The June 26, 2018 Edition of Smackdown Live is a Professional wrestling television show of the WWE's Smackdown brand, which took place on June 26, 2018 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California.
Summary[]
After they cost Daniel Bryan his opportunity to prevail in last week's Gauntlet Match to determine the challenger for WWE Champion AJ Styles at WWE Extreme Rules, The Bludgeon Brothers appeared on “Miz TV” where The A-Lister attempted to raise the SmackDown Tag Team Champions’ level of fervor toward his longtime rival Daniel Bryan.
However, Miz drew the ire of The Bludgeon Brothers himself, and they seemed ready to pummel The A-Lister until Bryan hit the scene, looking for a fight after they decimated him last week. Harper and Rowan each seemingly wanted a crack at The “Yes!” Man, but it was decided that Harper would get the “honors” tonight.
Following his monumental victory last week to become the challenger to WWE Champion AJ Styles at WWE Extreme Rules, Rusev went savage and tweeted out a special thank you to Xavier Woods for being there since the “beginning,” including several images of him pounding Woods on NXT, SmackDown LIVE and at WrestleMania.
Feeling majorly disrespected, Woods, with his New Day brethren by his side, squared off against The Bulgarian Brute, who was flanked by Aiden English, on SmackDown LIVE. The scrappy Woods brought the fight to The Super Athlete, but Rusev's brutal onslaught was too much, and he defeated Woods with the Accolade for the tapout victory.
After the match, Rusev grabbed the microphone and declared that this victory was a preview of what he was going to do to Styles at WWE Extreme Rules. In essence, he was going to crush him.
SmackDown LIVE got double the GLOW when Lana and Naomi bumped into the cast of Netflix's GLOW, which will see its second-season premiere on Friday, June 29. The show's stars, led by Alison Brie, thanked the Superstars for their support and love of the show and then also suggested that Naomi and Lana should be working together instead of being rivals after their impressive performance in the Dance-Off three weeks ago. At first, The Ravishing Russian and Naomi both seemed hesitant, but the more they thought about it, the more they seemed to warm up to the idea, and all the ladies joined in a massive “Feel the GLOW” chant.
With Shinsuke Nakamura unable to compete in his scheduled United States Title Match against Jeff Hardy tonight due to injury, the United States Championship Open Challenge was resurrected with Eric Young from SAnitY answering the call.
Hardy and Young went back and forth in an aggressive contest that saw The Charismatic Enigma have to constantly watch his back due to the presence of Young's SAnitY cohorts, Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe. However, the odds would soon be evened when The Usos, who were still furious over SAnitY's ambush attack of them last week, hopped the guardrail and went after Dain and Wolfe at ringside. This brawl then spilled into the ring, with both Young and Hardy getting involved, which lead to a disqualification. However, even after the bell, all six Superstars continued throwing fists.
Because of the chaos that closed out the Jeff Hardy vs. Eric Young match, SmackDown LIVE General Manager Paige declared that the bout would be restarted as a Six-Man Tag Team Match.
With emotions running high, all six Superstars were relentless. SAnitY's unpredictable attack kept Hardy & The Usos reeling, but the WWE veterans refused to stay down, firing back every chance they got. In the critical moments, The Usos eliminated Killain Dain with a barrage of superkicks and a massive dive, which allowed The Charismatic Enigma to hit Alexander Wolfe with a picture-perfect Swanton Bomb for the win in the impromptu Six-Man Tag Team Match.
After Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose antagonized Becky Lynch earlier in the day, The Irish Lass Kicker faced off against Deville on the blue brand as she attempted to continue her winning ways.
Deville put her hair up and squared up against the first-ever SmackDown Women's Champion, but the presence of Mandy Rose at ringside wasn't enough for the tough-as-nails Deville, and after “Becky Balboa” bumped Deville into Rose, who had already interfered in the match, she trapped Sonya in the Dis-arm-her for the tapout victory.
Still incensed after feeling disrespected by The Empress of Tomorrow last week, James Ellsworth arrived on SmackDown LIVE this week with one intention: To call out Asuka.
However, his summoning of The Empress led to the arrival of SmackDown LIVE General Manager Paige, who told the WWE Universe that the only reason Ellsworth had so much bravado tonight was because he knew that Asuka was not here since she was with her family in Japan. However, Paige addressed several things while in the ring with Big James. For one, due to Ellsworth's surprise return at WWE Money in the Bank that arguably swayed the result of the SmackDown Women's Championship Match, Ellsworth's Princess Carmella would have to defend the title against Asuka again at WWE Extreme Rules.
Indignant, Ellsworth then asked Paige if that was all or if she was here to ask him out on a date. Paige responded by saying Ellsworth actually would have a date next Tuesday... in a one-on-one match against Asuka!
With so much pent-up aggression to unleash, Daniel Bryan did not hesitate to throw down with Harper in the main event of SmackDown LIVE.
Fighting freely, smartly and ferociously, The “Yes!” Man took the fight to the Bludgeon Brother, even with Rowan lurking at ringside. However, due to his massive size advantage, Harper eventually took control and began to pound Bryan into the canvas.
Yet, Bryan once again fought back and appeared to have Harper in trouble when he caught him with the “Yes!” Lock in the middle of the ring, but Rowan immediately rushed into the ring and blindsided Bryan with an ambush attack. The Bludgeon Brothers appeared ready to do their worst, but just when it seemed they were going to absolutely obliterate The “Yes!” Man, his former Team Hell No partner Kane returned to help his friend!
From there, Bryan and Kane laid a beating on The Bludgeon Brothers and hurled them out of the ring before staring each other down, with Daniel clearly shocked to see Kane on the blue brand. After a few tense moments and several chants of “hug it out,” The Big Red Machine extended his arms to Bryan for one of their signature hugs. At first, Bryan seemed hesitant after all the ups and downs they’d shared, but in a moment of lucidity, Bryan embraced Kane with a big red hug for the ages.
The WWE Universe was euphoric, and SmackDown LIVE General Manager Paige then hit the scene to announce that she wasn't going to let this moment pass through her fingers, declaring that SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers would be defending their titles at WWE Extreme Rules against, yes, Team Hell No!
Results[]
- Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.
- (c) refers to the champion(s) heading into the match.
- Dark Match: Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows defeated The Bar (Cesaro & Sheamus)
- Rusev (w/ Aiden English) defeated Xavier Woods (w/ Big E & Kofi Kingston) by submission (8:55)
- Eric Young (w/ Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain) defeated Jeff Hardy (c) by disqualification in a WWE United States Championship match (9:40)
- Jeff Hardy & The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) defeated Sanity (Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain) (6:55)
- Becky Lynch defeated Sonya Deville (w/ Mandy Rose) by submission (8:55)
- Daniel Bryan defeated Luke Harper (w/ Erick Rowan) by disqualification (12:50)
Other on-screen talent[]
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