11 Ups & 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (July 30)
In which someone tries to murder Roman Reigns.
This week will likely go down as one of 2019's strongest one-two punches with regards to Raw and SmackDown, as WWE followed up on an awesome episode of the Monday night flagship with this: another blue brand belter.
The same caveat from yesterday's Raw review applies here as well. Yes, this show brought a few Downs to the table, but most were a drop in the ocean. Only one could be seen as a major problem, and on a night when a pile of scaffolding collapsed on Roman Reigns, WWE creative held firm.
A reported last-minute rewrite saw the advertised New Day vs. OC scrapped in favour of AJ Styles vs. Kofi Kingston. Their non-title bout was one of three big singles matches, with Drew McIntyre set to face Kevin Owens without the aid of his big mate, Shane McMahon, and Dolph Ziggler wrestling Finn Balor. Elsewhere, Trish Stratus returned to SmackDown as Jerry Lawler's guest on the King's Court, Randy Orton addressed Kofi Kingston in an awesome pre-prepared promo, somebody new picked a fight-uh with Aleister Black, and Bayley tried to even the score with Ember Moon ahead of SummerSlam.
Another strong, strong show. Let's break it down.