so it’s great to see that all three guys are getting an opportunity to show what they can do in singles matches again.

#4 Don’t expect TV title matches to end fairly

Jeff Hardy teamed with The Usos against SAnitY

As ironic as this might sound, given that this article is essentially a review of the key moments from SmackDown Live, it is feeling less and less important for WWE fans to tune into every Raw and SmackDown match on a weekly basis.

With most rivalries progressing and/or culminating at PPVs, the only time there is something major at stake on Monday and Tuesday nights is when there is a title on the line, yet both championship matches this week have ended in disqualifications (Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins on Raw and Jeff Hardy vs. Eric Young on SmackDown).

It’s only natural, from WWE’s perspective, that their emphasis should be on PPVs, but NXT does a good job of filling time between their TakeOver events by having competitive, clean finishes to title matches, so why can’t the main-roster shows do the same?

#3 Sonya Deville is one of WWE’s most improved Superstars

Sonya Deville lost against Becky Lynch this week

Over the next few days, we’ll be handing out our 2018 half-year awards on a range of WWE topics, including Most Improved Superstar, and it’s safe to say that Sonya Deville will be somewhere in the top five of that list.

The former Tough Enough competitor was hardly a major star of the women’s division in NXT, so it has been a welcome surprise to see her gradually rise up the WWE ranks since her call-up to the main roster with Mandy Rose in November 2017.

In all honesty, this might not be the best week to make this point – her match against Becky Lynch wasn’t as good as her recent encounter with Naomi – but she still deserves credit for making huge improvements in a short amount of time.

#2 Intergender matches are back, and that’s a good thing

James Ellsworth will face Asuka next week

Outside of WWE, it feels like there have been more intergender matches over the last couple of years than ever before, with the likes of Joey Ryan and James Ellsworth regularly facing female competitors at independent shows.

With Ellsworth now back in WWE, the company has swiftly booked him in a match against a woman, Asuka, for next week’s episode of SmackDown Live – something that hasn’t happened one-on-one since “The Chinless Wonder” faced Becky Lynch in one of 2017’s most entertaining TV matches.

WWE has a history of getting intergender wrestling horribly wrong, such as when Umaga attacked someone half his size in Maria Kanellis, but when Ellsworth – a harmless comedy character – faces somebody the calibre of Asuka, this match feels like the next natural step to advance the Carmella storyline.

#1 Extreme Rules is shaping up to be a really strong card

Kane and Daniel Bryan are back together!

The finish to SmackDown Live this week was one of the best we’ve seen all year, with Kane making a surprise return to reunite – and hug it out – with former Team Hell No tag partner Daniel Bryan.

SmackDown General Manager Paige then revealed that the two will challenge for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships against The Bludgeon Brothers at Extreme Rules, which means five matches have now been announced for the show.

Elsewhere on the card, it’ll be AJ Styles vs. Rusev (WWE Championship), Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt vs. Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas (Raw Tag Team Championships), Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax (Raw Women’s Championship) and Carmella vs. Asuka (SmackDown Women’s Championship).

With more matches certain to be announced in the upcoming weeks, this is already shaping up to be a great card for the next PPV. Let’s hope WWE throws in some appropriate match stipulations to make it even better!