SmackDown Live Coverage And Results – May 29, 2020

Smackdown
Date: May 29, 2020
Location: WWE Performance Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves

We’re very slowly closing in on Backlash but tonight is all about the Intercontinental Title tournament. That means a pair of semifinal matches and one of them is actually interesting. It’s AJ Styles vs. Elias and Jeff Hardy vs. Daniel Bryan, where I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which is the interesting one. Let’s get to it.

We open in the parking lot where Elias has been attacked. The police find the car that the attacker was in and it’s rented to Jeff Hardy. Braun Strowman was an eyewitness who called the cops and saw someone running off. The police go over to the bushes and find Jeff, who apparently smells like alcohol and looks rather out of it. They pass Elias being loaded into the ambulance and Jeff screams at him before being put in the police car.

The roster is briefed on the situation and Sheamus says this is Hardy’s sixth strike. AJ Styles says it’s him vs. Daniel Bryan in the finals but Bryan wants them to both have an opponent. He’s not going to be a coward so Sheamus volunteers to be one of the opponents, because Jeff had to be on something to beat him last week.

King Corbin wants in on this too so we’ll have Bryan vs. Corbin vs. Sheamus for the right to face Styles. No one is cool with that so an unnamed boss says it’s a battle royal next for the right to face Bryan in the main event, with the winner of that facing Styles for the title in two weeks. That works for everyone, leaving Styles to call Bryan an idiot.

Battle Royal

Drew Gulak, Shinsuke Nakamura, Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik, King Corbin, Cesaro, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, Shorty G., Jey Uso

It’s a brawl to start and Ziggler is already doing his near elimination deal. Sheamus yells at Cole while choking Uso but has to survive Gable’s elimination attempt. Corbin punches Dorado out and Gulak follows him. The fans aren’t happy with that and it’s Metalik going after Corbin until Ziggler superkicks him out of the air. Corbin dumps Metalik and tosses Ziggler for trying to turn on him.

Jey superkicks Corbin out and we take a break. Back with the five (Sheamus, Cesaro, Uso, Gable, Nakamura) all still in and Gable getting the armbreaker over the ropes on Sheamus. A tornado DDT plants Sheamus and it’s Uso cleaning house. Gable gets rid of Cesaro to tick him off and suplexes Nakamura out clean.

Cesaro sneaks back in to toss Gable though and we’re down to Sheamus and Uso. Jey fires off forearms but gets sent to the apron. A Stunner across the top staggers Sheamus and the superkick connects back inside. Jey clotheslines him to the apron but Sheamus hangs on and hits the Brogue Kick to win at 14:13.

Result: Sheamus won a battle royal last eliminating Jey Uso (14:13)

Sonya Deville tells Lacey Evans to put her hair up and square up. Evans pops up from behind to shove her down.

Cesaro and Nakamura yell at Gable over the eliminations and Cesaro tells him to be the bigger man for once and walk away. Either that or face him in the ring. Gable hits him in the face and says challenge accepted.

Lacey Evans vs. Sonya Deville

This was set up on Twitter when Deville insulted blondes. Lacey talks about what blondes can do and gets down into referee position for an amateur wrestling fight. That goes to Lacey so Sonya shoulders her down without much trouble. Sonya ties her hair back so Lace nips up and puts her hair up as well. Lacey knocks her into the corner and gets punched in the face for her efforts, allowing Sonya to take over in the corner. Sonya stands on her hair so Lacey gator rolls her to the apron for some right hands. They fight on the floor and it’s a double countout at 4:16.

Result: Lacey Evans vs. Sonya Deville went to a double countout (4:16)

Post match Lacey says bring it but Sonya says on her time.

The Forgotten Sons, with Wesley Blake doing the talking, says he supports his brothers and gets in the blood on our hands line.

It’s time for a special tag team edition of A Moment of Bliss with New Day as the guests. Corey: “I must have been a horrible person in a past life.” Nikki Cross has a special present for New Day: SCOTTISH pancakes! Big E. pulls out some coffee beans (Big E.: “From Djibouti of course.”) and mixes them into Alexa’s coffee (with a wooden spoon that he happens to have), though she’ll save that for later.

