It’s time once again for the SmackDown results for June 21, 2024. CM Punk returns to Chicago after an eventful weekend in Scotland, and the Money In The Bank qualifiers continue.
Also Read: Clash At The Castle Report Card Is Here!
Quick Results:
- Chelsea Green with the huge upset win over Bianca Belair and Mia Yim to earn a spot in the women’s Money In The Bank ladder match. I love this one, to be honest. Michin winning would have been similarly nice. New faces are good.
- Carmelo Hayes stuns Randy Orton and Tama Tonga. Hayes scored a schoolboy pin on Orton, who was distracted by some extracurriculars outside of the ring. I like this call too.
- Andrade qualifies for MITB, pinning Grayson Waller and outlasting a Bloodline-weakened Kevin Owens. Loving this one as well. Remember that chatter that Andrade was unhappy? This goes a long way to fixing things, I think.
- Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa ends in a no-contest/DQ (was anything officially announced?) when the Bloodline interfered. They were countered by Orton and Owens, and just when the faces seemed to have things in hand…they did not.
Best Match of the night:
I could pick each and every match, really and truly.
Loved all of the MITB qualifiers just as face value. When adding in who advanced in each, the scores went up.
Rhodes and Solo was decent enough, but the post-match action, specifically the Fatu reveal, made it can’t miss TV.
Worst match of the night:
Nope, not tonight.
Crowd Chants of the Night:
Want want Roman
F@#$ you Solo
Star of the Night
Punk and Drew are doing a wonderful job, especially considering that Punk is not cleared. Or even if he’s semi-cleared now, for as long as he was not cleared? Master class.
In that same vein, Punk and Heyman, and then the Bloodline. Including their newest member, the long-signed Jacob Fatu.
Spot of the Night:
Lots of good action, but I will go with the shots of how Drew was made to look as though he savagely destroyed CM Punk. Well done there.
Jobber of the Night:
Is it crazy to say Cody Rhodes? Because the champ took a ton of abuse from the debuting Jacob Fatu.
Upset of the Night:
Zero chance this isn’t Chelsea over Bianca specifically. Of course, she tossed Belair out to steal the pinfall of Michin, but such is the risk with a triple threat.
Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:
After Drew “quit” and CM Punk showed up in Chicago, something big was brewing right? Right. And with Punk not exactly cleared, WWE had to be careful. So when the bang against the Allstate garage door was observed, what we saw next made perfect sense. Door raises to reveal a roughed-up Punk and a vindicated Drew.
Just as interesting (to me at least), was when McIntyre shoved GM Nick Aldis. Aldis, of course, can still go and maybe we are seeing things trend that way? Maybe not, but the tease is there.
Solo told Paul they needed a talk. Before Sikoa walked out for his main event, he told Paul “Roman is not coming back”. When he does-and he will soon enough-it could finally be that ultimate babyface pop for Reigns that Vince McMahon envisioned for him years ago when he was shoving Reigns down our throats.
LOL Moment of the night:
Not for nothing, but I feel like next week’s MITB qualifier between LA Knight, Logan Paul and Santos Escobar is making me laugh. Given what is going on between Knight and Paul, I feel like Santos wins here. Any of the three would be good in the MITB match-Escobar I believe has good history, and we know how Paul is with big spots. But having Knight-Paul at MITB for the US title is the move, I think.
Noteworthy Moment:
Heyman came out during Punk’s opening promo, hugged his former guy, and it got interesting. Punk asked Paul if he was OK. Ultimately Heyman asked Punk for two favors. One was to leave the ring and avoid Solo. The other? To take him with him.
Interesting because we’ve seen the body language for weeks, and now Heyman said the quiet part out loud. Going to be interesting to see where things go.
Also, on the heels of the Wyatt Sick6 arrival on RAW, WWE is embracing things and having extra (useless) security all over. And, surprisingly, unless I missed it, no signs of them other than the recap.
Overall lowlights:
Man, I have to say, not much to dislike about tonight. Lots of things going on. Granted, not a ton of matches, but several were high stakes triple threat matches. Nothing to complain about.
Overall highlights:
All the qualifiers were great, and I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that we had a couple unexpected names moving into the ladder matches. Really enjoyed the Drew/Punk work, though I may have kept Drew off a touch longer. that said, obliterating Punk in Chicago makes the heat scorching hot on McIntyre.
Loved how WWE did the Jacob Fatu debut. Mild surprise that they did it on SmackDown, as opposed to a PLE (Like with Tonga Loa). That said, having the newest member of the Bloodline absolutely annihilate the champion of SmackDown in his first five-ish minutes on air? Incredible.
After the final bell:
Wow, what a SmackDown. Best blue brand effort in a while? I think so, this SmackDown was just so good. Opened and closed on incredible segments, and a lot to love in between. Still processing things. Plus, with the way everything has unfolded, the eventual Bloodline civil war/return of Reigns is just going to get bigger and bigger. If you didn’t think the main event of WrestleMania 40, night 2 could be topped, this build is how WWE aims to achieve that. And they may very well do that, especially if The Rock is the shot caller behind the new Bloodline as many suspect.
