Written by Michael Vacchiano
Friday Night Smackdown 5/8, the last episode of Smackdown Live before Sunday’s Money in the Bank PPV, opened with the former duo of Fire & Desire colliding! Mandy Rose immediately brought the fight to her former best friend, Sonya Deville, from the get go. Mandy’s full head of steam lead to her losing focus as Deville soon got the upper hand. The former mixed martial artist then taunted and mocked Rose while trapping in her a grounded body scissors, even ripping off her fake eyelashes while doing so!
The golden-clad blonde eventually fought back and took the brawl with Sonya to the outside, throwing her over the commentator’s table in an act of aggression. Back inside the ring, Mandy tried to finish her off with a bicycle knee strike. But Deville countered into a schoolgirl roll up, and hooked the booty shorts for extra leverage for the 1-2-3. Nice little opener, but you can bet this feud is far from over.
In a preview of the upcoming Fatal-Four-Way match for the Smackdown Tag Team Titles at MITB, we were treated to an eight-man tag between the quartet of teams involved. The champions New Day and the Lucha House Party faced off with the Forgotten Sons and The Miz & John Morrison. The faces hit a bunch of dives to the outside on their opponents early on, but their advantage didn’t last after Sons’ third member, Jaxson Ryker, interfered. The heels worked over Kofi for several minutes until he finally made the hot tag to his team, which lead to a frantic and exciting sequence involving everyone.
Lince Dorado hit a nice handspring double stunner onto Sons’ Cutler and Blake, while Gran Metallik almost pinned Morrison with a beautiful dragonrana sunset flip. However, Big E was soon taken out with Cutler and Blake’s tandem reverse DDT/stomp on the outside, with Kofi powerbombed on top of his fallen partner for good measure. Dorado avoided a Starship Pain attempt from Morrison and spiked the Shaman of Sexy with a hard reverse Frankensteiner. That extra second allowed Miz to sneak in and deliver a Skull Crushing Finale to get the victory. A wild and fast-pasted ending to this one, and I’m sure these eight guys will again deliver on Sunday.
In the ring, Renee Young introduces her guest, the “Charismatic Enigma” Jeff Hardy! She discusses his career highlights (and lowlights) being shown these past several weeks, and asks Hardy what his next plan is. He admits to having made mistakes in the past, and thanks the fans who have stood by him this entire time. Hardy then asks them to stand with him for one last run in the WWE, but Sheamus soon interrupts him.
The Celtic Warrior says he’s tired of all of Hardy’s comebacks and second chances, and that he’s simply a weaker version of who he used to be. His legend is merely a dim flame barely burning, and Sheamus declares that he will finally be the one to “put him out.” He storms the ring but Hardy fights back and takes the Irishman down with a Whisper in the Wind. Jeff then stands tall after a Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb combo.
The Universal Champion Braun Strowman makes his way to the ring to confront Bray Wyatt, his challenger at MITB, face-to-face. Braun refutes Wyatt claiming that he’s the one responsible for bringing him into WWE and for all of his success. “The Monster Among Men” calls out Bray, who smiles and waves as he walks to the ring. Bray tells him he’s wrong, and says he will have to take back his title this Sunday. The Eater of Worlds then offers Strowman his old Wyatt Family black sheep mask, and invites him to “come back home”. This is interspersed with clips of the Firefly Funhouse gang of puppets echoing Bray’s words.
Braun smiles back, clearly not falling for any mind games tonight. The champ says he already is home, and he’ll be keeping his title at MITB. Wyatt stares him down as the Monster walks to the back. I’m definitely interested to see how this match will play out at MITB, considering some of the Hollywood production-type contests we’ve seen from WWE lately. Not quite sure who will leave with the Universal title, but we could be in for a “cinematch” for the ages.
Smackdown Women’s champ Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. Lacey Evans and Tamina is our next contest. The daughter of Superfly and #1 contender uses her power advantage, despite being double teamed by her opponents. Evans also tried to hit her springboard top rope moonsault, only to be stopped by her rival The Boss.
The former hugger soon took control and laid out Tamina with a Bayley-to-belly suplex and top rope elbow. It incredibly wasn’t enough, and Banks came in to help finish the job, only to eat a Woman’s Right from the Sassy Southern Belle. This allowed Tamina to nail Bayley with a superkick followed by a Samoan drop for the victory! Can the Amazonian powerhouse pin the champ at MITB when the title is on the line? That remains to be seen…
The main event was a 6-man tag team match featuring King Corbin, Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Daniel Bryan, Drew Gulak…and their mystery partner, Otis! AWWW YEEEAHHH!!!! Some nice spots in this one included Cesaro’s deadlift gut wrench suplex on Gulak, who returned the favor with a release T-bone throw later on. Nakamura and Bryan showed off their nasty striking ability with lots of kicks throughout, and Otis also landed his patented Caterpillar. But in the end, Corbin planted Gulak with the Deep Six to pick up the win for his team.
After the match, a free for all took place with everyone fighting to the back, except for the King himself. In a preview of this Sunday’s actual Money in the Bank ladder match, Corbin tried to climb up and grab the case hanging above the ring. D-Bry returned, laid out Corbin, and tried to get the case himself. Otis, the third SDLive participant in the match, attempted to do so as well, but the rungs broke beneath him as they couldn’t support the Heavy Machinery member. Eventually, the King threw Bryan to the outside onto Otis, and finally took the briefcase down.
Friday Night Smackdown 5/8 had some pretty good in-ring action this week, and did a fine job hyping up its side of the Money in the Bank card. The Fatal Four Way tag title match could be a sneaky showstealer, and the Braun vs. Bray bout could possibly be some theatrical magic. The women continue to bring their game at every opportunity, and the stipulations for the actual ladder matches taking place at WWE HQ are definitely unique. In these crazy times, the biggest wrestling company in the world is still trying to entertain us, and that’s always welcome and appreciated. Time to get that money!
