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A disappointing Monday Night Raw seemed to halt any momentum WWE had going into Extreme Rules.
Could tonight’s Smackdown Live help change that or would it follow the pattern of recent weeks and be nothing more than a Raw re-run?
There was plenty of potentially interesting things announced before the show, including the reveal of Aleister Black’s Extreme Rules opponent, Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler and Finn Balor vs. Shinsuke Nakamura.
So, did the go-home show before Sunday’s pay-per-view deliver?
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Let’s find out as we look back at tonight’s show and give every match and moment its own grade.
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#1 - Owens drops a Pipe Bomb
The show began with a video from earlier in the day of Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens arriving at the arena.
The two men could not wait for their scheduled match and ended up fighting in the parking lot.
This lead to Shane McMahon sending Owens home for inciting the brawl and cancelling the planned main event for tonight’s show.
However, as the camera cut to the arena, Owens made his way down to ringside through the crowd, grabbed a microphone and cut an impassioned promo on Shane McMahon and the McMahon family.
Owens said that he has tried to be a company guy but that hasn’t got him where he wants to be. He went on to say that he is sick and tired of Shane calling himself the best in the world and taken up T.V. time that could be used to feature other talents.
This brought out Shane who demanded that Owens’ mic be shut off, but Owens grabbed another and then used Byron Saxton’s headset to continue his rant.
Eventually, security would come out but Owens made his escape through the crowd.
This was a great way to open the show and positioned Kevin Owens as exactly the type of babyface that he should be. An anti-authority, Kevin Owens could be amazing and I for one can’t wait to see where this goes.
Grade: A
#2 - Return of strong style?
The first match of the night saw Shinsuke Nakamura face off against Intercontinental Champion, Finn Balor, in a non-title match.
Nakamura quickly took control of the match and dominated a large portion of it, besides a brief comeback by Balor that was abruptly shut off by Shinsuke.
Nakamura was physical and aggressive throughout, but Finn fought on valiantly to avoid a count-out loss after a ‘Kinshasa’ on the outside, answering the count at nine.
Balor narrowly avoided a count-out loss again after some more action on the outside but walked straight into a second ‘Kinshasa’ by Shinsuke to give the Japanese star an impressive victory over the champion.
Nakamura was vicious throughout this contest and the match as a whole felt fresh and different to the formulaic matches we normally see on WWE television.
This also sets up a future Intercontinental Title match between Finn and Shinsuke, which will likely take place at SummerSlam.
Grade: B+
#3 - Extreme Rules contract signing
A contract signing between Bayley and Nikki Cross, who was representing herself and Alexa Bliss, was up next. This was to confirm the 2-on-1-handicap stipulation for Extreme Rules, which Nikki chose after winning the ‘Beat the clock’ challenge on last night’s Raw.
Before signing the contract, Bayley attempted to reason with Cross and explained that she used to be just like her. She used to be naïve and let people take advantage of her, which is exactly what she can see Alexa doing to Nikki.
Nikki fired back by telling Bayley that she just doesn’t understand true friendship because all of her friends have abandoned her.
They both then signed the contract and Nikki asked Bayley to stay at ringside for her upcoming match against Carmella. Cross went on to get pick up a win over Carmella in a short match.
While the build to this match has been far from spectacular, it will be interesting to see how this culminates at Extreme Rules. Will Nikki see sense and turn on Alexa? Or could we possibly see Sasha Banks return to even up the odds and help Bayley?
Grade: B-
#4 - "Mad cow bird flu"
Up next was a video package showing the Kabuki Warriors defeating the IIconics in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago at a house show.
We then saw Paige, Asuka and Kairi Sane confronting Billie Kay and Peyton Royce outside the Women’s locker room.
Paige demanded a Women’s tag team title match for the Kabuki Warriors tonight, but unfortunately, The IIconics were ‘sick’. Billie Kay was suffering from “mad cow bird flu”.
Paige reluctantly accepted this excuse but warned that Asuka and Kairi will get their opportunity soon enough.
You would be forgiven for forgetting that either of these teams existed, as it has been a while since any of them were featured on television.
But it was a welcome segment and will hopefully lead to WWE showcasing the neglected Women’s tag team division.
Grade: C
#5 - Can Kofi become an all-time great?
There was minimal hype for the upcoming WWE Championship between Kofi Kingston and Samoa Joe, but this may have something to do with the rumoured injury to Kingston that was reported earlier this week.
Each man had a short backstage promo to build up the match. Firstly, Joe claimed that he knew Kofi would refuse his handshake last week and he only did it to show everyone the kind of person that Kofi truly is.
Kingston later expressed how he needs to beat Joe at Extreme Rules if he is to prove himself as a ‘great’ WWE Champion.
These were both fairly forgettable, generic promos and didn’t add anything to the feud heading into this Sunday’s match.
Grade: C
#6 - Tag Team Summit
Next up was a ‘Tag Team Summit’ between the three teams that will be competing for the Smackdown tag team titles this Sunday at Extreme Rules.
New Day began proceedings with Big E saying that he had been hoping to be in a different kind of 3-way this weekend, but is looking forward to ‘touching championship tips’ on Sunday.
This brought out Daniel Bryan and Rowan, who said this is exactly why everyone thinks the Smackdown tag team division is a joke, because of teams like New Day and Heavy Machinery not taking anything seriously.
Heavy Machinery then cut a quick promo, vowing to win the match on Sunday before Otis, Bryan and Xavier Woods faced off a triple threat match.
This was a really fun match with everyone getting the chance to shine, even the tag partners, who fought on the outside before being sent to the back by the referee.
It was a particularly strong showing for Otis who had a couple of impressive spots, most notably a double delayed suplex to both Bryan and Woods. It was Otis that went on to win the match after pinning Woods, picking up some momentum for Heavy Machinery heading into Sunday.
Grade: B+
#7 - Knock, Knock. Who's There?
Up next was Aleister Black, who was eager to find out who his opponent will be at Extreme Rules.
At first, it appeared as though we would have to wait until the pay-per-view to find out, but then Cesaro entered to reveal himself as Black’s challenger.
This was short and sweet but does set up a potentially show-stealing match between the two men for this Sunday.
There were two questions coming out of this segment. Firstly, will Aleister Black be able to step up to the challenge after weeks of begging for competition? And more importantly, why was Cesaro wearing a mouthguard when he was backstage and dressed in street clothes?
Grade: B-
#8 - Stunner on McMahon!
After cancelling the scheduled main event at the start of the show, Shane McMahon announced that Dolph Ziggler would instead be facing Roman Reigns in the final match of the night.
This came about after Dolph confronted Shane backstage and said he still wants a fight, so Shane made the aforementioned match and accompanied Dolph to ringside, along with Elias and Drew McIntyre.
The main event match itself was uninspiring and plodded along with expected moments of interference from the heels.
However, there was a chaotic finish to the show. After Roman took out Elias and Drew at ringside, Kevin Owens then made his way back into the arena to hit a stunner on Shane McMahon before Roman speared Dolph and got the win.
Smackdown went off the air quite abruptly after this, but at least the show ended on a high.
Grade: B-
Tonight’s Smackdown was entertaining throughout and was book-ended by two exciting segments involving Kevin Owens, who was undoubtedly the MVP of tonight’s show.
Whilst it wasn’t a home run in terms of selling this Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view, it was a fun two hours of television and set up some potentially interesting developments moving forward.
Overall Grade: B+
