Tiffany Stratton pins Candace Lerae to claim a spot in the women’s Money In The Bank ladder match.
LA Knight punches his own ticket to the men’s Money In The Bank ladder match, defeating Logan Paul and Santos Escobar.
Naomi is also heading to the women’s ladder match in a week. She got a big assist from Jade Cargill , who took out Indi Hartwell for what Indi did to her earlier.
Best Match of the night:
I am not going to single out any one of the matches, because we only had three. Seriously. But, I will give a nod to the opening brawl (just the brawl, more on that later). But I like how the qualifiers have gone, with a decent amount of new faces getting shots in the big ladder matches.
Worst match of the night:
Not a match, but the opening segment had a flaw or two. Now, this may be clarified during the Bloodline ceremony later, but there was no Jacob Fatu . The babyfaces won the day, and none of the heels looked particularly scary here. On top of that, the faces didn’t gain the upper hand by surprising the Bloodline-the heels saw them coming a mile away.
Crowd Chants of the Night:
MSG was a hot crowd, no shock there. Right out of the chute, the crowd was chanting for Roman. Opening segment also got Randy chants. Among others.
Star of the Night
I am going to give this one to Paul Heyman. Sold a lot of things in different ways. From the bloodshot eyes and stubble giving us the impression he’s lost sleep over things. To taking a couple major bumps, as someone who generally does not bump. We had other good performances, but I love Heyman for this.
Just watch now. With Heyman gone, any measure of control that existed over Solo and company will (should) evaporate.
Spot of the Night:
Heyman getting put through the table should do it.
Jobber of the Night:
There’s going to be a theme here for this SmackDown . Yes, the “security” get a nod. The guy that took the stunner and RKO was good, but the one who took the CrossRhodes? He sold that like his life depended on it.
But yes, this one is Heyman’s too.
Upset of the Night:
Paul Heyman was beyond upset when Roman’s ceremonial piece came out. Now, as we know (from prior Bloodline segments), that cannot just be put on. It was given to Reigns by the elders, you have to beat the chief to get those (or so the story goes). So this move surely sets up the return of the tribal chief.
Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:
Heyman could have acknowledged Solo Sikoa as his tribal chief. But Heyman refused and got destroyed by the Bloodline. Complete with a Shield triple power bomb through the table, which I have to think was a very intentional move.
Botch of the night:
Seemed to me like Naomi had a botched corner move, but otherwise no big issues.
Noteworthy Moment:
Remember when I was meh about how Solo and company looked at the start? They (sort of) undid that a bit at the end of the show, though the counter to that is “it was only Heyman”.
Speaking of, once WWE had announced the Bloodline Acknowledgement Ceremony for this show, a lot of fans figured, it’s NYC, at MSG, that’s a great time for a Roman Reigns return. We didn’t get it, and I have to wonder if perhaps the death of his father altered any chance of him being here? But, I also don’t think it did. Solo and his new running mates need more heat, they need to do some damage. Heyman needs to disappear for a little while too, to sell the attack. I’d go for a Reigns return, as a surprise, at SummerSlam. Especially if we are getting Rhodes/Solo for the title.
Curious what, if anything else, WWE is setting up with Haliburton and Brunson. I feel like this was more than a one-off, but I also remind myself that both men are highly paid NBA stars. Stars with contracts that probably say that they can’t do anything crazy.
Overall lowlights:
The Bloodline needs a night or two of just destroying people. Right now, it feels like the only one afraid of them is Paul Heyman. And I typed that all out BEFORE he was the sacrificial lamb.
I have to say it. How do you have a PLE on Saturday, and put the SmackDown tag title defense on Friday? Nothing against defending any title on Mondays and Fridays (though I am old enough to remember when you never saw a world title defense on RAW or SmackDown). But when you have 24 hours until an actual PLE? I feel like that’s where the defense should be.
Overall highlights:
Pretty hot start for this SmackDown, which the crowd ate up. Very hot close which got plenty of new heat on the Bloodline. Three good ladder match qualifiers in between. All told, a strong MSG show, though I wish we had another match in there.
After the final bell:
I was lukewarm with things after the opening segment on this SmackdDown, because it felt like the hot heels lost some heat. After the main event segment, I can retract that statement.
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