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‘WWE Thursday Night SmackDown’ Results and Updated ‘WWE Battleground 2016’ Card

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 03:54 PST, Jul 15, 2016

Despite the fact that he has no confirmed appearances until SummerSlam 2016, WWE still used a portion of the final Thursday Night SmackDown to remind everyone that Brock Lesnar made a successful return at UFC 200 when he defeated Mark Hunt. With the topic of the WWE Draft popping up all throughout the show, the commentators debated how soon Shane or Stephanie might draft Lesnar on SmackDown Live, July 19, considering the fact that he’s not a full-time wrestler. Could Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton be a cross-promotional match, with Lesnar being drafted to Stehpanie’s RAW and Orton being drafted to Shane’s SmackDown?

Meanwhile, with John Cena busy making jokes about LeBron James and Draymond Green at the ESPYs, Enzo and Big Cass found themselves outnumbered against The Club when they faced their Battleground opponents in a tag team warm-up match. Of course, AJ Styles used the opportunity to say that John Cena couldn’t be trusted as a partner, hoping to cause disunity among his three opponents for July 24.

In the SmackDown main event, the feud between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn gets intertwined with Seth Rollins and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose, leading to a tag team match to close out the pre-taped SmackDown era. Sasha Banks was in action again, trying to earn her shot at Charlotte’s WWE Women’s Championship, and Bob Backlund shows Darren Young how to apply the Crossface Chickenwing on a new edition of MizTV.

This was the final episode of the pre-taped WWE Thursday Night SmackDown. The WWE Draft is scheduled for July 19 when WWE SmackDown goes live on Tuesday nights. The full results for this week’s WWE SmackDown and the updated match list for the WWE Battleground 2016 card are below.

WWE Thursday Night SmackDown Results

The following includes all of the matches and televised segments from the final episode of WWE Thursday Night SmackDown that the USA Network first aired on July 14. The episode was recorded at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 12. Byron Saxton, Mauro Ranallo, and Jerry Lawler provided commentary from ringside and JoJo was the ring announcer. After the WWE Draft next week, any and all personnel could be moved permanently to Monday Night RAW.

  • Before the SmackDown opening sequence aired, WWE played several pre-recorded promos. Kevin Owens talked about a card Sami Zayn sent his son, Charlotte and Dana Brooke talked about Dana’s match against Sasha Banks, The Miz and Maryse were shown putting on makeup in preparation for MizTV, and Dean Ambrose cut a short promo about the WWE Draft and his match with Owens.
  • Sasha Banks defeated Dana Brooke by submission using the Bank Statement. WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte attacked Banks immediately, leaving The Boss laying at ringside.
  • A replay of the segment from this week’s Monday Night RAW, aired in which Shane McMahon was named the Commissioner of WWE SmackDown Live. Consequently, Stephanie McMahon will be running WWE RAW on her own, going forward. Shane was then shown backstage, talking with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose.
  • A replay of Rusev and Zack Ryder’s interaction from Monday Night RAW aired in which the United States Champion left Ryder laying in the ring.
  • Dolph Ziggler defeated Rusev with a roll-up pin after Zack Ryder helped create a distraction at ringside.
  • A replay was shown of The New Day visiting The Wyatt Family’s compound and having a six-man swamp fight. They also reminded viewers that The New Day vs. The Wyatt Family in a Six-Man Tag Team Match had already been booked for WWE Battleground.
  • Highlights of John Cena hosting the ESPYs aired as The Bullet Club made their way to the ring for their match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kpT0Z-mlQo

  • The Club (AJ Styles & Karl Anderson) defeated Enzo & Big Cass by pinfall when Amore couldn’t make the hot tag to Cassady that he needed. A big assist goes to Luke Gallows at ringside for keeping Big Cass distracted.
  • The commentary team reminded everyone of Brock Lesnar’s win at UFC 200 over Mark Hunt, along with Brock’s post-fight interview in which he was asked about his match against Randy Orton at WWE SummerSlam 2016.
  • Kalisto defeated Tyler Breeze without any interference from Fandango or Sin Cara, both present at ringside. The commentary team continued to talk about how important it is for the WWE Superstars to “improve their draft value” before SmackDown Live.
  • SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon was shown talking to Becky Lynch backstage.
  • Highlights of the 19-man battle royal from Monday Night RAW aired, showing Darren Young earning his title shot against The Miz at WWE Battleground. Darren and Bob Backlund were both guests on MizTV with the WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz and his wife, Maryse. The Miz aired some career highlight of Backlund’s and then pointed out that Young had no career highlights of his own. The segment ended with Bob Backlund putting The Miz in his signature Crossface Chickenwing.

  • Shane McMahon was shown backstage once again, “scouting” potential draftees. He was talking to R-Truth. They showed a Tweet he had posted stating that a new SmackDown GM would be announced on Monday Night RAW.
  • Seth Rollins came out just before the Ambrose/Owens match to provide guest commentary. Just minutes into the match, Seth Rollins attacked Dean Ambrose. Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose ended without any clear decision announced. As Rollins and Owens had a 2-on-1 advantage over Ambrose, Sami Zayn made the save, setting up a tag team main event.
  • Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens defeated Dean Ambrose and Sami Zayn when Rollins hit Zayn with The Pedigree.

These results have been corroborated by WWE’s official SmackDown review.

RELATED REPORTS BY THE INQUISITR

Updated WWE Battleground Card

WWE Battleground 2016 is set for Sunday, July 24.

  • WWE World Heavyweight Championship Triple Threat Match: Dean Ambrose (c) vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
  • WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz (c) vs. Darren Young
  • WWE United States Championship Match: Rusev (c) vs. Zack Ryder
  • Randy Orton on The Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho
  • Six-Man Tag Team Match: John Cena, Enzo and Big Cass vs. The Club (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson)
  • Six-Man Tag Team Match: The New Day vs. The Wyatt Family
  • Charlotte and Dana Brooke vs. Sasha Banks and TBA
  • Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens
  • Becky Lynch vs. Natalya

Unless otherwise noted, the matches above were confirmed on WWE’s official Battleground preview page.

Where To Watch

USA airs WWE Thursday Night SmackDown weekly at 8/7c. Episodes of WWE SmackDown are made available to stream on-demand through the WWE Network several weeks after the episodes air on the USA Network. Replays of SmackDown are made available on-demand with a Hulu Plus subscription beginning Friday.

WWE Battleground airs live on the WWE Network on Sunday, July 24, at 8/7c. The Battleground Kick-off Show begins at 7/6c.

[Image via WWE]

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