Rob’s What mattered
3. Montez Ford’s Frog Splash
It has been a while since we’ve seen it on TV, and every time I see it, I think we just need to bask in it. It’s maybe the most consistent and impressive version of that finisher we’ve ever seen. Montez Ford and Dolph Ziggler had a good match. It would be nice to see more storylines for them as a reward.
2. Summerslam Matches Made Official
WWE always hits a huge crossroads when it’s obvious what their plans are, but they haven’t officially made the matches yet. They did a good job keeping them entertaining this week. Roman Reigns and the Usos were occupied with Finn Balor, but the WWE officials were adamant the match was still between Reigns and John Cena. Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks continued to build conflict while Belair challenged Zelina Vega for the right to get into the match. Edge and Seth Rollins had a promo segment to make their match official. Rollins was kept on the screen via satellite which was great to keep them apart until their match. SmackDown is the king of booking because they find ways to make the twists and turns up until the PPV is intriguing, even when they’re predictable. It’s a testament to this that I’m more excited for the third-best SmackDown Summerslam match than I am for any official match on Raw.
1. Finn Balor
Finn Balor is speedrunning his storylines through Summerslam. I assumed he would face Baron Corbin at Summerslam, but he beat Corbin easily tonight and went straight to challenging Roman Reigns again for the title. It was apparent this is a different Balor coming back from NXT. He has an edge and confidence that makes him an always-contender for any title. That’s a massive win for Balor in his return to the main roster.
Reverse Hipster What Mattered
1.Edge and Seth
I honestly think this is the best feud of Summerslam. A legit dream match that we have never seen before. Also, it's the past vs. the present; who will WWE choose? This week they sparred in a promo battle. Seth said he knew he was better than Edge and that he would criple Edge for the rest of his life with the curb stomp. Edge said that he eliminated him from two rumbles now, and what's really eating Seth alive is that he is just Edge lite. I'm really excited to see where this feud goes week to week, and the blowoff should be excellent.
Reverse Hipster What Didn't Matter
5. Finn Balor
I went back and forth on this one. Because Finn declared he was still chasing the title, he won his match and beat up the Usos. However, Michael cole tipped the scales to the negative in the last second of Smackdown. After Roman beat down Finn with help from the Uso's, Cole said Finn learned he couldn't take down Roman, but the question is, can Cena? I disliked that it made it seem like Finn was a small fry, a side dish, and the main course was Cena.
Also, I don't like that Finn is even acknowledging Cena Reigns. He should be acting as if it's still his match and guaranteeing that he will interfere if he is not put back in. Because it is his match, he shouldn't need to go through Cena cause Cena has absolutely no right to match. Also, a triple threat would be more interesting anyway because we saw Cena Reigns at no mercy. Also, you could still do Cena Reigns at the next PPV. Lastly, I didn't like the Corbin match because once Corbin apologized, all the heat was gone, and that's terrible for the main event match.
4. The Woman's Title division
The opening segment from the women was so-so because everything that happened was kind of predictable. They didn't have much to go off and honestly did the best with what they had. However, having Zelina get a nontitle match instead of a title match was boring. Then having her lose even though it was nontitle was terrible. At the very least, Zelina could have won the match. She is still winless. Also, where is Liv? They could have had Zelina continue her feud with Liv because they clearly don't want either of them in the title picture.
3. Street Profits
First off, I want to say, of course, the match was good these two teams are excellent in the ring. However, this just seemed like a waste. The Street Profits are supposed to be feuding with Alpha academy, but instead, they fought the Dirty Dawgs for no reason at all. Ford's return was already kind of bungled by putting in front of a crowd that didn't care. However, I hoped he would have an angle on Smackdown, but he got absolutely nothing. This is a shame because Street Profits are a cornerstone of smackdown. I'm starting to get flashbacks of WWE wasting American Alpha.
2. Disappointing Finishes
Apollo vs. Nakamura ending in a Dq made will be a good match later, just a waste of time this week. This has been a sad trend for the IC championship. Teagan Knox picked up a win in the silliest distraction win that didn't help anyone. This also put a hole in the story Tamina fending off challengers by herself. Dominik and Rey are clearly planting seeds for a breakup, and their match was just another single rematch. Also, the finish made no sense. Why would Dominik be distracted by his dad helping him, and why wouldn't his dad distract his opponent on the top rope. Overall these matches were uninspired.
Sonya and Adam
Undoubtedly the worse thing on Smackdown. We watch Adam give Edge a title match for no reason. We also watch Sonya give Charlotte match after match. But they won't give Zelina a match even though the champ and the challenger are in agreement. Remember this at the same time that Cena just signed his name to a contract not made for him. But they want to talk about contracts not being ready. It was ridiculous. Worse than being ridiculous, it threw a wet blanket over Smackdown. Now we don't even have a title match for Smackdown now; you have downgraded one of the biggest attractions. There is just no logic to the Gm position right now, and it burns me up every week for face or heel. They desperately need to fix it.
Rob’s What didn’t matter
2. The Usos
Jey Uso had a good match with Dominik Mysterio, but he could only beat him with help from his brother. After a year of being main event Jey Uso, it feels like a little bit of a fall for him. The Usos are tag team champions, but they couldn’t handle Finn Balor 2-on-1 after Balor already fought Baron Corbin. As a base rule, I feel like established tag teams should always beat singles wrestlers. The whole situation felt like a negative review of the Usos as tag team champions.
1. Zelina Vega
This SmackDown, Zelina Vega, was like the opposite of Finn Balor. She tried to insert herself into the women’s championship feud, but she was largely ignored by the two biggest stars in the division. Vega lost her match against Bianca Belair, even with distractions from Sasha Banks. Even though it felt obvious, I would have rather these segments never happen. Vega hasn’t been built up properly as a single’s star. She got a big pop when she returned, but putting her in situations like this isn’t helping her image.
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