WWE SmackDown live results: Women’s Money in the Bank rematch

Show Recap —

Daniel Bryan comes out to start the show to a big ovation. He went over the two big women’s matches on tonight’s show. As he explains the Money in the Bank match, Carmella and James Ellsworth come out to interrupt.

Carmella says you’ve said this is a land of opportunity, but this is a land of injustice. She talks about unfairly being stripped of the briefcase. She mentions that the rulebook clearly states that it is a no disqualification match — there are no rules, the first woman to gain possession of the contract wins the match. “How can you break a rule if there are no rules?” she whined. 

Bryan said she makes some valid points, but no one has ever grabbed the briefcase and handed it to another competitor. Bryan takes it to the crowd, asks them if they want him to cancel the match. They heartily chant no in response. 

Ellsworth takes it to the crowd, said that they were villains here, you control this puppet. You’re upsetting my homegirl. Loud “Ellsworth sucks” chants. He used to look up to Bryan, but all he sees now is a coward who can’t cut it in the ring anymore so made up some fake injury. Bryan responds by saying, well, he did say last week on Talking Smack that he was going to ban him from ringside during the Money in the Bank match, but he’s not going to do that…instead, he’s going to ban him from the entire arena! Bryan calls for security as Ellsworth tries to flee, but to no avail and is dragged away.

Bryan wishes Carmella the best of luck as she’s left all on her own tonight.

The Usos defeated The Hype Bros.

This didn’t last long and was pretty much just your basic back and forth television match. They went to a commercial then when they came back, immediately went for the finish as one of the Usos pinned Ryder.

The New Day immediately came out after the pinfall. Big E made it clear they wanted that gold, and at Battleground they’ll pick them up. Usos said they didn’t deserve it, but they eventually accept, but be careful about what you wish…it ain’t about the New Day, it’s about the Day One Ish. 

Woods says it’s all about the fire, and instructs Kingston to, I guess, rap against the New Day. Kingston says they’re underdogs like Rudy, but the Uso’s underwear are booty. Byron Saxton says that the Usos “got served”.

Fashion Vice returns, this episode titled “Under Pressure”. We see the detectives interrogate The Ascension in a dark room. Fandango shows the alleged culprits a picture of stick figures and asks if they look familiar. Konnor says that’s not them. Fandango plays the nice cop, saying he has two tickets to Paradise. Viktor goes to grab them, but Konnor says no, we only listen to grindcore death metal.

Breeze comes in and also plays the nice cop, giving them a cheese platter and iced tea. Konnor says look, we weren’t the ones who thrashed the office, we just wanted a spot on the card at Money in the Bank. The two detectives converse to one another, saying this is a tough case to crack.

Suddenly, a loud noise is heard. They go to their office and see that it’s thrashed once again. Knowing that the Ascension were in their interrogation room the whole time, they realize the case is far from over…

Naomi defeated Lana to retain the Smackdown Women’s title

Lana jumps Naomi during the ring introductions and plants her with her seated spinebuster finisher, but Naomi kicks out at two. Lana grows infuriated, but immediately gets cut off with a kick to the head. Naomi follows with the split-legged moonsault for the quick win.

Dasha Fuentes interviews Becky Lynch, asking how she feels about her second chance. Lynch says tonight she has a fair chance to legitimately win the Money in the Bank ladder match.

The announcer introduces us to the operatic, melodious voice of Aiden English. He starts to sing when he’s rudely cut off by Randy Orton as it went to commercial. When we came back, as one would assume, English was quickly disposed of with an RKO.

Orton says that he’s not leaving until Jinder Mahal comes out. Last week, he tore apart the WWE champion, and showed footage of the beatdown. He’s not leaving until he gets what he wants, which is a WWE championship rematch. If he doesn’t get what he want, he’ll beat up Mahal in the back, in the parking lot, in St. Louis, wherever Smackdown is taping next week.

He starts to go backstage to hunt Mahal when Shane McMahon comes out. He said we go a ways back, he can have him threatening the safety of Jinder Mahal. Orton says what are you going to do, fire me? I’ll just go to every arena Smackdown is in and track him down. He disrespected his family, after all.

McMahon said that those kind of tactics that Mahal and the Singh Brothers crossed the line at Money in the Bank, knowing their past, and the look in that eye he’s never seen before, so he will get his rematch. However, there’s going to be a stipulation, and Jinder Mahal will choose that stipulation. Orton says he doesn’t care what that stip is, the title is coming home to where it belongs.

