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WWE SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (June 24, 2022) with a live show emanating from Moody Center in Austin, Texas, featuring all the latest build for next month’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view (PPV) event.
Advertised for tonight: Gunther defends the Intercontinental title against the former champ, Ricochet.
Elsewhere on the card, there will be two Money in the Bank qualifying matches. The women’s division features Aliyah vs. Shotzi, while the men’s division features Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn.
Will WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns show up to address the surprise return of Brock Lesnar?
Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on FOX. It will be below this line here. (Note: Going forward, there will be no ban on GIFs or images in the live blog threads. Feel free to post as you wish.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR JUNE 24
Born to live again, standing strange in a sea of beige I’m spun and naked and reckless like a dream. Sweet dreams of otherness, in memory of mankind. I am listening but I can’t hear you, because I’m busy liveblogging this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens with a recap of Roman Reigns beating Matt Riddle to retain his titles and Brock Lesnar returning to issue the challenge.
Drew McIntyre makes his entrance, sword in tow, and gets on the mic.
He says that he’s gonna win Money in the Bank and then beat whoever out of Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns with a Claymore and claim the titles.
Enter Sheamus and his pals.
He says nuh-uh he’s gonna do all that stuff and the only reason Drew is in the match is because of him and the truth is he doesn’t belong, and his only experience with Money in the Bank is watching someone else cash in on him and take his title away. But ol’ Sheamy is a former Money in the Bank winner and he cashed in on Roman Reigns himself.
Enter Paul Heyman, with Adam Pearce right behind him.
Paul cuts a promo about how Roman’s going to retain the title but even the GOAT is vulnerable to a post-match cash-in of Money in the Bank and he’s here to make sure that never happens again.
Pearce gets on the mic and admits he was hasty in putting both Sheamus and Drew McIntyre in the Money in the Bank ladder match and after some influence from Mr. Heyman, WWE management has overruled his decision and neither man will be in the ladder match.
However, they can both qualify if they can win a tag match against the Usos.
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, Sami Zayn is interviewed in Gorilla.
He talks what a great night this is going to be for the Bloodline, because the Usos are gonna take Drew and Sheamus out of Money in the Bank and he, the honorary Uce, is going to qualify for Money in the Bank, and he’s going to win the briefcase to protect Roman Reigns.
Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (Money in the Bank Qualifying Match)
Nakamura with a cross armbar out the gates, Zayn manages to roll over and get a foot on the ropes to block. Knees and kicks, trapping Sami in the ropes and Shinsuke hits the sliding German suplex! Back inside, thrust kick to the dome, cover for two. Zayn puts Nakamura into the barricade hard on the floor, happy to take the countout but Shinsuke beats the count!
Inside cradle, tight two, lariat into stomps, Sami knocks him to the floor again and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Zayn in control, he goes up top, Nakamura cuts him off, jockeying for position, enzuigiri blocks the dive! Cover for two, following it up, Sami hits the Michinoku Driver... NOPE! Both men in the turnbuckles, jockeying for position, Shinsuke cuts him off and he crumbles to the mat!
Lying in wait, sidestep the Kinshasa, folding press with his knees in the ropes but referee Jason Ayers sees it and stops his count! Nakamura blasts Zayn with a Kinshasa to the back of the head... SO CLOSE! Charging in again, Sami bails to the floor, Shinsuke hits Kinshasa on the floor!
Throwing him back inside, Zayn catches him...
Sami Zayn wins by pinfall with the Helluva Kick, qualifying for the Money in the Bank ladder match.
New Day make their entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, New Day get on the mic before their match against Jinder Mahal and Shanky can begin.
They say they beat Jinder and Shanky clean and sober last week and nobody wants to see the match again. They don’t engage in rematch after rematch after rematch, because that doesn’t make sense, and more importantly they have a bone to pick with Jinder, because he took something they wanted to see away from them, the skyscraping dancing machine Shanky.
So they’re gonna give the good people of Austin, Texas what they want, a dancing Shanky. Xavier Woods plays his trombone to get Shanky started and inevitably Jinder yells at him. Shanky shoves Mahal, who leaves. Kofi Kingston says he’s walking out on Shanky just like he walked out on 3MB and the three of them dance together until a foghorn sounds.
They’re confused, it sounds again.
Again. The Viking Raiders appear on the tron, pyro goes off, and they slide in the ring to raid the three in the ring, beating them up at some length. Double powerbomb on Kofi, avalanche World’s Strongest Slam on Xavier, and the Vikings stand tall.
Adam Pearce is in his office when Sonya Deville rolls up.
She says she watched him go out there and take Sheamus and Drew out of Money in the Bank and she got second-hand embarrassment, and it’s classic Adam Pearce making excuse after excuse, and what’s his excuse for the women’s division? If she were him, she’d want to know people were saying he’s out of touch and in over his head.
She’s been back on SmackDown for weeks and hasn’t had one match while Raquel Rodriguez and crocodile tears Lacey Evans are both given qualifiers. She calls his in-ring career a failure (clearly incorrect, the man is a five-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion) and he books her in a handicap against Lacey and Raquel... next.
After the break.
Lacey Evans & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Sonya Deville (Handicap Match)
Sonya Deville is accompanied by Xia Li and Shayna Baszler, clearly intending shenanigans.
Evans to start, collar and elbow, leg pick, Lacey blocks a roundhouse and drops an elbow, uppercut follows, drop toehold, Li runs interference and Deville comes in with a chop block! Running knee, Rodriguez breaks the pin up! Stereo dropkicks, both women down and out, tag to Raquel.
