SmackDown

It looks like Roman Reigns and DB will finally throw down for the first time in about 4 1/2 years at Clash of Champions. From a fan’s perspective, it seems like it was a case of extremely poor planning on WWE’s parts to not orchestrate a match between these two at SummerSlam and therefore not have one of the top superstars in the company participate at the second-biggest event of the year. This may have all been orchestrated, however, on purpose.

Let me Explain: WWE could have purposely set up the timing of this storyline so that it could culminate with the big reveal of Roman’s attacker on SmackDown’s debut episode on the Fox Network on October 4th. WWE will make this episode huge (arguably bigger than the 20th anniversary episode).

Chad Gable’s character may be repackaged soon under a new name: Shorty G (that’s probably why Shelton Benjamin was calling him Shorty in the ring on SD Live this week. I feel Gable is in a very similar position to that of Robert Roode on Raw. They are both in the process of being revitalized and prioritized more in the eyes of WWE. Roode is now teaming with Dolph Ziggler and will be challenging Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman for the Raw Tag Team Championships. I’ve also heard Gable will be teaming with Benjamin more consistently in the future, and this may even lead to them getting a Smackdown Tag Team Championship opportunity (again, remember how great of a team they were a couple of years ago) and winning the belts from The New Day.

Speaking of The New Day, Big E absolutely has a legit future with WWE and as a legitimate major title contender, as was evidenced this week in his match with Randy Orton. He should obviously stay with The New Day for now, because they are still too over for WWE to break them up now.

Shinsuke Nakamura definitely needs someone who can articulate for him and make the Intercontinental Championship relevant, and Sami Zayn is great on the mic so he is a great choice to do this. It’s just unfortunate though that someone who is so good in the ring has been funneled out of what he is best at, at least for now. From an optimistic perspective, maybe this will serve as a way for him to connect with the WWE universe on a deeper level and it will make them care more about him.

Side Note: The first and best match of the night was between Buddy Murphy and Ali. This was a big win for Ali since Murphy defeated Daniel Bryan just one week prior. The future of WWE is in great hands with performers such as these. Kevin Owens also redeemed himself by giving Elias a Stunner this week after looking a little soft last week, apologizing to Shane McMahon.

Lacey Evans is quite clearly overhyping herself. She’s not Charlotte Flair, she hasn’t proven herself enough yet to automatically be placed into the conversation for a title opportunity.

Lastly, Randy Orton has been able to elevate The Revival very successfully after forming an alliance with them just a few weeks ago. The Revival will look back on their careers at the end and realize just how big of a “thank you” they owe Orton.

So, Buddy Murphy didn’t “lie” when he admitted to Roman Reigns that he saw Rowan in the area of the Reigns attack. What he didn’t realize was that he saw someone who looked exactly like Rowan but was not actually him. WWE may want to seriously consider extending this storyline involving Roman Reigns attacker, having the final reveal on SmackDown’s premiere episode on the Fox network on October 4. This will provide significant suspense to this story if it is built correctly, making the debut episode of SmackDown on Fox truly epic. Perhaps for the time being leading up to that, a match between Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns could be orchestrated to take place at Clash of Champions.

The primary thing that stood out from this week’s SD Live was Buddy Murphy’s standout victory over Daniel Bryan. First of all, the former Cruiserweight Champion has to be viewed in a very favorable light by WWE management if his first two TV matches on SD Live were against two top superstars in the company: Reigns and Bryan. It’s not a bad situation to beat Daniel Bryan in your second televised match on the main roster. Buddy Murphy is a name to definitely keep an eye on because he clearly has massive star potential.

Sami Zayn is positioned in a weird spot right now. I really don’t think WWE has much of an idea what they are doing with him at this point. His solution to the losing streak he has been on for the last several months is to stop competing altogether (so he is calling it quits for right now). He is focusing on altruism by becoming a mouthpiece for Shinsuke Nakamura in another attempt by the company to get Shinsuke over (I will give WWE credit for maintaining persistence and patience with Nakamura). He also attacked The Miz so perhaps this will lead to an intercontinental Championship match between Shinsuke and Miz at Clash of Champions.

The Revival is making great strides towards becoming an entertaining tag team in WWE; they just needed a little time to get their bearings. WWE has also booked the storyline to make perfect sense for The Revival to challenge The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at Clash of Champions because they have formed an alliance with Randy Orton. Randy is already challenging Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. This is a great way to intertwine the story involving these six men. Also, a potential feud to keep your eye on in the future is between Apollo Crews or Andrade and Ricochet.

There seemed to be much more planning for this week’s episode of SD Live because the show felt much more well thought out. This is a refreshing change from the last few weeks which featured multiple changes from Vince McMahon mere hours before the show started.

