Smackdown Live
Battle Royal & Rap Battle Announced for Next Week’s SmackDown
Daniel Bryan announced on tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live that an Independence Day Battle Royal to determine a #1 contender for the United States Championship will take place next week.
Also announced for next week’s show is the return of John Cena and The New Day will compete against The Usos in a rap battle.
Road Dogg Responds to Complaints About Nakamura’s Entrance Being Cut
Lead SmackDown creative writer Road Dogg responded to fans on Twitter that complained about Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance on Smackdown Live being cut to commercial. He made the following remarks:
Thanks. We run a television show, they have commercials. See how sarcasm sounds?!
— Brian G. James (@WWERoadDogg) June 14, 2017
No sir, we can’t. You guys never cease to amaze me. It was NOT a mistake nor a poor decision. Business decisions are unpopular at times.
— Brian G. James (@WWERoadDogg) June 14, 2017
The Taz Show Recap – Smackdown Analysis, Defending Roman Reigns, Lana Readying for A Title Run, More!
Blocks 1 & 2:
Taz says that he didn’t think last night’s episode of Smackdown Live was very good for a ‘go-home’ show. It was an average show at best, but it should have been more given that it was the last show before Money in the Bank this coming Sunday.
Taz says that he liked the ladder match tease which ended the show, where Nakamura reached up and grabbed the briefcase. He thought this did a good job of promoting the ladder match and driving people to the PPV this Sunday, but this was the only part of the show to do so.
He didn’t like that during Jinder Mahal’s promo, The Singh Brothers were also standing on the area rug along with Mahal. He believes that mat should be solely for Mahal, and if he was the only person who was allowed to stand on it, it would seem far more important. He liked Randy Orton’s RKO out of nowhere, and he thought that spot was very well executed by the talent and captured perfectly by the cameraman.
Taz thought the 8-man tag team match between The Usos/Colons & Breezango/New Day was pretty entertaining. He adds that WWE is giving their viewers a lot of Breezango lately with in-ring matches as well as the Fashion File segments, and he urges them to be careful as to not over-expose the emerging team.
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Smackdown Analysis, Burying Jinder Mahal, Lesnar Turning on Heyman? More!
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.
He opens today’s show by saying that Smackdown Live simply isn’t for him. He has tried to review that show for three straight weeks now and it has been nothing more than six hours of wasted time. Next week Russo is going to switch back to watching and reviewing RAW because Smackdown Live just isn’t entertaining him.
Russo says that Smackdown Live is a ‘cookie cutter’ show. Every week it’s the exact same thing, and viewers are never given fresh looks or different programming. He points out that the opening segment with all the women in the ring was the exact same segment we saw with the men only two weeks ago.
He says that WWE has been hyping and promoting Lana’s debut for weeks, and when she finally came out the entire announce team no-sold it. He adds that they totally buried Lana by not selling her entrance, and it’s almost like they did it on purpose because it was that bad. He says that Tom Phillips is horrible because if he doesn’t sell something, the audience at home will never look at it as important.
