Friday Night SmackDown Review - June 26, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jeff Hardy Attacked King Corbin

A lengthy tribute to The Undertaker (who didn't actually retire on The Last Ride, by the way) preceded this segment, as well as the Boneyard match from WrestleMania 36 being replayed in its entirety. I really, really hope Corbin talking trash about 'Taker here doesn't mean he'll be facing him at some point. If Undertaker does wrestle again (not that he needs to), it should be against someone who could actually carry him to a competent contest, not Corbin. Hardy going after Corbin was random, but WWE seemed to working with a limited roster on this show and may not have had much of a choice (especially if Sheamus wasn't able to appear).

Nikki Cross def. Lacey Evans, Dana Brooke and Alexa Bliss in a SmackDown Women's Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way

With Sasha Banks set to challenge Asuka for the Raw Women's Championship at Extreme Rules, I wasn't sure if Bayley would be in action at the event as well. Thankfully, we found out here she will be against Cross with the SmackDown Women's Championship up for grabs. This was a well-wrestled Fatal 4-Way while it lasted, but the issue with Cross winning is that Bayley has already beaten her multiple times. Hell, Cross lost to Sasha Banks just last week. Then again, Bayley has defeated the rest of the division as well, which goes to show that it's time for a change and hopefully Banks will be the one to take that title from her sooner rather than later.

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) and The Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik) def. ThE Miz & John Morrison and Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro

The Nakamura and Cesaro vs. New Day feud doesn't have much creative juice to it since none of them have gotten mic time lately, but at least they've been delivering in the ring. This was another fun showcase for the SmackDown tag team division and it was cool to see Lucha House Party get to not only shine but also pick up the victory for their team. We'll see if it leads to anything (even though they lost to New Day last week on SmackDown), but I hate how Miz and Morrison continue to be positioned as losers. Fingers crossed a breakup isn't in their immediate future.

Universal Champion Braun Strowman Addressed Bray Wyatt

I'm usually not a fan of Strowman's promos as they tend to feel formulaic and one-dimensional, but this was strong stuff from him I thought. He came across as serious and intense, though I could have done without that creepy laugh in the middle. So, it's official: Strowman and Wyatt will meet in a "Swamp Fight" at the Wyatt Compound at Extreme Rules. I totally understand some fans getting worn out on the cinematic matches, but I think this is a clever way of working around Strowman losing a formal match and building to The Field getting a Universal Championship shot at SummerSlam.

Jeff Hardy def. King Corbin

These two actually clashed for the first time one-on-one back in March, but it was incredibly forgettable at only a few minutes long. Unfortunately, this wasn't a vast improvement. It was far from terrible, but I was bored whenever Corbin was on offense (which was a majority of it). The worst part is that all those wrestlers were ringside... for what reason? Apparently a lot of talent tested positive for COVID-19, so not only did WWE go ahead with having the Performance Center recruits stand in as the crowd again (even though most of them were wearing face masks finally), most of SmackDown's babyfaces surrounded the ring here... to support Jeff Hardy, or something. How stupid.

Overall Show

A lengthy tribute to Undertaker, stemming from the "news" that he retired (although he never used those exact words on the final episode of The Last Ride), took up the first 45 minutes or so of the show, along with Undertaker vs. Styles from WrestleMania. That was obviously done to kill TV time because of WWE working with a limited roster due to so many people reportedly testing positive for the coronavirus this past week and others likely refusing to work the taping. For example, Styles vs. Drew Gulak for the Intercontinental Championship was advertised for this episode at one point, but I'm assuming Styles pulled out since Gulak was seen at ringside (in addition to doing commentary on 205 Live immediately afterward). Regardless, it's a messy situation that I hope gets resolved soon. As for this show, there really isn't anything worth going out of your way to watch outside of the entertaining eight-man tag team affair. Even the Undertaker stuff was a retread of what already aired as part of The Last Ride. It'll be interesting to see how Raw is handled on Monday and how many top talent will be absent from that show as well.