WWE SmackDown Recap & Reactions (June 9, 2016): Down in a Hole

This week’s episode of SmackDown aired on the USA Network on June 9, 2016, originating from Wichita, Kansas. The WWE is building towards the WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view (PPV). For full results and the live blog, click here.

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Realest Guys in the Club

AJ Styles led the Club to the ring for an in-ring promo to start the show. Styles talked about this year’s Money in the Bank being the biggest ever because of his historic match-up with the Face That Runs the Place, John Cena. After being interrupted by Cena chants, Styles said what everyone has been thinking. In the past ten years, the WWE has been the John Cena Era and the New Era cannot start until Styles takes out Cena. Styles said this was the plan all along. He made sure that Styles would not sign to WWE without the Club.

Styles talked about dominating in every country he has been. At MITB, he will personally show Cena that he cannot beat him. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows will dominate the Fatal Fourway for the Tag Team Championship and become the new champions.

This declaration brought out one of the participating teams in that match, Enzo and Big Cass, who took exception to Styles’ prediction of the Club winning the titles, calling Anderson and Gallows a "Mr. Clean Dream Team". Anderson clapped back, asking whether Enzo used to manage a "Hooters". Enzo fired back and then Gallows made fun of Enzo’s recent concussion.

Eh, this was better than the confrontation between the Club and the New Day but it was still a little rough in parts. After all the smack talking, it was announced that Anderson and Gallows would face Enzo and Big Cass after the break.

New Day took over commentary for the match that saw Anderson and Gallows punish Enzo in the early going. Enzo had a great moment where he hung Anderson on the ropes and eluded a big boot from Gallows but was cut just short of his miraculous dash to get a tag to Enzo.

The Vaudevillians entered on the stage as the show went to another commercial, cutting off what I feel was a pretty important moment in the match. At this point, it started to feel like too much was going on.

Back from the break, Enzo finally breaks free from Gallows after a huge DDT. He gets the hot tag to Big Cass. An Empire Elbow would have ended the match but the pin was broken up. The Vaudevillians walked to ringside and New Day ambushed him, causing all the teams to fight and the match to end in a no contest.

After the brawl was done, Enzo and Cass stood tall in the ring to end the segment.

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Looney in the Bank

The feud between Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho began over a talk show segment on RAW. The Highlight Reel was canceled in favor of the Ambrose Asylum. A plant named Mitch was used as a weapon to take out Ambrose. In return, Dean destroyed Jericho’s light up Christmas tree jacket. Most fans who feel like I do and hated everything about this feud had hoped the Ambrose Asylum cage match at Extreme Rules was the end of this rivalry. But, oh, no, it continued tonight on SmackDown, as both Jericho and Ambrose will be in the MITB ladder match.

At the beginning of the match, Jericho slapped Ambrose, screaming that he had put him through 59 (or was it 69?) thumbtacks at Extreme Rules. A chase ensued and Ambrose ended up on the winning end of the situation, even mocking Jericho’s "Come on, baby!" gesture. Whenever Jericho went on offense, he continued to yell about thumbtacks.

After taking Jericho out with a suicide dive, Ambrose looked to put Y2J through the announce table. Jericho reversed it and launched him face first into the floor. Then threw a drink at Ambrose.

The match was pretty much back and forth from there with commentary even pointing out how "evenly matched" the two are. Chris Jericho pinned Ambrose after a Codebreaker.

After the match, Jericho set up a ladder in the corner and went to send Ambrose into the ladder but Ambrose reversed the momentum, sending Jericho face first into the ladder.  Ambrose climbed another ladder and landed a flying elbow on Jericho after pointing at the MITB briefcase.

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Other Segments/Matches:

• Rusev and Lana interview: Titus O’Neil has a United States Championship title match at Money in the Bank against Rusev and the build is going to be about how Rusev doesn’t deserve to hold the title because he isn’t American. Oh, great. This crap again.
• Sami Zayn and Cesaro versus Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio: Pretty decent tag team match that turned into a singles match when KO went to walk out on his partner again and ended up brawling with Zayn to the back. Cesaro hit an impressive dead lift vertical suplex when KO and Zayn come back to ringside. While KO and ADR argued, Zayn hit both with a suicide dive. The action broke down shortly after which led to Kevin Owens pinning Cesaro after Del Rio’s Double Boot from the top rope. After the match, KO celebrated atop a ladder in the aisle, leaving his opponents and his partner by the wayside.
• Becky Lynch versus Dana Brooke: Pretty quick match that saw both the Women’s Champion, Charlotte, and Natalya ejected. Becky Lynch won with a Disarmer. Besides Becky winning, I did not enjoy anything about this segment.
• Make Darren Young Great Again: Hold on. When was Darren Young ever great to begin with? Shouldn’t that question have been answered before this entire thing started?
• Kalisto versus Baron Corbin: Dolph Ziggler was on commentary for this match. He was pretty annoying towards Corbin during the match. The Lone Wolf won the match with the End of Days. Corbin did not confront Ziggler after the match, choosing to leave instead.
• Sheamus backstage segment: While bragging about appearing in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Sheamus was confronted and punched in the face by Apollo Crews.

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Final Thoughts and Opinions:

I did not really enjoy this show all that much. Both big tag matches were fun but the opening match was hindered by the constant commercial breaks and all the extra things going on around the match. Kevin Owens was great but I do feel like the build to the MITB ladder match is the same as the build to the Fatal 4-Way for the Intercontinental Championship and the IC ladder match at WrestleMania 32. I have seen it already. I do appreciate how Sami and KO are committed to hating each other, though.

The other stuff was just . . . . I could not bring myself to care about any of it, which includes the main event. I will say this about Jericho versus Ambrose. As sick as I am of those two fighting, they both do small little things during their matches that I do find entertaining, so there’s that.

Yeah, pretty disappointing show. Nothing to see here. The show goes live July 19!

Rating: 5 out of 10

That’s all for this week, Cagesiders! Leave your thoughts on the show in the comments!