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It was the penultimate episode of Smackdown Live before Money In The Bank, but while there were many stars who decided to step up their game ahead of the historic event, there were a few others who were definitely having an off day.
There is still one more week of wrestling action before Money In The Bank takes place next weekend, but it's going to be hard for many fans to forget some of the botches that took place this week on Smackdown Live. Here are five botches that you probably missed this week on Smackdown Live.
#5. Is Bayley in the Money in the Bank ladder match?
It wasn't just the superstars who were having a bad day this week on Smackdown Live since Corey Graves accidentally stated that Bayley was in the Money In The Bank ladder match instead of Natalya. The Saviour of Misbehaviour apologized and reiterated that it was The Queen on Harts that was in the match despite suffering an injury last night on Raw, but Bayley decided to take to Twitter to show that she had heard what Graves said and was still heartbroken that she wasn't able to make history with the eight women who were able to qualify.
Tom Phillips later revealed that Lana and Rusev were looking to become the first ever Mrs. and Mrs. Money in the Bank before he was corrected by Corey, who reminded him that Rusev would be Mr. Money in the Bank.
#4. Lana still isn't there
There has been a lot of talk about Lana being given a push on Smackdown Live alongside her husband Rusev in the coming months, but even though WWE officials are hot on the pairing of Lana and The Bulgarian Brute, Lana can't back this up in the ring. After botching her finisher in order to qualify for the Money in the Bank match a few weeks ago, this week Lana's timing was off as she went to roll up Naomi.
Lana has improved a lot in the ring, but she needs to iron out some of these kinks in her work otherwise she will never be taken seriously in the women's division with the likes of Becky, Charlotte, and Asuka.
#3. Did Kofi forget his lines?
The New Day was backstage this week as they continued to tease the member of the group who would be part of the Money in the Bank ladder match, but as the trio played another trick on The Miz and failed to reveal who the participant would be, Kofi seemed as though he forgot his lines.
The former Tag Team Champion had to rely on Xavier Woods to feed him the lines that he was supposed to say before he was able to get back into the swing of things. The New Day do well to cover for each other usually, but this one was noticeable.
#2. Sonya Deville vs Asuka
Asuka takes on Carmella for the SmackDown Women's Championship at Money In The Bank next Sunday night and ahead of the match, Asuka opted to take on the team of Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville on her own. It wasn't the kind of match that Smackdown Live would have wanted to open with, since there were a number of botches, the worst one being when Deville met Asuka's knee accidentally.
The kicks in the match were quite impressive until it was made obvious that Deville was supposed to duck a kick and she was then kneed in the head. The fact that Deville got straight back up and delivered a spear proved that this wasn't something that was supposed to happen.
#1. Happy Rusev Day
Lana has been a surprising entry into this year's Money in the Bank women's ladder match, but that doesn't mean that she isn't still a rookie in the ring. Lana has been known to make a number of mistakes in the ring and as already seen, Lana did set the tone of the match, but the referee was also having a rough Rusev Day.
As seen here, Aiden English was pushed into the corner and the referee was in the way so he ended up being hit. Whilst he did hold his ribs for a while, he decided not to sell anymore and continued the match. English didn't let that affect him and just carried on like a true professional, but it was definitely quite a noticeable botch on the referee's behalf.
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