Daniel Bryan and Rowan left the WWE universe with a cliffhanger to keep us counting down the days until next Tuesday night. They promised to reveal Roman Reigns attacker since they forced Buddy Murphy to admit that he lied when he said that he saw Rowan neared the scene of the crime. Also, remember how I said Drew McIntyre should be the obvious favorite to win the King of the Ring tournament? Well I stand corrected. I didn’t think Kevin Owens would enter, but now he should be the favorite. This could be the first major accomplishment he has to start off his main event push.

It was very exciting to see Buddy Murphy getting a huge opportunity against Roman Reigns in his debut match on SD Live, because the former Cruiserweight Champion is more than deserving. He may be thrust into a program with Roman Reigns as his first big feud on the main roster. This is a sign that the company thinks very highly of him if his first big program is with the company’s top dog.

Side Note:The Revival are undoubtedly becoming much better mic workers. This progression is good to see. Ali’s repackaging should be interesting to watch play out. One more thing: it’s probably a good idea for WWE to not feature The Fiend on TV right after SummerSlam because this will add to the mystique of his character.

We (the WWE universe) should be extremely excited that Murphy’s Law will potentially be enacted in the WWE maybe even as soon as this fall after SummerSlam. His name has been brought up twice now. It was brought up once involving the Roman Reigns situation and again several weeks ago by Shane McMahon when he was discussing the Kevin Owens situation. He may very well be a pivotal start of the future. Moving on, Murphy may have given away Daniel Bryan and Rowan as the guilty party in the Roman Reigns incident, as they were expected to be revealed as the culprits. This match, which I discuss in Superstar Sagas, should be a great one.

It was also a genius move for WWE to book the Aleister Black – Sami Zayn match to take place on the go-home episode of SmackDown Live right before SummerSlam. It surely got more of a spotlight than it would have at the pay-per-view. If it were to have been booked at SummerSlam, it probably would have ended with a quick Black Mass kick from Black. He is a guaranteed future WWE Champion by the way, with his stoic demeanor and his extremely elaborate entrance.

Side Note: One last thing to take note of from SD Live this week is how well the match between Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton is being positioned. Orton will unfortunately not win this feud, however it will serve to help Kofi gain major favor with the WWE universe, because Orton is being portrayed as a terrible human being who seeks to hold others down while he has gotten all the glory in his career. WWE is seeking to establish Kingston as a legitimate main event player (which the WWE universe has had a little bit of a hard time buying into after 11 years of Kofi being a mid-carder. Fans may not have been sure if he would be simply a transitional champion or if WWE was serious about pushing him).

Kofi Kingston will nonetheless be remembered as one of the greatest WWE superstars of this era. It has also been very smart of WWE to allow his WWE Championship reign to marinate for a while so he can be established as a legitimate main event caliber talent. This did not work a couple of years ago with Jinder Mahal, but I’m optimistic it will succeed with Kofi because the WWE universe already had a great amount of respect for the work he has put in over the last 11 years. It just may take a while for fans to get used to his title presence.

SmackDown Live is officially not the house that AJ Styles built anymore. Kofi Kingston’s victory over Styles this week got me thinking that it might be more beneficial to WWE to have him retain his WWE Championship against Randy Orton at SummerSlam.

For a couple of weeks now I have been leaning towards Orton because we know what we will get out of Randy Orton as champion (we’ve seen it 13 times) and it seems like a decent time to put the belt on him because it’s been over two years since he held the WWE Championship. While this is a decent argument, after rethinking it, there is still a little more potential left for WWE to explore with Kingston as champion, for example a feud with Ali, Andrade, or most intriguingly a big clash with Big E, who has serious potential.

I know I have said all along that I didn’t see Kofi holding the title past SummerSlam, but there seems to be too much potential that WWE has yet to be explored with Kingston as champion. Yes, live event attendance is down for events headlined by Kofi Kingston, but I do not believe this is necessarily being caused by him (it was instead poor storytelling which is being addressed and rapidly improved in my opinion).

What is Dolph Ziggler’s obsession with Goldberg because it won’t lead to a potential confrontation or rivalry between the two, at least I wouldn’t imagine. What might be a great rivalry, however, is one between Ziggler and Sami Zayn because Zayn analyzes what’s wrong with everyone but himself from a psychological standpoint, and Ziggler seems to be ignorant of his own psychological issues (in storyline) and says every scenario in which a superstar achieves major success should be him and he makes excuses all the time as to why it’s not him. The Miz confronted him about this topic about a week ago and he dismissed it. Anyway, Zayn has Aleister Black to deal with right now before we get to this, but this will be a great idea for WWE to look into in the future.

