WWE SmackDown: Vince McMahon appears following internal investigation
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
Hours after stepping aside as CEO due to an investigation by WWE’s board of directors, Vince McMahon made an appearance Friday on SmackDown.
Welcome back to another SmackDown Roundup, this time covering the June 17 edition of the show featuring Vince’s statement, Roman Reigns defending the Undisputed title and Happy Corbin calling out Pat McAfee.
Here’s a quick recap of the match results:
- Madcap Moss defeated Happy Corbin via pinfall in a Last Laugh match
- New Day’s Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods defeated Jinder Mahal and Shanky via pinfall after hitting Trouble in Paradise on Jinder
- Raquel Rodriguez defeated Shayna Baszler via pinfall to qualify for the Women’s Money in the Bank match
- Reigns retained the Undisputed Universal title over Riddle after landing a spear on his opponent
Moment of the night: Vince McMahon promo
Mr. McMahon addresses the WWE Universe | WWE on FOX
I’m not sure what to make of this segment, since it was cryptic and Vince didn't really say all that much, but this was certainly the most talked about moment of the night.
McMahon walked to the ring with his music playing, slapped hands with fans and made a short statement.
"I’m here simply to remind you of the four words we just saw, in what we call the WWE signature," he said. "Those four words are ‘then,’ ‘now,’ ‘forever’ – and the most important word is ‘together.’ Welcome to SmackDown!"
After that, he dropped the mic and the show began.
Best match: Roman Reigns vs. Riddle – Undisputed Universal title
Riddle looked like he belonged here.
Even in defeat, the former tag-team champion came out looking good, with a bright future ahead in the main event scene.
Riddle also got a believable near-fall on Roman Reigns, which isn’t easy to do considering how dominant the champ has been.
This was a very enjoyable main event.
Additional highlights:
As stated above, Rodriguez qualified for the Women’s Money in the Bank match. With the way she’s been pushed, this was expected.
After losing to Moss, Corbin called out McAfee and seems to be moving into a program with his former roommate.
This should be a fun one between two masters of the mic.
Lingering question: Do we need another match between Brock Lesnar and Reigns?
This week’s SmackDown ended with Lesnar re-appearing and once again targeting The Bloodline/Reigns.
These two just finished an epic program that concluded with "the biggest WrestleMania match of all time," though, so going back to that a few months later isn’t as exciting.
I'm guessing what will happen here is Seth Rollins winning Money in the Bank, then cashing it in the same night to become Undisputed Universal champ.
Rollins has teased that he wants to top his famous WrestleMania heist, so what better way to do that then a night where two titles are on the line, in a match involving the exact same two Superstars he defeated via cash-in back in 2015.
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Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1's "WWE Backstage" and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief.
