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WWE SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (June 26, 2020) with a show at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. There won’t be any real fans in attendance, but we will see a tribute to the Undertaker, which might just be a replay of the Boneyard match from WrestleMania 36. AJ Styles vs. Drew Gulak is also advertised, as well as Sheamus offering a toast to Jeff Hardy.
Come right back here at 8 p.m. ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on Fox. It will be below this line here. (REMINDER: NO GIFS OR PICS ARE ALLOWED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR JUNE 26
Ten years of a white flag, waving in the wind. Ghost town, ghost country, no sign of the sleeping, and all we needed was a reason, but me? I’m just here to liveblog this here pro wrestling show, folks.
The show opens with a video package about the Undertaker.
The assembled wrestlers around the ringside area chant for the Deadman.
We get a montage of Undertaker’s debut at Survivor Series 1990.
Commentary hypes up a replay of the Boneyard match and we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get a video package of John Cena and Roman Reigns putting the Undertaker over.
The promised replay of the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and the Undertaker begins after that, so I’ll see y’all when it’s done, folks.
Oh, it turns out it’s not a clean replay of the match, because we break back in with more superstars putting Undertaker over. Thrilling stuff.
While I’m here, can I interest anyone in this match I found between baby Kane and BattlArts legend / Tim Thatcher mentor Yuki Ishikawa that I’m watching the pass the time during this here replay? Wild stuff. Love shoot-style Kane.
Another break-in, more tributes, this time from Kane (dangit, I should have waited for the natural segue!) and Ric Flair.
The Boneyard Match wraps up and King Baron Corbin gets on the mic.
He says it was a boneyard because the Undertaker is an old bag of bones, a shell of what he used to be. He mocks Taker’s storied 30-year career and says he spent most of that kissing the McMahons’ asses. A 30-year career is impossible, he says, unless you’re coddled and protected by the owners, and Undertaker has been stealing money from WWE for the last 20 years.
Corbin calls the Deadman a selfish son of a bitch who holds superior athletes like him down, and now he’s gotta stand around and hear these legends pay respect to the Undertaker? They chant “Thank you, Taker?” well, he doesn’t thank him. He wants to leave Mark Calaway with one final thought— he sucks!
Jeff Hardy attacks from behind! He knocks Corbin to the floor and takes him out with a dropkick through the ropes!
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Kurt Angle putting the Undertaker over.
Jeff Hardy is interviewed backstage.
He says Undertaker would be on his Mount Rushmore four times and everybody in this company owes a debt of gratitude to him. Since the Deadman can’t be here to do it himself, he’s gonna challenge Baron Corbin to a match tonight.
Bayley and Sasha Banks join the commentary booth.
Alexa Bliss vs. Dana Brooke vs. Lacey Evans vs. Nikki Cross (WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship #1 Contender’s Match)
Jockeying for position for pines, chaos at the jump, the two that aren’t a tag team go after the former tag champs, Bliss and Cross hug but Nikki turns it into a schoolboy pin for two! They shake hands, Alexa with a side headlock, shot off, drop down, Evans trips Bliss up and throws her into the barricade!
Double-teams on Cross, handspring splash, Lacey breaks it up! Nikki with forearms to both, Bliss back in, they get stacked up in the corner, handspring back elbow from Brooke into a lariat and the Senton de la Muerte from Evans! Lacey turns on Dana, grounded punches get another handspring back elbow, scoop and a slam!
Brooke heads up top, senton atomico... CROSS BREAKS IT UP! Alexa in, hard rights into the Nodowa Otoshi on Dana, she goes up top, thinking Twisted Bliss... THE KNEES ARE UP! A dropkick from Evans sends Brooke out of the ring, she fights off the erstwhile tag champs 1-on-2 but Nikki stacks her up in the corner!
Stinger Splash sidestepped, to the apron, peppering her with strikes, slingshot elbow drop, Brooke back in and she lays her out with the Womna’s Right! Cross rolls her up...
Nikki Cross wins by pinfall with a side folding press to become #1 contender to the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship.
We see tag teams chilling out backstage ahead of an atomicos match to sends us to break.