Trish Stratus having one last match to finish off her career with Charlotte Flair is a brilliant idea. WWE needs to capitalize on this now while Trish still has decent in-ring ability. This match will also elevate Charlotte Flair and do for her similar to what the match with John Cena did for Roman Reigns.

Ali really impressed this week and is absolutely deserving of taking the Intercontinental Championship off of Shinsuke Nakamura. Audiences have a harder time resonating with Nakamura because he has a little bit of a hard time with the English language. He talks a bit slower because of this, so he cannot get as many words out and therefore connect with the WWE universe as much as some other superstars.

Everyone in the WWE universe has to be excited that Roman Reigns worked double duty this past week, having a match on Raw and SmackDown (this might due to the fact that his match on SmackDown was very short). This suggests Roman may be getting closer to returning to WWE on a full-time basis. He is the cornerstone of the company at the moment so that’s a huge development.

Another big WWE development was Kofi Kingston challenging Randy Orton to a WWE Championship match at SummerSlam. He referenced a match that took place nearly 10 years ago between Randy Orton and himself where he accused Orton of using his influence to hold Kingston back and prevent him from being established as a main eventer. Orton happily admitted to this and claimed that Kingston still isn’t ready to be WWE Champion. This is all storyline by the way and there is no real beef between Orton and King as far as I’m aware. Randy Orton may seem to have been around WWE for what seems an eternity. And he does have an awful lot of championships, but he is such a badass with the few words he does say. WWE may want to look into pushing Roman Reigns very similar to the way Orton is pushed if they plan on maintaining the same character for Roman. WWE did a great job of it this week on Monday Night Raw with the confrontation with Samoa Joe.

Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon should have a very entertaining match at SummerSlam. It was a good idea on WWE’s part to add the stipulation of Owens quitting if he were to lose because this will garner major interest. It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. However, it will more than do its job to set up a first meeting since their Hell in a Cell match in October 2017 when Kevin Owens was saved by Sami Zayn.

Apollo Crews has to be feeling very encouraged by his match with the Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. He was getting major pops from the crowd for all of his big moves (how could people not love his in-ring ability) and The New Day was freaking out. Speaking out that it was great to see The New Day for a little over half the show before they were replaced by Michael Cole and David Ottunga. Michael Cole is an expert by the way at the commentary table. He did a flawless job of switching roles to being more of a color guy and letting Tom Phillips handled the play-by-play stuff, which he has been doing for years on Monday Night Raw. He’s almost like a referee; no one noticed the change, so it’s not a big deal.

Side Note: Charlotte Flair and Ali seems to be in somewhat similar positions heading into SummerSlam. Flair is determined to ensure that she (as the greatest female superstar of all time which is very hard to argue) is a major part of the show. Ali, on the other hand, has a taller task ahead of him of rebooting his entire character. At this point he seems hard to envision as a heel, so WWE will probably elect to rebrand his face persona.

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.

SmackDown Live has been producing shows of better quality over the last few months. My theory is that Vince McMahon had a somewhat difficult time trusting different people to orchestrate the show after the Road Dogg got frustrated with all the last-minute script changes and left the position. He still teaches character development to up-and-comers at the WWE PC (Performance Center). The names that are featured on the show may not be quite as big, but they are giving a quality performance each and every week. This may change now that Paul Heyman is officially running Monday Night Raw, but Eric Bischoff may be able to give him a run for his money because he is a great wrestling mind as well.

This week the show began with Kevin Owens going on an angry verbal rampage regarding Shane McMahon, seemingly officially turning babyface which could very well launch the best run of KO’S career.

WWE should not, however, make an attempt to turn Kevin Owens into the next Stone Cold Steve Austin, despite the fact that he uses a stunner to finish matches. Most all of what he said was true, because Shane is taking valuable TV time from superstars like Buddy Murphy, Apollo Crews, and Ali. Ali is coming with a character reboot and will likely get a sizable push. Timing is everything considering WWE was planning something very similar for him up until he sustained an unexpected injury. This happened right before Elimination Chamber and he was replaced by Kofi Kingston. We all know how that turned out. Nonetheless, this was not the correct way for Kevin Owens to expel his grievances, according to storyline obviously.

I’m not sure what end this will lead to because, while Kevin Owens does have plenty of history with Shane, he is not currently involved in a feud with McMahon. All this could easily be turned into a SummerSlam match without major changes. He may interfere in the match at Extreme Rules involving The Undertaker and Roman Reigns vs. Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre, because he currently does not have a match at Extreme Rules that is immediately coming to mind. Hopefully he would abandon the alliance with Sami Zayn (at least for now) as it would benefit both stars.

