{"id":100217,"date":"2020-07-08T14:58:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T19:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=100217"},"modified":"2020-07-08T14:58:47","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T19:58:47","slug":"wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-6-26-mask-effect-black-sheep-and-king-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2020\/07\/08\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-6-26-mask-effect-black-sheep-and-king-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES 6\/26: Mask Effect, Black Sheep and King Covid"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3250864566\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>So when I get mad, I make a fist.\u00a0 I grab my pen and I write out a list.\u00a0 Of all the wrestling stuff that hit and missed.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s see who&#8217;s made our WWE Smackdown Hitlist for the June 26th, 2020 episode on FOX.<\/p>\n<h3><u><\/u> HITS<u><\/u>\u00a0<u><\/u><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u2022Welcome To My Boneyard:<\/strong> This time, WWE&#8217;s loss was our gain, as the depleted roster provided the company with an opportunity to showcase the highlight of WrestleMania 36.\u00a0 The Undertaker faced A.J. Styles in a cinematic spectacle called a Boneyard Match, and it was really good.\u00a0 (If you already sat through it a second time as part of Undertaker&#8217;s &#8220;Last Ride&#8221; miniseries on WWE Network, forget I said anything and move on to the next paragraph.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022Black Sheep:<\/strong> Braun Strowman got to show off his promo ability on Friday Night Smackdown when he talked about his history with Bray Wyatt.\u00a0 Spoiler; He&#8217;s not bad.\u00a0 Granted, the entire premise here with a disaster.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve all seen far too much of the Funhouse Freak over the past several years to buy into him as any sort of demon.\u00a0 But the Man Of Strow made a convincing case that he once enjoyed being evil so darn much that he might be tempted to try it again,\u00a0 It adds a little something to the upcoming Swamp Match.\u00a0 Which is good, because we don&#8217;t need to see the same thing we saw at Money In The Bank.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022It&#8217;s About The Cross:<\/strong> If you&#8217;ve seen Smackdown in 2020, you already know Nikki Cross is the most likable lady wrestler on the roster (at least of the wrestlers they use on television).\u00a0 She earned a following in NXT with her crazy Scotswoman character, and she managed to make herself into the softer side of the Cross Bliss tag team.\u00a0 She can wrestle too.\u00a0 So, it was great to see Nikki earned the victory in the number one contenders&#8217; match.\u00a0 Bayley vs. Nikki with a few weeks of buildup sounds like a perfect match for Extreme Rules.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022Mask Effect:<\/strong> When a wrestling promotion is shorthanded, they often juggle talent to make it seem like they have more depth than it appears.\u00a0 That&#8217;s how we got New Day &amp; Lucha House Party against Miz &amp; Morrison &amp; Cesaro &amp; Nakamura.\u00a0 This was a fun match with the perfect ending.\u00a0 In the first Smackdown episode with masked spectators, who better to get the victory than Gran Metalik?<\/p>\n<h3><u><\/u>MISSES<u><\/u>\u00a0<u><\/u><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u2022Covid Crisis:<\/strong> With apologies to the former Tom Pestock, the top heel on SmackDown isn&#8217;t King Corbin.\u00a0 It&#8217;s King COVID.\u00a0 Last week&#8217;s coronavirus outbreak at the Performance Center meant we didn&#8217;t get the scheduled WWE Intercontinental Title match between AJ Styles and Drew Gulak.\u00a0 Nor did we get Sheamus&#8217;s &#8220;toast&#8221; to Jeff Hardy, but that might be a case of addition by subtraction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022Casualties:<\/strong> Nothing against Sarah Schreiber, but WWE really could have used Renee Young on this show.\u00a0 Heck, they could have used Kayla Braxton too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022Golden Microphone:<\/strong> I am okay with Bayley and Sasha on commentary, and I like Michael Cole &amp; Corey Graves selling how annoyed they are with the Role Models, but this is the sort of gimmick that works best in small doses.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3719783463\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>You can find Pat McNeill of Greenville, South Carolina on Twitter at @realpatmcneill. \u00a0Listen to his weekly &#8220;Wayback Playback&#8221; watchalong podcast with Jim Valley over at <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/wayback-playback-with-pat-mcneill-jim-valley\/id1381773794\">HERE<\/a> or sign up for their Patreon <a href=\"https:\/\/patreon.com\/WaybackPlayback\">HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-185790401\"><div id=\"pwtor-1036557938\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>So when I get mad, I make a fist.\u00a0 I grab my pen and I write out a list.\u00a0 Of all the wrestling stuff that hit and missed.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s see who&#8217;s made our WWE Smackdown <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2020\/07\/08\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-6-26-mask-effect-black-sheep-and-king-covid\/\" title=\"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES 6\/26: Mask Effect, Black Sheep and King Covid\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2017\/07\/StrowmanBraunTB_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100243,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100217\/revisions\/100243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}