Back from commercial, Triple H and Shawn Michaels add their voices to the pile of tributes for the Deadman.
Artist Collective (Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura), John Morrison, & the Miz vs. Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado) & New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston)
E to start, he wants one of the Artists but he gets Miz and starts wailing on him! To the apron, clubbing blows, back inside, tags made, Cesaro and Lince Dorado going at it, power vs. speed, lucha wins the day, and they keep the Swiss Cyborg isolated for a beat. Getting Metalik in the corner, working him over, tags to Morrison and Kingston and we go to break soon after.
Back from commercial, Kingston is still in a bad way as Miz and Morrison work him over with quick tags. Metalik gets the tag, springboard tijeras takes John out, dropkicks for everybody else as they run in but Morrison cuts him off with a kick. Off the ropes, rolling sunset flip powerbomb for two! Tag to Dorado, diving moonsault sets up a shooting star press but all the heels make the save!
The match breaks down, New Day hit the ring, brawling breaks out and New Day fight the Artist Collective up the ramp and out of the arena! Miz tags in, whip Drado across, springboard Stunner! Lince up top, diving Frankensteiner puts Morrison on the floor! Metalik legal, he walks the ropes...
Lucha House Party & New Day win by pinfall with the Gran Naniwa elbow drop from Gran Metalik on the Miz.
King Baron Corbin is interviewed backstage.
He scoffs at the idea of Jeff Hardy being mentored by the Undertaker and says he’s gonna teach Jeff a lesson in reality.
Braun Strowman is shown walking backstage to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Braun Strowman makes his entrance.
He gets on the mic and says he wants to tell us about the first time he met Bray Wyatt and felt fear for the first time in his life.
The kind of fear that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, that makes a grown man tremble. He was sitting in the swamp, and he saw a water moccasin slither toward Bray’s lantern, and he wanted to stomp it to death, but Wyatt stopped him and told him the snake was his friend. He walked over to the snake, knelt down, and got face-to-face with it.
The snake coiled up and lashed out and bit Bray right in the face, and all he did was laugh. He laughed as the snake bit him over and over and over, and Braun knew he was in the presence of evil. Wyatt didn’t get poisoned, bleed, or even flinch when this snake bit him in the face, all he did was laugh.
At that moment, he knew Bray Wyatt as the devil himself. And so, he started doing the devil’s work, and the bad part of it all was that he loved every second of it. He tried to lock it away deep in his mind, but it calls to him, and he can’t go on living like this. He asks Bray if he’ll go back to the swamp, that eerie, miserable hell he calls a home.
There’s only two ways this is gonna turn out— either he comes out of this the most evil son of a bitch the earth has ever seen, or he’s coming out with the satisfaction that he spit in the devil’s face and dragged him into the swamp to let the alligators finish him.
Strowman laughs, and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Dave Batista and Mick Foley offer their tributes to the Undertaker.
King Baron Corbin vs. Jeff Hardy
Corbin in control early, Hardy turns it around after a trip to the floor and brings it back in the ring with hard strikes. Whip reversed, back elbow in the corner, up top... WHISPER IN THE WIND BUT NOBODY’S HOME! Baron throws Jeff into the post, he mocks the Undertaker’s kneeling “call the lightning” pose, and we go to break.
Back from commercial, about a dozen members of the roster have surrounded the ring to support Jeff Hardy, in the middle of pandemic during which a significant number of their fellow employees have tested positive. Masks? Of course not! I can’t. I can’t.
...deep breath.
Corbin’s in control. Action to the floor, back in, cover for two. Jockeying for position, but badly, because Corbin isn’t any good in straight-up singles and Hardy is worn down with age. Jeff with his comeback sequence. Deep Six gets a deep nearfall. Hardy regains control and goes up top...
Jeff Hardy wins by pinfall with the Swanton Bomb.
Post-match, Corbin attacks Hardy but the New Day cut him off and E hits the Big Ending, for some reason. Braun Strowman comes in and hits the running powerslam. Matt Riddle hits a diving senton.
The babyfaces celebrate.
The show is over.