5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE Smackdown Live (Aug 23)

Coming out of the most important show of the summer, there are clear cases of momentum shifts on Smackdown - AJ Styles, who beat John Cena in an incredible contest, is on the way up. The stock of Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler, who suffered hard-to-explain-away losses, is falling. Dean Ambrose, who retained the WWE World Championship in a disappointing match, remains unchanged.

The fact is, though, that's there's no time to dwell on which superstars are in need of help, or even to properly administer it - the next Pay-Per-View (Backlash, a Smackdown-only affair) is less than three weeks away. Like in the days of the original brand split, it's time for a quick turnaround to another major show.

Thankfully, this week's Smackdown delivered in the sense that it was a good starting point for the Backlash build. Two new championships were unveiled, and the first titleholders will be decided at the Pay-Per-View. Additionally, a new feud was born, which is likely to figure into Backlash. Finally - and most importantly - WWE made the best main event for the PPV that they possibly could.

No, Smackdown wasn't perfect, but between smart decisions and good wrestling, it may have been the best episode since the brand split.

Here are 5 ups and 3 downs from August 23's Smackdown Live...

Prior to the start of Smackdown Live, Daniel Bryan tweeted that he and Shane McMahon would be unveiling two new championships on Tuesday's show. That reveal came at the very beginning of the episode, and it was both good and bad.

As expected, those two titles were the Smackdown Women's Championship and the Smackdown Tag Team Championship. Also as expected, they looked exactly like blue versions of the Raw titles. After the debacle that was the introduction of the Universal Title, one would hope that WWE would bust out some original designs, but odds are these belts were already made up by Sunday.

To be fair, the Women's Title is decent-looking - it's a while strap, while the center plate has a blue background. The Tag Titles are hideous, but so are the Raw belts. It's also curious that they're being called the "Smackdown" belts, while Raw's are "WWE" titles. Could a name change on Raw be far off?

On a more positive note, the belts came off as important, with Bryan and McMahon announcing how the first champions would be determined. Even Heath Slater was entranced by the prestige, as he made his intent to win the tag titles known. McMahon said if he found a partner, he could compete in the tournament, but he'd have to win to get a spot on the roster.