Eric Bischoff officially started running SmackDown Live after Extreme Rules, and the Bischoff era kicked off with Shane McMahon conducting an excellent segment. I fully assume this segment had the intention behind it of introducing new superstars that the WWE universe is not quite as familiar with, like Buddy Murphy (who may have earned himself a match after SummerSlam against Kevin Owens) and Liv Morgan, who had a match against Charlotte Flair later in the show.
Even Apollo Crews had something to say and wound up receiving a match later in the night against Andrade, and winning (this may get the attention of management and he may receive a small push because of this, but not a huge one by any means as Andrade is not a massive superstar yet).
Another interesting happening on SmackDown Live involved The New Day and it ended in them conducting a six-man tag team match with Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, and Elias. All three members of the latter team expressed their intent to take the WWE Championship from Kofi Kingston. This appears to be setting up a fatal four-way match at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship involving these four men, which I am fully on board with.
As for the way this particular episode of SmackDown Live was conducted, I personally would have had Joe and Elias challenge Big E and Xavier Woods for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and Randy Orton challenge Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship in the main event with Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler in-between. The IIconics would have been edited out of the show and moved to next week because they are not a real priority right now in WWE (they may be in a month).
It’s seems more and more likely that Kevin Owens will have a SummerSlam match with Shane McMahon. This match would undoubtedly be featured pretty high on the card. Now that I think about it, there is also a strong possibility that Kevin Owens teams with Roman Reigns in a tag team match against Shane McMahon and a partner of Shane’s choosing. It seems safe to say that the entire WWE universe thought Shane’s rivalry with The Miz would carry through the summer, but Miz is moving on to other matters (Dolph Ziggler right now).
Congratulations also to Ember Moon on being given a SmackDown Women’s Championship match by Bayley as she will do great things whether she wins the title or not.