411’s Talking Smack Report 7.04.17: Maria and Mike Promote The Power of Love

411’s Talking Smack Report: 07/04/17

-Happy 4th of July to those of you reading that celebrate. This report is a little later than usual due to the Holiday as the wife and I took our 7 week old son to a local amusement park for a few hours. Because of that I haven’t seen SmackDown yet so I am going into this one blind.

-Renee Yong welcomes us and she is joined by SmackDown GM, Daniel Bryan. She wishes Daniel a happy 4th and he points out that she is not even American. They discuss the return of not only John Cena, but of Rusev as well. Bryan is thrilled with the Gable/AJ Styles match, and takes credit for it.

-Renee wants to know what Bryan’s problem is with Ellsworth and that gives Daniel a chance to call him The Big Hog. His issue is that he doesn’t want him to keep interfering in matches so he fined him $10,000 and suspended him 30 days. Renee thinks that will a little harsh, but Daniel says it was hard on him as he has led the support for The Big Hog.

-Naomi is out as out first guest and they pimp her new t-shirt. It seems she also has the SD’s Women’s Title decked out so that it glows during her entrance. Naomi says she is done with Lana now, but Renee wants to cover everything. Renee brings up the tweet from Lana last week where it showed her shoulder was up before the count of three and Bryan’s tweet responding to give Lana another match. Naomi squashed Lana in mere seconds tonight and now she is moving to bigger things. They discuss the belt having glow night and says it has 7 lighting settings. They show her entrance and how the title looked with it’s new features. Naomi talks about wanting to put a bit of herself into the title, yet keep with tradition. Daniel wants to know if Naomi feels like she is in charge of the division and she says absolutely. She knows she is at her best and she is better than every woman in the division. Bryan asks her who she would like to face if she could pick just one at Battleground. She picks Charlotte and says she has to beat her to prove that she really is the best. They discuss the situation with Tamina and Naomi says they aren’t close anymore like they were when they were part of Team B.A.D. She promises that if she wants to come for her title she will tap her out as well.

-Naomi leaves and Bryan says he would love to see Charlotte/Naomi on PPV. Renee wants to know why Daniel wasn’t part of the rap battle. He says he had some awesome rhymes and spit them with The Usos, but they were embarrassed by them. Daniel throws done a few bars and is proud that he was able to rhyme with “numbers” with “cucumbers.” Daniel is fantastic! Daniel says he loved the rap battle and was shocked by the innuendos. They show some of the battle and it all broke loose when Woods brought up that The Usos are only good at carrying Roman’s bags. Ouch! Daniel is now more excited about a tag match between the two of them now because they don’t like each other.

-They cover “Tenay Young” and Bryan says while he didn’t approve it, he didn’t disapprove either.

-Maria and Mike out next and this should be interesting as this is their first go on the show. They spend some time confessing their love to each other and Daniel has to interrupt. They take some shots at Sami Zayn and then they show their debut at Money in the Bank. That theme music is tremendous! Renee wants to know about the power of love. Maria says they are trying to inspire people to find true love as most never do or they just fake like they found it. Daniel brings up that Mike was called Mike Bennett on the Independent Scene and wants to know why he took Maria’s last name. He says they are ahead of the curve and that while working independent shows he just kept doing the same thing over and over and nothing changed until he met this strong, independent woman who brought him love. The least he could do was take her last name and it also sounds powerful. Renee is cool with the decision and just wanted to know the reason behind it. Maria says they are in the WWE to show that love conquers all and everyone needs to know that. Mike says everyone in the back is walking around angry and they need to let it go like he did. Renee thanks them for coming on the show.

-Daniel says he knows a guy who took his wife’s last name and is ok with Mike and Maria’s power of love. It is Zen like to him and Renee isn’t mad at it either.

-They hype Cena vs. Rusev at Battleground in a Flag Match. Then they pimp Rocket League as the sponsor of Talking Smack.

-They discuss the return of John Cena and Daniel seems bothered by RAW hyping Cena as a free agent, but AJ Styles comes out as out last guess before Cena’s status can be discussed any more.

-AJ was impressed with Gable and says that he manhandled him in the early parts of the match. He says wrestling Gable was tougher than the battle royal. Daniel brings up that there is a difference between amateur wrestler (like AJ was in High School) and Olympic wrestler (like Gable) and AJ agrees. He was lost in the opening part of the match as Gable was able to throw him all over the ring. AJ was able to win the Independence Day Battle Royal and feels he got lucky as he picked his spots. Daniel asks if it was hard to wrestle 2 matches with down time between instead of back to back matches. Renee brings up Daniel doing it at Mania XXX. AJ talks about how hard it because your body cools down and shuts down after the first match and he is lucky the second match was a battle royal as the focus could be on others instead of just him.

-Bryan brings up that KO petitioned to have the battle royal canceled. AJ understands why as he is better and KO just got lucky that he stepped in a hole in the announce table and got tangled in wires. AJ says “the only thing he is better than me at is eating.” DAMN! Here I thought we only get shots fired like that about KO from the IWC. Daniel wants an eating contest next week now and AJ brings up that Daniel mentioned a AJ/Bryan “Dad’s” show and fans will likely want this eating contest too. Daniel wants them in a wiener eating contests (his words, not mine) and AJ says he would lose that contest. Bryan hypes AJ up as he thinks if anyone can do it would be “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles as if he can beat him in an eating contest then he can beat him for the US Title. AJ doesn’t want the fans trying to push for this and Daniel has already come up with a hash tag for it. #AJStylesWienerChallenge

-Renee says that if it doesn’t happen on SmackDown then they will do it on Talking Smack. That is the cue to leave, but as the music plays she whispers to AJ that he has a week to prepare to eat wieners.

-Not as great as last week, but this show has found a good groove again with Daniel back. He just says whatever he wants and things just spiral off in entertaining ways and for the most part the guests just go right along with him. Naomi was solid as she has been in the past on this show. Mike and Maria were great and I loved Daniel bringing up the last name issue so people can get past that now. The closing segment with AJ was marvelous and he walked right into that eating challenge with the shot at KO and there was no way Daniel was letting that go. Fun stuff and I wouldn’t put it past Vince to have AJ and KO have a hot dog eating contest now.