Glimmers of Hope – A SmackDown Live Recap for 5/8/18

Tonight’s SmackDown Live came to us from Baltimore, MD.

It’s easy to get depressed after the abysmal show that was Backlash.  If you haven’t watched it, just watch The Miz Vs. Seth Rollins and maybe the Elias segment.  You really hate yourself if you watch the whole thing.  In fact, just read Matt’s recap.

So why am I bringing it up?  I didn’t even watch Raw this week, and neither did a lot of us.  SmackDown was also down, but I felt ok in the fact that Vince doesn’t have quite a heavy hand on this show.  Plus, we’re on to Money in the Bank, it’s quite possibly my favorite PPV of the year.  There’s lots to get excited about in a very match heavy show.

• Paige was out to tout the “smashing” success of Backlash.  Unless you mean smashing the morale of everyone involved, then yes!  She announced the first SmackDown qualifier for MitB: Jeff Hardy Vs. The Miz.
• Miz kills it once again while giving Jeff the opportunity to shake off the funk of the terrible Backlash and Greatest Royal Rumble matches.  Jeff manages to hit a Twist of Fate and a Swanton but Miz sort of no-sells it and uses the momentum for a roll up pin.
• Charlotte defeats Peyton Royce in the first Women’s MitB qualifier for SmackDown.  Billie Kay tries plenty of distractions but Charlotte comes out strong against both of them.  Peyton is able to counter Charlotte’s moonsault but it’s not enough.  Charlotte makes Peyton tap with the Figure 8.
• Sheamus was upset about his loss last week to Xavier Woods of the New Day.  He’s just binging on Lucky Charms, probably because Vince thought it was funny.  Cesaro wants to make things right and takes on Woods.  Big E and Kofi caused a huge distraction pelting Sheamus with pancakes and generally causing a panic.  The action in the ring was seemingly unaffected as Cesaro countered Woods’ elbrow drop with and Uppercut for the win.
• Paige encounters Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville before Mandy’s match with Becky Lynch.  The new GM reiterates that Absolution is no longer a thing and bans Deville from ringside.  That doesn’t matter though.  Mandy is able to defeat Becky with a roll-up, further extending her losing streak.  I don’t like this “babyface has to lose all the time” mentality from WWE.  Becky needs to be on top once again.
• Our final qualifying match is Daniel Bryan Vs. Rusev.  They played up the “injuries” Bryan suffered at the hands of Big Cass from Sunday.  For those of you that (hopefully) didn’t watch, DB made Cass tap to the Yes! Lock and subsequently got beaten down by Cass afterwards.  It was…not good.  Anyway, Rusev worked on Daniel throughout this match and eventually hit a Matchka Kick to become the second man from SmackDown in the men’s MitB match.

Everything Else

• Next week is Carmella’s “Royal Mellabration” in the UK.  Ric Flair and the Royal Family are not invited.
• Almas and Vega make their SDL debuts next week.
• There were a lot of MitB promos from various Superstars including Asuka.  We will see who gets added to the match next week.