Smackdown 6/18/15 Review

Instead of an Authority opening promo, we are joined by Mr. Money in the Bank, Sheamus. He bragged about how he will become WWE World Heavyweight Champion and nobody will get in his way. Dean Ambrose interrupts and says some surprisingly corny jokes. Kane comes out and books a handicap match. He and Sheamus beat up on Ambrose until Roman Reigns makes the save. You know what that means don't you? Our main event will be the Teddy Long special, a tag team match playa. I really wonder if the WWE even tries with Smackdown anymore. I rarely see any effort whatsoever and it's rather annoying. It sometimes feels like the WWE should not even produce Smackdown if they're going to put on the shows they do.

The Divas are next as Paige takes on Brie Bella. They're still playing the "Paige against the Bellas" things. When the putrid Brie Mode theme hits, Paige covers her ears. They worked a solid match through the commercial break. Alicia Fox came out and shoved Paige off the top, allowing Brie to win. I get Divas not helping Paige but why would they help the Bellas? This should all lead an NXT girl or two coming to Paige's aid. Renee Young interviews Kevin Owens about what he did to Machine Gun Kelly. Owens says that Kelly touched him first and also blames John Cena. Cesaro interrupts and mocks Owens for talking and not fighting leading to a match later tonight, which should be good.

Bo Dallas shows up and cuts a promo about Lana being on the rebound after Rusev. Dolph Ziggler obviously takes offense to that especially after Bo makes a Tinder joke. This was your standard Bo Dallas match, lasting a pretty short time. Ziggler wins to fix his losses from Money in the Bank and Raw. He kisses Lana after and that's all. I don't get pairing him with Lana. It's done ZERO for either character. Lana was red hot at the end of her run with Rusev and now she's just there. Our next match pit Neville against Xavier Woods. Fun match here and when New Day tried to get involved, the Prime Time Players joined evened the odds. Neville wins with the Red Arrow, continuing the theme of New Day winning with the advantage but losing when the odds are even. Seth Rollins is out next to cut a promo. He talked about being the future and being the best. He was shocked to see Brock Lesnar on Raw but understands why, since he's beaten everyone else. In his mind, Lesnar lost his mystique when he Curb Stomped him at WrestleMania. Solid work from Seth who has become one of the better mic workers in the company, which is definitely a long way from his work in Ring of Honor. We see highlights of Bray Wyatt's promo on Roman Reigns from Raw before seeing Reigns and Ambrose prepare backstage. Ambrose brings up Wyatt, which upsets Reigns. It's a small thing but it did a good job to show that Bray has gotten into Reigns' head.

In the battle between Kevin Owens and Cesaro, I came out a bit disappointed. It looked like they had a really good match in them, but cut it down and just had a solid one. Owens obviously wins. I hope Cesaro gets something of note to do while Tyson Kidd is out. He's too good to just have in meaningless matches. Miz cuts a promo about movies before we get out main event. They worked the match you'd expect until Wyatt appeared on the tron to sing "I'm a Little Teapot". This distraction allowed Sheamus to score with the Brogue Kick and win. The lights go out and when they come back on, the picture of Reigns and his daughter is in the ring. Maybe I was a bit hard on Smackdown earlier but for the most part, nothing of real note or consequence happens on Thursdays. You could miss it weekly and be in tune with what's going on. That being said, this wasn't bad television, it just wasn't very good either. 5/10.