One points that desperately needs to be made regarding Roman Reigns is this:How can the WWE creative team expect any intelligent member of the WWE universe to legitimately accept someone like Roman Reigns as the babyface against an opponent like Dolph Ziggler? Reigns outweighs him by a minimum of 45 Ibs. This is one old-school element of wrestling that still absolutely works – bigger guys make for excellent heels and appeal well to crowds from a psychology standpoint.

Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura having a match at Extreme Rules is a fantastic idea because:

1. These two have a long history in Japan, so WWE can capitalize on their storied history, and
2. This is a great avenue for Nakamura to get his career back on track after some time away, facing Balor for the first time in three years since their NXT days.

Nakamura has not been relevant in a little over a year since he had the WWE Championship rivalry with AJ Styles. And let’s face it, no one remembers very well (or cares) that much about the tag team with Rusev which did not work.

Nikki Cross has the “it” factor that is so coveted in professional wrestling/sports entertainment. She will go on to be a very successful champion and a potential cornerstone of the women’s division for years to come. Partial credit goes to Alexa Bliss for providing significant assistance in getting her over with the WWE universe.

Meanwhile, I’m ready to yawn at The Undertaker. He is reportedly scheduled to have a SummerSlam match with Baron Corbin to avoid ringrust in preparation for WrestleMania. The reason he is still around is reportedly because WWE offered him a contract for so much money that he could not refuse it. We (fans) simply cannot get rid of him. He was great back in his day and there will probably never be another superstar quite like him. All that said, he, and the company, cannot seem to accept the fact that his era has passed

Slide Note:Otis may do the New Day’s hip thrust better than they do, if that’s possible. It’s awesome though. You shouldn’t take your eyes off Shelton Benjamin either. I can’t say for certain what’s going on with him, but it will probably turn into something great. Also, be on the lookout for Bray Wyatt to appear on Raw or SmackDown after Extreme Rules as there have been subtle hints the past couple weeks.

I have noticed in the past couple nights with Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman running SmackDown Live and Raw respectively, that the shows are having a bit more edgy feel to them, similar to the feel they incited back in the late 90s when Bischoff was at the helm for WCW and Heyman was running ECW. Both companies served as top competition for WWE. Let me elaborate on the edgy feel I’m referring to here.

Three examples:

• Corey Graves cussing on Raw, uttering a holy shit in reference to the Braun Strowman incident.
• Kofi Kingston giving Samoa Joe the middle finger, and the camera showed it.
• Bobby Lashley calling Braun Strowman a son of a bitch, which is language that WWE has steered further and further away from to attempt to appeal to its younger fan base, pushing top babyfaces and trying to place them in the John Cena role.

Superstars of the Attitude Era like Chris Jericho used to use this terminology all the time and it was a staple. This edgier feel has been sorely missed by fans such as me and it is extremely encouraging to see hints of it coming back with new management in place who are not afraid to use an old school perspective in order to increase ratings for the product.

Another encouraging sign from SmackDown Live in particular is the fact that a new star, Nikki Cross, may have been established, getting an opportunity to host A Moment of Bliss for Alexa Bliss, and a star we don’t see too often, Apollo Crews, received an opportunity to showcase his skills in the ring, which are incredible by the way, against Andrade.

The direction WWE is trending in is very encouraging, in some ways reverting to what worked in the past and combining it with modern day perspectives in order to please their vast and global fan base comprising a little bit of every demographic, age group and nationality.

Corey Graves puts Kofi Kingston’s recent performances into words perfectly: “I do not know how he does it”. Four matches in three nights. Ridiculous. This will for sure be the most memorable stretch of Kofi’s career. And no Dolph Ziggler in the WWE Championship match at Extreme Rules, ensuring that Kofi will have a one-on-one title match with Samoa Joe.

There’s a very strong possibility The New Day may steal the show at Extreme Rules with Daniel Bryan and Rowan since they won a non-title match this week.

Alexa Bliss has to be pleased with Nikki Cross, at least for now, because she will be getting a title opportunity at Extreme Rules thanks to Cross. A significant development in the story is bound to happen at the pay-per-view, however, most likely leading to a SummerSlam bout between the two. The Miz may also end up having his rivalry with Shane McMahon culminating at SummerSlam despite the fact that it seems to be slowing the trajectory of his career and causing him to lose momentum. WWE appears to be maintaining his state of limbo by incessantly pushing Shane McMahon and trying to establish him as the new version of Vince.

Side Note: It’s worthy to note the possibility of Aleister Black wrestling Cesaro at Extreme Rules, especially considering that he has not had a match on SmackDown Live since April 15. On a supplemental note, which brand superstars are exclusive to no longer seems to matter with the implementation of the Wild Card Rule.

I only bring that up because these two superstars are apparently on different brands. The Wild Card Rule has created an essential brand unification, which is positive in the light that superstars will be free to challenge any other superstar in the WWE without having to consider which brand they are exclusive to.