Bliss wants to know who is up next for New Day and they like the idea of the Forgotten Sons. They ask Alexa the same thing so here are Bayley and Sasha Banks to interrupt. Banks gets in the ring and takes off her track jacket to throw in Bliss’ face. Bliss isn’t listening to Bayley and points out that Sasha is the only one here without a title. Sasha calls herself the conversation and says she put the titles on the map (with Bayley serving as the hype woman). Bliss says name the time and the place but Bayley makes Bliss vs. Banks right now, even though Banks is in track pants and heels.

Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss

Bayley and Nikki Cross are on commentary and Banks has gotten some better shoes during the break. Some rollups give Bliss some early near falls and Insult to Injury connects for two. Banks is right back with the running knees in the corner for the same, leaving Nikki to LOSE IT when Bayley threatens Cole. The Meteora gives Banks two and Cross starts the LEXI chant.

Banks grabs a double arm crank and hits a backbreaker for two. Bliss faceplants her out of the corner as commentary still won’t stop shouting for two seconds. A dropkick cuts Banks off but it’s another Meteora into the corner. Two knees out of the corner gets two but Bliss fights up and goes to the top. Bayley gets up so Cross deals with her, only to have Banks grab a sunset flip for the pin at 7:18.

Result: Sasha Banks b. Alexa Bliss – Sunset flip (7:18)

We look back at the Hardy/Elias situation.

Shorty G. vs. Cesaro

Nakamura is here with Cesaro. Gable starts fast and hits a moonsault for a very quick two and then twists the knee for a bonus. Back up and Cesaro blasts him with a clothesline, followed by a gutwrench suplex. The chinlock with a knee in the back goes on but Gable fights up, earning himself a near Last Ride for two. Gable backflips out of a belly to back superplex and grabs the ankle lock, only to be sent into the ropes. Cesaro’s crucifix gets two so he tries another powerbomb, only to get reversed into a sunset flip for the pin at 4:06.

Result: Shorty G. b. Cesaro – Sunset flip (4:06)

Earlier today, Otis and Mandy Rose got to spend some time by the pool with Otis pouring her some peach champagne. We go to the dream sequence where Mandy rather approves of Otis in his limited gear and it’s the homage to Fast Times At Ridgemont High, with Otis taking his shirt off. Mandy squirts the bottle of suntan lotion, only to be woken up when Otis cannonballs into the water and splash her. She rather approves of the dream and gets in the water with him for various canoodling.

Kurt Angle is looking forward to seeing Randy Orton vs. Edge but he’s here for something else. He has gotten to know someone who is going to be the future of this show and introduces a video on Matt Riddle, who is officially coming to the show.

We get a Riddle highlight package.

Sheamus isn’t impressed and wants the Intercontinental Title. Daniel Bryan comes in and kicks him in the leg.

Intercontinental Title Tournament Semifinals: Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan

Sheamus kicks him down to start and grabs a chinlock, only to have Bryan fight back with the kicks in the corner. The suicide dive to the floor connects and we take a break. Back with Bryan working on the arm but Sheamus elbows him down. The top rope clothesline gives Sheamus two and he says he created the YES Movement when he beat Bryan at Wrestlemania.

Bryan fights back but gets Irish Cursed into the Cloverleaf. That’s broken up so Sheamus takes him up top for a superplex. Bryan blocks that as well and hits the missile dropkick but the YES Lock is countered into White Noise for two. Sheamus runs him over again and loads up the Brogue Kick….and here’s Jeff Hardy. The distraction lets Bryan hit the running knee for the pin at 13:12.

Result: Daniel Bryan b. Sheamus – Running knee (13:12)

Results
Sheamus won a battle royal last eliminating Jey Uso
Lacey Evans vs. Sonya Deville went to a double countout
Sasha Banks b. Alexa Bliss – Sunset flip
Shorty G. b. Cesaro – Sunset flip
Daniel Bryan b. Sheamus – Running knee

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!