The Land of Opportunities…for Some – Smackdown Live – June 6, 2017

The Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY hosts Smackdown Live, and we’re kicking it off by tooting our own horns this evening.

Appetizer

Shane O’Mac is out to display the new, white women’s money in the bank briefcase, talk about how historic it is that they’re creating this opportunity (that I’ve been pandering for for over a year now) and bring out the five competitors.  They do their usual thing and banter at each other about how they’re easily going to win, genetic superiority, best there is was will be, yadda yadda.  Then Naomi comes out, for reasons I didn’t understand at the time but came to find out they were scheduled for a six-woman tag match, because booking.  She was particularly obnoxious with the microphone tonight when she isn’t talking about how she wants to be part of that match, which draws the debut of Lana on the Smackdown Live roster.

Lana understands that Naomi can’t be in the MitB match, but she could certainly round out an even number and be entrant number six.  Shane, in a complete departure from his constant reminders that he wants to create the land of opportunity, provides no opportunity even after telling Lana she has to earn her place on Smackdown.  She’s the only other woman on the roster (unless I’m mistaken and Eva Marie is still back there somewhere), what exactly could she have to earn.

The six woman tag match begins as Lana storms off.  Everyone gets their shots in, but as Naomi is building momentum against Tamina, Lana comes back and pulls her foot out from under her on the apron and Tamina capitalizes to get the victory for the #WelcomingCommittee.

Now it makes more sense, as it will inevitably lead to Lana getting a singles match against Naomi next week, and a win will earn her entry into the MitB match.  They didn’t announce it, at least not through the end of the first hour, but it’s the inevitable next move, I just didn’t like that they went with such a departure from usual Shane practice, even in the face of the crowd launching into a near deafening “We Want Lana” chant.

The Side Dishes

• Mojo Rawley meets with Shane in the back and asks about Opportunity, seeing as how he is the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner, a point that I can’t really argue with, except that they sort of did the same thing with Baron Corbin, giving him the Andre and a quick mini push before he sort of disappeared for a bit, and now he’s kind of in the title picture, one of them anyway.  Shane puts him in a match against Jinder, where Mojo can earn his way to the ladder match via a win.  Jinder Mahal def. Mojo Rawley.  Sorry, Bro.
• Fashion Files Noir – This one featured New Day.  Watch it.  You owe it to yourself.  New..Case Rocks.  New..Case Rocks.
• AJ Styles gets retribution against Dolph Ziggler – He had to eat the trendy hometown loss last week, but he got the better of the Show Off this time.
• Another promotional video package for Nakamura like he’s some prospect that is coming in a few weeks.  Please stop calling him The Artist.  I would probably be ok with Rock Star.  Just stop with The Artist thing.
• Following his victory over Mojo, Mahal talks about shattering Orton’s dreams of winning in his hometown.  Orton, in a backstage segment with Renee, explains, yet again and nearly verbatim, that he spoke to numerous legends about how actions speak louder than words.
• New Day vs The Puerto Rican Tourism Board (Colons) – The Colons are going to get slaughtered on the “build up the New Day on the way to Money in the Bank” tour.  The New Day sends Xavier and E, with Kofi likely on a light work load until he’s completely cleared on his foot/ankle/something like that injury.  New Day wins with the Midnight Hour.  The Usos just have to come out and be annoying as f***, so that happened.  You have to know by now just how much I hate the Usos.
• Sami Zayn does a backstage interview with Dasha about how great Shinsuke is, but it is interrupted by Baron Corbin who conducts a typical backstage beatdown, this time with a ladder.
• Naomi tells Shane in the backstage area that she wants a piece of Lana, and she wants it so bad she’ll put the belt on the line.  Shane tells her if she’s willing, he will give her the match.  So Lana, having never had a match, is now the Number One Contender for the Smackdown Women’s Championship, to challenge Naomi at Money in the Bank, and all she had to do was trip somebody.  Randy Orton at least committed serious arson to get bumped to the front of the line.

The Main Course – Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kevin Owens

Baron Corbin is on commentary for our main event, which would lead you to believe that something foul would determine the winner of this match, or lead to DQ endings with no clear outcomes.  This match, however, was good for both people involved, but as you can probably expect in nearly any match involving Nakamura, at least for a while, Kinshasa for the win.  Corbin came off the table behind a celebrating victor and landed an End of Days on The Artist.

That’s your Smackdown.  See you tomorrow for The Other Two Hours.