Renee Young and a rather tan Shane McMahon welcome the WWE Universe to this week’s edition of Talking Smack on the WWE Network. This week’s show is going to focus on the road to Smackdown Live’s next pay per view, Battleground, as it is a week from Sunday.
This week’s guests are Sami Zayn, The Usos, and John Cena. Zayn’s feud with Mike and Maria Kanellis escalated this week after Mike smashed a flower vase on Zayn’s head. The Usos continued to feud with The New Day as Xavier Woods took on Jey Uso. John Cena answered AJ Styles’ U.S. Open Challenge, but Kevin Owens and Rusev interrupted the moment; which set up a tag team main event.
To open this week’s show, Young and McMahon compare tans as Shane stated he’s been out surfing a lot lately. He even taught Renee what “hang ten” means before the first guests showed up.
#1 The Usos
The Smackdown Live Tag Team Champions arrived on the Talking Smack set, and Shane immediately congratulated The Usos for their performance in the rap battle against The New Day last week.
The Usos would complain about always having to go three on two against The New Day and Shane would respond with “is this something you cannot overcome?” The Usos responded with the fact that they have overcome obstacles their entire career.
The conversation would take a lighter tone next as Renee and Shane try to decipher what Day One Ish means. They also compliment Jimmy’s blingy wedding ring, though he personally didn’t want to have one that flashy. Finally, the brothers put over how great Naomi’s glowing title is before they head off the set.
#2 Sami Zayn
Sami Zayn shows up on the Talking Smack set with an ice bag after taking a shot to the head with a flower vase from Mike Kanellis. Zayn stated that he doesn’t feel well after the attack, and is pretty heated at the love couple.
Shane would unintentionally offend Zayn when he said that Maria’s zinger was a pretty good one when she said that “love hurts.” Obviously, Zayn was not in the mood for jokes after the attack.
They also discussed the fact that Mike took Maria’s last name. Zayn said that he is a progressive guy and this is 2017 and that he has no problem with a man taking his wife’s last name.
They then showed all the highlights of Zayn unintentionally interrupting Mike and Maria which lead to the attack this week. Zayn said that it is great that they’re in love, but he’s trying to do his thing in the WWE as well.
They end the conversation talking about the “Power Of Love” and how they are ruining it for Sami since he is a Huey Lewis and The News fan. Zayn said that he’s going to “love” whooping Mike’s ass after the attack tonight.
#3 John Cena
The final guest of the evening on Talking Smack is John Cena making his first appearance on the show in some time. Renee tries to talk to Cena about what he’s done outside of the WWE during his time off, but Cena only wants to talk about Battleground and his upcoming Flag Match against Rusev.
Cena described how the Flag Match works as you have to grab your country’s flag and wave it proudly to win the match. He stated that there is a lot of pressure on him to win, and if he doesn’t he should leave town.
Cena stated that he’s glad to be back, but is also glad to be able to take outside opportunities as it reflects well on the WWE. He indicated that one of his outside opportunities took him to Sydney, Australia just the night before.
To finish the night, Cena cut a promo about the necessity to win at Battleground. After finishing the promo he stated that he needed something to drink and took a sip out of Shane’s mug. It was hard telling what was in that mug!
