The WWE Smackdown Reaction for 6/25/21 by Kelly Dishnow
Welcome to The Smackdown Reaction, where I offer my take on this week’s show. As always, you can check out John’s full in-depth review here.
We open up to find out Jey Uso is MIA again but Jimmy tells Roman Reigns that he is ready to step up in his absence.
Our opening match is a mixed tag with Cesaro and Bianca Belair taking on Seth Rollins and Bayley. We get good promos from Belair and Rollins before Bayley comes out to start the fight before Cesaro evens things up. The match itself was pretty good and action-packed. Cesaro got a quick swing in on Rollins at one point. The match had a clever ending to it. Belair had Bayley set up for the KOD finisher when Rollins bumped into her running away from Cesaro. That threw Belair off balance and Bayley countered with the Rose Plant to pick up the win for her team. I’m guessing both of these feuds must continue even though one was inside the feud ending Hell in a Cell.
Up next is the coronation of the 2021 King of the Ring, Shinsuke Nakamura. There was no tournament. Just a match last week? Well, anyway, Boogs played a little bit of Nakamura’s theme before crowning him the King of WWE. Baron Corbin was shown dejected backstage but it was really time for a new gimmick for Corbin. Also, how great has Pat McAfee been getting the Boogs act over? The Stone Cold-style water bottle smash was pretty awesome.
During the entrances for our Money in the Bank qualifier between Big E and Apollo Crews, a video package recapped the Alpha Academy/Street Profits feud. None of them are involved in the qualifier, so can we please stick to the task at hand? We get another really good match, as would be expected from these two. Commander Azeez didn’t really get involved in the match until the end and got tossed from ringside for it. Big E finished up with the Big Ending to qualify for Money in the Bank. Who knew letting Apollo Crews revert to his Uhaa Nation personality it would actually work? Big E is my early pick to win the briefcase.
Sami Zayn found out he has yet another match with Kevin Owens next week in a Money in the Bank qualification Last Man Standing match. Can we please end this feud?
Sonya Deville is out to hand Carmella a spot in the Women’s Money in the Bank match. Liv Morgan comes out complaining about it. I agree, Liv, but there isn’t enough women on Smackdown to run qualifying matches. Deville told Morgan to make a statement and beat Carmella again right here, right now. Since both of them came out in their ring gear, it’s on and Morgan picked up another victory over Carmella in a Three Minute Raw Special. The match was decent and I expect it to have been a Money in the Bank qualifier to advance Morgan to the match. I’d peg Morgan as a dark horse with decent odds to win the briefcase.
Jimmy Uso is out to prove himself against the Jobbing King Dolph Ziggler. The match was really good, in what turned out to be our main event, but the finish was never in doubt. Whenever Ziggler is out there, his job is to make his opponent look good and put him over. That’s exactly what Ziggler did here. Uso battled back from a nasty-looking Zig Zag onto the ring steps to finish Ziggler off with a superkick. I don’t remember the last time someone managed to win a match after one superkick.
We close out the show with Promo Time with Roman Reigns. Paul Heyman runs through everyone Roman has defeated in a very Brock Lesnar like promo before saying there’s no one left. Yes, Paul, that’s the problem and that falls completely on Creative. “Metalingus” and we’ve dug up Edge to fight Roman next. We get a nice little brawl before Jimmy Uso comes down to save Roman from Edge. Uso gets speared through the barricade for his troubles. Edge closes the show by yelling into the hard camera “Where are you, Roman? I’m right here.” Roman was on the stage and must have missed his cue to leave. Oopsie there.
Let’s look at tonight’s highs and lows:
The Highs
Solid in-ring action this week. None of the matches disappointed and delivered on quality. That even includes a match Carmella was involved in. Shocking, I know. Consistency is key and Smackdown has been running on it lately.
There was some good Money in the Bank setup this week. Two qualified (hopefully three) and the Universal Title match was set up. Next week’s announced qualifier match should be really good.
The Lows
Why didn’t Sonya Deville just tell us which one of the five Smackdown women is not going to Money in the Bank? There aren’t enough people to run qualifiers against and we know that someone is going to be left out. The women’s roster is very thin right now.
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That’s all I’ve got, until next time.