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The picture is starting to take shape for the Money In The Bank pay per view that will take place two weeks from this Sunday on June 9th live from Chicago, Illinois. After this week's edition of SmackDown Live, there is only one spot left for both the men and the women to qualify for the ladder matches.
Sportskeeda is the one-stop destination for latest WWE rumors and wrestling news.
Samoa Joe will take on Daniel Bryan for the final men's spot on next week's edition of SmackDown Live; while there will be a gauntlet match featuring the women of Monday Night Raw to fill their final spot.
This week's edition of SmackDown Live was the first since it was reported that the show will move to FOX in October 2019. It is worth noting that the WWE has not publicly announced the move yet, but multiple sources are reporting that a deal has been agreed upon in principle.
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Just like I have on my first editions of report cards for NXT and Monday Night Raw, I will do the same for the major moments of this week's edition of SmackDown Live. Let's kick it off with the most see show in the WWE today, Miz TV!
The Miz and The New Day kick off the show
The Miz had The New Day on Miz TV this week to try to get the scoop on which member of The New Day will be the one representing them in the Money In The Bank Ladder Match. The Miz would talk about how Kofi Kingston has been in six of these ladder matches with zero victories, how Big E can never be serious, and how Xavier Woods knows when to be serious and how he's built his YouTube channel Up Up Down Down from the ground up.
It was clear The Miz was trying to get them to choose Woods as Miz sees him as the lesser threat compared to Big E and Kofi. Just when it appeared The New Day were going to name Big E their representative, they were joking that they were talking about something else and won't reveal who it will be to keep the other competitors guessing.
As with most editions of Miz TV, this was a very fun and solid segment.
GRADE FOR MIZ TV: B+
When the New Day said Big E, it was to take on The Miz in one-on-one competition, but he wasn't interested in that; however, just as he got to the Gorilla position, SmackDown Live General Manager Paige told Miz he's going to have a match with Big E, and it will be RIGHT NOW!
The match itself was really solid and I think the WWE is on the verge of pushing Big E as a singles championship contender; while Kofi and Xavier remain a tag team. On this night, thanks to The Bar attacking The New Day, Miz was able to nail the Skull Crushing Finale on Big E off the distraction.
GRADE: B
Lana qualifies for the Money In The Bank Ladder Match
This was more about the moment than it was a great match when Lana defeated Billie Kay only one minute into the match to qualify for Money In The Bank.
Just like he does for Rusev, Aiden English came out and gave a great introduction for the Ravishing Russian. Lana got a tremendous ovation from the WWE Universe and instead of Rusev Day, English had the crowd chanting Lana Day.
The IIconics of Peyton Royce and Billie Kay came out and did another great job of being annoying. I just love their characters and how the WWE Universe is hating them, that means they're doing their job well.
As Royce was slapping English on the outside, Lana would return to the slap and send her into the barricade. As soon as Billie and Lana got in the ring, Lana would hit a kick and a sit-out facebuster to get a quick win.
Thought the match was super quick, I loved everything about this segment.
GRADE: B+
Shinsuke Nakamura announces the stipulation for the WWE Championship at Money In The Bank
With Renee Young in the ring, AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura came out for the announcement of the stipulation for their WWE Championship match at Money In The Bank. After talking smack (pun intended) to each other, Nakamura announced that the stipulation would be a pillow fight. That was hilarious.
Styles had enough of Nakamura's shenanigans as he was repeatedly yelling "knee to face". AJ was about to leave when Nakamura tried to sucker punch him setting off a great brawl that took place all over ringside.
Nakamura would hit the Kinshasa to Styles and then count to 10; which revealed what stipulation Nakamura was going to choose, Last Man Standing.
It was a great moment to further add to this feud, and I expect the Last Man Standing Match to be the best out of this series.
GRADE: A
The Usos vs. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, winner faces Bludgeon Brothers at Money In The Bank
Before the match, The Usos, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows were trading verbal jabs with their familiar catchphrases leading up to the #1 contender's match where the winner gets the task of facing The Bludgeon Brothers at Money In The Bank.
My only complaint on this segment was that the match was really short at about six minutes. With that said, I am happy that Gallows and Anderson are on a roll once again as they deserve to be on the top of the tag division in the WWE.
I had previously stated that I expected Gallows and Anderson to be the ones to dethrone Harper and Rowan, but it probably won't be at Money In The Bank.
GRADE: C+
Jeff Hardy vs. Daniel Bryan for the first time
When Daniel Bryan announced that he was cleared to return to in-ring competition within the WWE, one of the first WWE Superstars I wanted to see him in the ring with was Jeff Hardy.
That dream match occurred for the first time on SmackDown Live this week in a second-chance match, with the winner getting Samoa Joe next week to fill in the final spot for the men's Money In The Bank Ladder Match.
For the time given, you could see glimpses of magic between the two. It was a good 11-minute match that could eventually lead to an amazing 20-minute pay per view match sometime in the future.
In the end, Bryan worked on Hardy's knee so much where when he put on a heel hook submission, Hardy couldn't do anything but tap out. The win by Bryan gives us another great match between him and Samoa Joe next week.
GRADE: A
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