This brings out Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers. Despite the prejudice shown to the Maharaja he will name the stipulation. He will bring a stip brough to the WWE by his idol, the Great Khali — the Punjabi Prison match. They show the footage as Jinder Mahal poses with the title.

Bryan is talking to someone on the phone about the Punjabi Prison match when AJ Styles arrives. He talks about the open challenge from last week when Kevin Owens comes in, asking why he’s complaining about the opening challenge. Owens says he wants to face people he hasn’t faced yet, and since he beat him at Backlash, he is a loser. In return, Styles calls Owens “Ron Burgundy’s definition of San Diego”.

Daniel Bryan comes up with an idea — next week is the July 4th edition of Smackdown, so why not do an Independence Day battle royal. Owens leaves, calling it the worst idea ever. Styles, being the battle royal, loves the idea.

Mike and Maria Kanellis come out and start to talk about their love when they’re cut off by Sami Zayn, who makes his entrance for the next match…

Baron Corbin defeated Sami Zayn

Corbin dominates a lot of the match, putting him in long rest holds. Zayn comes back with a roll up after clotheslines to the corner, but Corbin immediately cuts him off again. Zayn takes out Corbin on the top rope and launches off, but Corbin dodges. Zayn turns around, but walks right into the End of Days for the win.

Shinsuke Nakamura is watching the match backstage when Dasha Fuentes comes in to ask a question — the WWE Universe wants to see a match between him and Baron Corbin, but does Nakamura want that? Nakamura says Baron Corbin is strong, but he is afraid of what he might be able to do against him…

The Usos and The New Day will square off in a Rap Battle next week.

Carmella won the Women’s Money in the Bank match

This was a very good main event that was laid out well. This wasn’t like other Money in the Bank ladder matches as this didn’t have the crazy spots as one would expect, but there were still some dangerous looking bumps and enough chaos that made it a nice, dramatic bout.

Everyone pairs off against one another as Carmella is left climbing the ladder…until everyone notices and comes back in. Everyone brawls until Lynch is the one left standing, throwing people around with exploder suplexes. Tamina comes in and lays her out with a Samoan drop, then hits the Superfly splash.

Returning from commercial, Charlotte and Natalya are battling in the ring as Carmella slaps Tamina on the outside. The latter responds by grabbing Carmella by the leg and flinging her into the announcer’s table. 

Meanwhile, Becky climbs the ladder but Tamina and Charlotte close it, eventually sending her to the floor. Charlotte boots the ladder into Tamina, but Natalya comes back with a discus punch and a ladder shot to a prone Charlotte. Natalya goes to climb, but Charlotte sets up another ladder as they fight until Carmella pushes the ladder to the floor. After commercial, Natalya is back up climbing the ladder as everyone but Carmella joins in, but they all fall to the floor, taking a big bump.

Carmella comes in and climbs, nearly grabbing the briefcase but everyone comes in…then starts brawling with one another. Carmella comes off with a crossbody, taking two participants down. Charlotte pins Tamina over the ladder as she starts to climb, but Carmella comes back and fights her off until they both crash to the floor.

Natalya and Charlotte pair off, exiting the ring and going off on one another into the crowd. And what do you know, suddenly James Ellsworth comes in through the crowd and starts to help Carmella like at the pay-per-view. Ellsworth goes to climb when Becky Lynch comes in and grabs the ladder, pushing it as Ellsworth crotches himself on the ropes, putting him out of comission.

Becky starts to climb when Carmella comes back, grabbing her back down to the mat. Lynch tweaks her leg on impact as Carmella hones in, grabbing a chair and pelting Lynch with chair shots, laying her out as she grabs the briefcase on her own, winning the match.

Carmella poses with the briefcase on top of the ladder to close out the show.

Final Thoughts —

On the surface, this looked to be a match-oriented show but as it turns out, was very much a show dedicated to building towards Battleground on 7/23, hyping matches like Mahal/Orton (in a Punjabi Prison match, no less), New Day/Usos and Corbin/Nakamura. I wish they wouldn’t start the build so soon as it makes things REALLY hard between this PPV and the Great Balls of Fire PPV, but I can’t fault them for doing some early build.

Most of the matches on tonight’s card were either pretty short or just there. The main event at least delivered, so those who were looking for a better, less crappy finish from the Sunday pay-per-view got what they wanted, and probably should have been what they got in the first place.