Thanks to Leon Milici for the following recap:
Renee Young opens the show with Daniel Bryan. Renee teases Bryan because he is typing. The opening discussion is about the Smackdown womens title. Bryan says the fans like their Smackdown titles better because their prettier. Renee asks about this week’s opening segment with the 6 competitors in the women’s title match at Backlash. Daniel Bryan talks about how chaotic the women were.
Renee strangely tries to transition to Sasha Banks speech last night. A raw performer. Daniel Bryan brings the conversation quickly back to the 6 women’s match that took place on Smackdown. Bryan puts over Carmella except for her finisher. Bryan says he used that move first and better.
The conversation then shifts to the Total Bellas show coming up on E. Bryan talks about Nikki’s comeback from neck surgery and him living in the same house with John Cena. Renee goes back to the Sasha speech last night. Daniel Bryan jokingly refers to it as the Fake retirement.
Shane McMahon joins the show as a special guest. Renee is happy that Shane is finally on The Talking Smack show. She asks Shane if Smackdown is going to 3 hours. Bryan screams NO. Bryan shoots that down immediately. Shane is on the show to promote Backlash sunday but also to announce some news. Chad Gable has a sprained MCL and will be out 2 to 4 weeks.
Daniel Bryan debate what to do now with The Smackdown tag team championship final sunday. Daniel Bryan decides that The Usos and Hype Bros will face each other sunday with the winner facing Heath Slater and Rhyno in the final for the tag titles. Bryan calls it a second chance match. Shane goes along with Daniel’s idea. Bryan talks about his man crush for American Alpha and how he feels bad for Gable.
Shane McMahon is asked about how he feels about Smackdown Live. Shane says he is pleased with the show and the ratings. He is asked how he feels about Raw. Shane says he never watches Raw just checks out The WWE website for Raw results. Renee shifts the conversation to Shane’s sneaker collection and why he isn’t wearing a pair tonight. Shane says he doesn’t always wear sneakers but offers to go shopping with Renee. Bryan says Shane has more shoes than Nikki Bella.
Shane leaves the show. Renee and Daniel then transition to The World Title match at Backlash. They talk about the final segment of Smackdown where AJ got revenge on Dean for what happened last week. Daniel Bryan puts over Dean Ambrose as the face of Smackdown Live. Bryan says he liked Dean’s line to AJ, “No trophies for the face that finishes in 2nd place”. Daniel also compliments AJ for his match and performance at SummerSlam vs John Cena. Renee talks about AJ’s recent nasty attitude and how he abused an assistant on set during Smackdown Live. Daniel Bryan throws his own phone as an example of what AJ did to the assistant’s phone.
Renee Young asks Daniel Bryan who he predicts will win Sunday’s world title match at Backlash. Daniel refuses to pick a winner and asks Renee to pick the winner. Bryan picks a 60 minute draw. Young chooses Ambrose. Daniel Bryan has to bite his tongue and try not to say something because he knows why Renee picked Dean.
Dolph Ziggler joins the show. He says he votes for all of his girlfriends to win their matches. Renee throws her pen at Dolph. Dolph then teases Daniel Bryan about him plugging Total Bellas. Renee asks Dolph about the different things he does besides wrestling like comedy and doing politicial reports for Fox Business. Daniel is shocked that Dolph works for Fox. Dolph says he covers both the democratic and republican parties. Bryan asks Dolph, which candidate he is voting for as president. Dolph refuses to answer because if he picks someone. The angry twitter people will come after him. Daniel reveals that he is voting for Jill Stein of the green party. Dolph says she went from 0 percent to 2 percent.
Dolph puts over Apollo Crews as a person and athlete. He wants to see the sinister side of him. Daniel talks about Apollo’s great backstory. How he is a 1st generation American. How his family came to this country to make a better life for him. Daniel Bryan jokes about how it’s his fault that Apollo is now called Creed. He takes the blame for it.
Daniel Bryan asks Dolph what he thinks about The Miz. Dolph says they have both been in the company for 11 years. How switching rosters has made Miz more relevant. Dolph puts over all the media work that Miz does. Dolph says he can’t blame Miz for wanting recognition as a champion. Calls Miz a go getter and appreciates his anger and passion. Dolph says he also been angry for 11 years. Dolph says he understands that Miz is more in it for the money and fame than he is. Dolph talks about how badly he wants to be great and how angry he is. Dolph says he is good at wrestling but that’s not all that he wants to be remembered for. Dolph talks about how sometimes he has been tole he was too good. Renee asks what that means. Dolph says that when he is too good to go over the top. He is told “We need you to help people out over here”. Dolph says he wants to be known as the Best. Dolph wants to prove that he deserves to be on the top of the business. The show wraps up with Renee saying that she wants Dolph to win gold again this sunday. Dolph teases her again about picking Dean to win sunday as the show ends.