Forearms and uppercuts, big lariat, front kick, off the ropes, Rodriguez catches her with a slam! Blind tag, short whip puts Deville into it...
Lacey Evans & Raquel Rodriguez win by pinfall with a Woman’s Right from Evans.
Post-match, Baszler and Li jump in the fray but Raquel is strong enough to shrug them off and the babyfaces prevail.
Street Profits are backstage and excited about tonight’s show when they run into Los Lotharios kissing some poor girl. They keep moving and run into Drew Gulak, who’s working out on some ladders. Moving forward, they run into Madcap Moss and shake his hand and congratulate him for beating Happy Corbin.
Angelo Dawkins has a joke— why did the coach go to the bank? To get his quarterback. He laughs and laughs and Ford and Moss are both stonefaced.
Natalya makes Ronda Rousey’s entrance pushing an empty stroller for some reason and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Nattie-as-Ronda is rocking the stroller in the ring and about toget on the mic.
She cuts a promo as Ronda, mocking her whole deal and saying that after Nattie almost made her tap she realized that the Sharpshooter is way deadlier than her armbar, and she doesn’t stand a chance at Money in the Bank, so she’s gonna get down and tap out right now.
She apologizes to “her” fans, saying the best thing to do is to hand her title over to Natalya, retire, grab her diaper bag and push her stroller and leave while she can.
Enter the actual Ronda Rousey.
She talks about how she doesn’t mutilate her body to impossible beauty industry standards like Nattie does and she’s not gonna just hand the title over. She gets in Nattie’s face and tears her jacket off of her, but Neidhart blasts her with the stroller a couple times!
Natalya runs away and Ronda takes the jacket as a trophy.
Drew McIntyre and Sheamus are interviewed backstage.
They bicker at each other, Drew says he’ll just do the job himself, and Sheamus tells him he better bring his A game tonight.
Ludwig Kaiser gives GUNTHER his big intro and we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get some hype for the Undertaker’s upcoming one deadman show.
GUNTHER (c) vs. Ricochet (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
Off the ropes, GUNTHER with a boot, Ricochet tries for a leg pick but the champion reverses to a half crab and wrenches it in deep! Transitioning to an STF, but Rick makes the ropes! Uppercuts, whip across, sidestep, gamengiri, Ricochet springboards, GUNTHER blocks, German suplex, lands on his feet, off the ropes, pump kick from the challenger!
Big knee rocks the champion but a lariat destroys Ricochet! Uppercuts and chops, German suplex, shotgun dropkick, powerbomb...
GUNTHER wins by pinfall with a Tenryu powerbomb to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Paul Heyman is interviewed backstage but Sami Zayn rolls up to save him from answering any questions.
He blames Kayla for making him come off like he was going to cash in on Roman Reigns, which he would never do. Paul puts his arm around the honorary Uce and then retracts it when Sami admits he’d cash in on Brock Lesnar. They have a nonverbal moment and Zayn retreats.
We see Tamina waiting in the ring and go to break.
Shotzi Blackheart vs. Tamina (Money in the Bank Qualifying Match)
Blackheart right in with a sleeper but an annoyed Tamina shrugs her off and throws her in the corner. Whip across, snap scoop powerslam for two! Shotzi fires up, staggering Snuka with kicks, off the ropes, senton in the ropes, Blackheart springboards but Tamina cuts her down with a headbutt... FOOT ON THE ROPES!
Sidestep the charge, Snuka goes hard into the post, Shotzi is ready...
Shotzi Blackheart wins by pinfall with Never Wake Up to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match.
We get a recap of Viking Raiders beating New Day up.
Viking Raiders cut a promo about how they’ve been forgotten but now they’re going to rip anyone who gets in their way apart and no one is safe.
Max Dupri is talking to somebody backstage and we go to break.
Back from commercial, the spotlight is on the ring for the debut of Maximum Male Models again.
We go backstage with Max Dupri and Adam Pearce.
Max is mad again and refuses to let his men come down, this week because Adam failed to provide the dressing room accoutremonts. The temperature was wrong, the refrigerator was wrong, and if Pearce can’t handle a dressing room, he can’t send his models out to debut.
Pearce promises that he’ll get it right next week.
At ringside, Pat McAfee gets on the mic and calls Happy Corbin out for stumbling his bitch ass over to the desk to complain about the way he does his job, and we get a recap of this.
Pat says he enjoys his life so much that when he walked into ThunderDome the first time, all he could think was how alive he felt. He’s gonna kick Happy Corbin’s teeth down his throat and feel more alive than ever, at SummerSlam.
We get our first main event entrances and go to break.
Drew McIntyre & Sheamus vs. the Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso)
Street Profits make their entrance to be on commentary for this one.
McIntyre and Jimmy to start, Uso in a bad way, quick tags, Drew and Sheamus end up brawling on the floor and Jey dives on them to break it up and send us to break.
Back from commercial, Jey has Sheamus in a rear chinlock, he gets out, Irish Curse, Jimmy legal and breaks it up, nearfall! Celtic Warrior with walking forearms, enzuigiri staggers him, Ode to Rikishi connects! Usos posing, Sheamus drops him with a Brogue Kick!
Tags made, Drew lighting him up with lariats, he gets shoved into the post, superkick cuts him off, the match breaks down. Butch and Ridge Holland run down but Holland is trying to keep Butch from ruining it. Sami Zayn appears, Angelo Dawkins pounces him out of his boots, Street Profits jaw at the Usos and McIntyre takes them all out with a tope con giro!
Back in, back and forth...
Drew McIntyre & Sheamus win by pinfall with Claymore from McIntyre on Jimmy Uso, qualifying for the Money in the Bank ladder match.
That’s the show, folks.
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