WAS IT WORTH IT? What’s Worth Watching & What to Avoid on This Week’s WWE Smackdown Live (Spoiler-Free)

Look, we get it. There are a million hours of wrestling content every week and only so many minutes in the day to watch them. Your time is precious! Okay, maybe it’s not, but you still shouldn’t have to waste it by watching crappy television. So hang back, let us do the heavy lifting, and we’ll let you know whether or not this show is worth your time.

As always, our “WAS IT WORTH IT?” columns are spoiler-free, to a point. If we need to talk about an un-advertised match to get our point across, we will, but we also won’t tell you the result of said match. Since we’re trying to either sell you or dissuade you from watching something, we figured it would help to not give away everything before you get a chance to decide.

WWE Smackdown Live
June 19, 2018

This was the first episode of Smackdown Live after a very successful and busy Money in the Bank pay-per-view. With the return of James Ellsworth, the brand’s biggest feud in Styles vs. Nakamura finally at an end, and the confirmed debut of Sanity, there were certainly a lot of reasons to tune in. At least, on paper.

Let’s start with the positives.

THE PROSWRESTLING! The show was headlined by a five-man gauntlet match to crown a new #1 contender to the WWE Championship. That right there brings a lot of importance to the title, because the next challenger will have really earned it – especially considering the amount of raw talent present in the bout. The gauntlet actually took up the full second hour of the show, including entrances, and featured some absolutely phenomenal matches.JEFF HARDY! After being left off the Money in the Bank match card, the Charismatic Enigma needed a big week to bounce back, and he more than delivered on Smackdown Live this week. Jeff rocked a new look and a creepy new vibe to match, and straight-up called out one of the biggest stars in the wrestling world.JAMES ELLSWORTH! If you’re the kind of person who really loves the union between Ellsworth and Carmella, we’ve got some good news for you… They’re back! And they’re pretty much back to their old antics.IT’S ONLY TWO HOURS! After Money in the Bank went more than five hours including the kickoff show, and a three-hour Monday Night Raw the following night, a quick and breezy episode of Smackdown Live came as a breath of fresh air.BIG E! We won’t say much, beyond the already advertised fact that Big E represented The New Day in tonight’s gauntlet match. Let’s just say the big man got an excellent opportunity to show off his skills as a singles wrestler, and absolutely knocked it out of the park.TEAM BECKY! We just love any episode of Smackdown Live that gives Becky Lynch an opportunity to shine, as one of the most underrated talents in the business today. She was in singles action against one of The IIconics, looking to keep her momentum going after defeating Charlotte Flair last week.THE MIZ! Just… The Miz.THE CONSJAMES ELLSWORTH? If you’re the kind of person who really hates James Ellsworth and his very presnce on WWE programming, the first 15 minutes of this week’s show are probably not for you.SANITY DEBUT. I don’t know if this is really a “con”, but something about the debut of the former NXT faction just didn’t really excite me. I saw a lot of people digging the debut on social media though, so maybe it’s just a case of personal preference.WHERE’S ALMAS? The former NXT Champion was supposed to have his debut program against Sin Cara, but apparently the high-flying lucha star went and got himself injured. Which is pretty much the most Sin Cara thing we’ve ever heard. Almas was nowhere to be seen this week on the blue brand, and that’s extremely disappointing.VERDIT: TOTALLY WORTH IT!

I had to really nitpick to find some cons for this week’s episode of Smackdown Live, and to be honest, two of my examples were actually pretty decent segments that totally just come down to whether or not you enjoy a certain gimmick. And you can’t even blame them for not fitting Almas on the show when half the program was dedicated to one main event match.

There’s so much to love about this week’s blue brand show, so we’re giving it the final judgement of “TOTALLY WORTH IT!” We came for the hour-long gauntlet match, but stayed for Team Becky and Woken Jeff Hardy. Enjoy!