5 Things WWE SmackDown got right this week (June 26, 2020)
While WWE SmackDown had booked a big Intercontinental Championship match for this week’s show, things did not go as planned for the Blue brand. The brand was going ahead well until several WWE employees tested positive for the virus earlier this week, forcing the company to scrap some plans and go ahead with new ones.
The Intercontinental Championship Match between AJ Styles and Drew Gulak was written off for this week, and fans were made aware that Kayla Braxton, Adam Pearce, Renee Young, and Jamie Noble were a few of the many people who’ve tested positive.
However, the show must go on and therefore WWE went to Plan B as they booked three big matches for the night and decided to give a fitting tribute to The Undertaker who announced his retirement from sports entertainment earlier this week during the end of his docuseries ‘The Last Ride.’
We wish all those who’ve been affected by the virus a speedy recovery and hope that they will be able to fit back into their roles comfortably once they recover.
While this week’s episode of SmackDown did not feature many matches or segments, everything the brand tried to do did fall well in place. In this article, we will look at the 5 things WWE got right on this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown.
#5 The Undertaker tribute
This week’s WWE SmackDown opened with a video package for The Undertaker after which we saw the SmackDown roster chant "Thank you, Taker".
After the break, WWE replayed the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 36, a match that will likely go down in history as Taker’s final wrestling match.
During the match, we saw several top current and former Superstars show their respect to The Phenom and praise his work both inside and outside the ring. Edge went on to claim that The Undertaker is the greatest of all time.
The WWE Superstars paid tribute to the legend on SmackDown
This was a good way to fill in time on an episode that had been hit by some problems and also pay tribute to the legend at the right time. While we are not sure whether WWE would have shown this match had several of its employees not tested positive for COVID-19, it was good to see them have a backup that worked perfectly on such a night.
The Boneyard Match was praised for the way it had been booked and filmed earlier too, and no one would have complained while watching it again. This segment fits into this week’s SmackDown perfectly as fans would always love to watch any major match involving The Undertaker.