WWE Smackdown Live Match Ratings And Notes For 6/5/18 From Sean Ross Sapp

Asuka defeated Absolution
6/10

• Carmella kicks off Smackdown, and carries the first 8 minutes by herself with some promo videos hyping up, and then tearing down Asuka. Carmella does really good heel work. If she can get above average in the ring, she'll be something special. 
•  She calls Asuka out, but Asuka is followed by Absolution, who I'm really happy are wearing something besides all-black. Tip for wrestlers: stand out visually by not wearing black all the time. Paige follows and says that Asuka can have whichever member of Absolution she wants. She tells Paige she wants both of them and is granted the match as Carmella joins commentary.
• I love the start between Sonya and Asuka. Leg kicks, pummeling for underhooks, and a collar and elbow. Asuka goes for a kneebar a little bit later. 
• For some reason, Sonya screams "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ASUKA?!" at the crowd. Not sure why.
• Asuka gets the upper hand and hits Mandy Rose with her ass and a missile dropkick.
• After a commercial where Mandy Rose controls things, Asuka and Sonya double kick each other. The crowd is into this match. Sonya Deville also runs into a kick from Asuka and throws great knees. She has an insane spear, too. 
• Asuka and Sonya have incredible chemistry. Little things like Sonya rolling out of an armbar are great. She taps to the Asuka Lock, though.
• Asuka back fists Mandy, but gets attacked by Carmella. Great heel work from Carmella in this. 
• That was a really good first half hour. They really shouldn't be beating Sonya Deville the way they are. 

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Karl Anderson (w/ Luke Gallows) defeated Harper (w/ Rowan)

• Harper jumps Anderson's ass early on. Anderson is exceptional as a babyface.
• Black Hole Slam on Karl, but he rolls up Harper for the win!

Jimmy Uso & Naomi defeated Aiden English & Lana
5.5/10

• Naomi cuts a pretty good promo with Jimmy Uso until the cheesy Uso penitentiary line.
• Lana comes out to a rather tame reaction. Also, her entrance seems super babyface-ish.
• Uso punches English in the throat, and Lana shows great concern. They try to attack, but fail. Lana anticipated the kick.
• Naomi hits a crazy suicide dive. 
• Coming from commercial, the babyface aspects from the aforementioned entrance are gone. She cracks Naomi with a couple of knees up against the rope. 
• Lana is better in the ring than several I've seen in Women of Honor matches. She does a surfboard stomp, and cuts Naomi off. She does a few really bad elbow drops. A roll up spot looks bad, but that's more on Naomi. 
• Jimmy gets the tag, and Lana is a little late to break up the pin. Uso and Naomi hit a cool assisted Thesz Press. Naomi FLIES on a body press to English and Uso pins with a superkick to the throat. 
• Lana is WORRIED about English after the match. Mediocre match with really cool spots and fun stuff. 

Contract signing

• I love the backstage contract signing. This is a cool new touch.
• Nakamura keeps saying that ink pens are broken. 
• Adam Pearce and Dean Malenko sighting!! Styles slaps Nakamura and they break it up
• That contract signing featured wrestlers who have held titles in WWE, NJPW, TNA, NWA, WCW, NXT, ROH.

Becky Lynch defeated Charlotte Flair
5/10

• We see some chain wrestling and a weird splits takedown from Charlotte that wouldn't work.
• They're being super friendos and it's not getting over. There is some really, really sloppy work between these two.
• Charlotte gets a Canadian Backbreaker out of the corner, but Becky decks her. There's also a super low elevation leg drop from the ropes.
• Corey Graves spoils that WWE is going to have Bayley in the ladder match and the announcers try to cover it up for ten minutes.
•  A spear and a slinghsot to the outside look good, but Charlotte eats knees on a moonsault attempt.
• Charlotte and Becky trade submission attempts in a good finish until Becky submits Charlotte. This was a slopfest until the last two minutes. The finish made it decent. 

Big Cass

• Renee Young asks Cass how he'll beat Daniel Bryan. Cass says he's tall. He says he's hated Daniel Bryan since WrestleMania 30.
• He throws to a video of Bryan getting choked out. Big Cass cuts a pretty good promo about how pathetic Daniel Bryan is.
• It's good, but Cass just lost clean in about seven minutes so it means much less than it normally would. 

Almas

• Sin Cara is interviewed by Dasha. Sin Cara is bad here, he said he thought of Andrade as a brother, but something happened.
• Zelina goes off and says they have a match next week.
• Andrade Cien Almas and Sin Cara have a match next week.

New Day defeated The Miz, Rusev & Samoa Joe
6/10

• Miz is doing Mizjitsu backstage when Mr. Bootyworth approaches. New Day want Miz to help them REVEAL THEIR MEMBER to the world (who will go to MITB). Miz gets blindfolded and reaches into pancake batter. Big E killed me during this. 
• Samoa Joe cuts an interview backstage, and it's good per usual. He's just such a natural at being convincing
• Big E hits a big belly-to-belly suplex before we go into the standard heel working over the babyfaces. There are some good spurts of offense from Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, too. 
• Rusev just fits in a position like this -- the main event. He stops a YOLO dive with his knee. 
• Samoa Joe does a corner uranage to Big E. Nice turning of the tables.
• THAT KOFI TRUST FALL SPOT WAS SO COOL!  It was like an optical illusion! He gets caught with a Machka kick, too. Big E goes right into the ring post.
• Miz is trying his best to direct traffic, and wants to crack Big E with a bunch of pancakes. Instead he hits Samoa Joe and Rusev and gets his ass kicked properly for it. This is kind of funny.
• Miz is left by himself. Midnight Hour, pin.