Match Ratings For WWE Smackdown Live 5/29/18, Podcast Notes From Sean Ross Sapp

Opening Segment

• Samoa Joe charges to the ring and cuts a great promo after he grabs a ladder from under the ring. He says he'll do things a lot worse than Bryan than force retirement. He tells Bryan to call up Brie Bella and let her know he'll be okay.
• Bryan comes out and says he'll break Joe's legs for mentioning his family. GOLDBERG STYLE. The crowd is loving Daniel Bryan. Yes Chants all over the place.
• Big Cass comes out in a suit and a crutch saying the match isn't happening because Paige has told him he'll face Joe when he's cleared. Which is now — and he cracks Joe with a crutch and throws Bryan into the ladder. 
• I thought this was outstanding from all involved. 
• Backstage, Paige says Samoa Joe shouldn't have hijacked the show, and Cass shouldn't speak for her. She makes the main event a triple threat.

Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Tye Dillinger
5.75/10

• Nakamura is carrying around numbers like Dillinger used to.
• Tye Dillinger has been gone from TV so long he has a totally new hairstyle.
• I wish I could have seen Dillinger get kneed on the suicide dive attempt, but zoom. He eats a nasty axe kick, though.
• Nakamura keeps counting Dillinger down as if it's a Last Man Standing match. When Dillinger reaches 10, he counts and Nakamura goes off.
• Dillinger uses Nakamura's taunt and fights back. He gets Kinshasa'd. This was a fun match.
• Nakamura hits another big knee and counts Dillinger out. 
• Backstage, AJ Styles cuts a promo and basically says he'll be the last man standing. Run of the mill stuff, but the crowd was there with him for the end of it.

DANCE OFF

• Naomi brings out the Usos. I wonder if she thought Aiden English and Rusev were gonna fight her.
• They dance. Lana was better.
• LANA JUST SCORPIO SKY'D NAOMI'S HUMAN TORNADO!
• Naomi hits Lana in the face with her ass. 
• Later on, Lana & Aiden English vs. Jimmy Uso & Naomi is made for next week.

New Day defeated The Miz & The Bar
7.25/10

• Miz doing karate to pancakes backstage is hilarious.
• The Bar are in control through a commercial, and hit Kofi with a Decapitator after it.
• The heels send Big E into the barricade, putting New Day at a disadvantage. Kofi comes back and gets an SOS on Miz. 
• Xavier Woods gets a nice hot tag that we don't often get to see. He launches off of Sheamus in the corner and does a tope con hilo to Cesaro. Woods pops outside in with a tornado DDT on Sheamus, too.
• The Bar gets a two on a backdrop/axehandle. Big E re-emerges for a uranage/backstabber, though. The crowd is invested. It was sure that this match would tear it up. 
• A YOLO dive is stopped by a Sheamus knee, but a Miz DDT pin is broken up. The Bar catch Xavier on a dive and barricade him, but can't stop Kofi's.
• Big E gets his pin back on Miz after a Big Ending. This ruled.

Backstage Crappenings

• Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows cut a promo about the Bludgeon Brothers and Anderson's abs and say they made up with the Usos last week. The Bludgeon Brothers appear on the screen and say some dumb, incoherent shit. I really hope WWE don't fly Harper and Rowan to TV every week to do that.
• Charlotte and Becky Lynch are backstage, and are discussing who will win the women's matches at Money in the Bank. Paige shows up for a PCB reunion, and sets up a match for the two. 
• Andrade Cien Almas is approached backstage by Sin Cara, but Zelina is having none of it. 

Asuka defeated Mandy Rose
5/10

• Backstage, Absolution gives Paige grief for giving Asuka opportunities that she doesn't deserve, so Paige books Asuka and Mandy Rose in a match later on. 
• Carmella joins the booth for commentary just in time to see Sonya Deville attack Asuka from behind before the match. That's a solid way to give an excuse for Mandy Rose to get offense. 
• Mandy does a nice inverted gutwrench suplex. She controls through a commercial break. I think if that were to happen, the Sonya beating should have been a little more severe.
• Asuka pulls the Asuka Lock out of nowhere and wins.
• Carmella gets in the ring and raises the belt to zero reaction.

Money in the Bank qualifying match
Samoa Joe defeated Daniel Bryan and Big Cass
7.75/10

• Even Daniel Bryan's botches look awesome. He flips off the back of Joe and takes out Cass, then dives onto both men outside. 
• Cass chucks Bryan over the announcer's table and stares him down. Bryan makes it back in the ring and beats down Joe until Cass returns to clothesline Bryan for two.
• Cass gets the Empire Elbow and the East River Crossing, but Bryan ends up Yes Kicking both and attacking the knee of Cass. 
• Coquina Clutch on Bryan, but Joe is almost pinned. Bryan applies the Yes Lock to Cass, but Joe breaks it up and is rewarded by a knee off the apron. 
• Bryan cracks Cass with the knee, but Joe puts him out with the Clutch! Joe wins.
• Cass is frustrated and boots Bryan after the match.