4 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (24 July - Results & Review)
WWE serves up mixed bag of hot/not segments on penultimate SmackDown stop pre-SummerSlam.
Finn Bálor vs. Sami Zayn has been tacked onto next weekend's SummerSlam PLE following Friday's episode of SmackDown in Oakland. Bálor won a messy Fatal-4-Way main event to punch his ticket to a bout vs. Zayn - the winner of that becomes number one contender, presumably for the next PLE or maybe even the Sunday Night's Main Event special on 6 September.
That's cool, but much of WWE's SummerSlam build has been alarming. Some of the matches just don't feel worthy, and it's pretty obvious that the summer spectacular would benefit from being one night. Even so, this was far from an awful episode of TV. It offered just enough to keep you watching, and there's no denying that the 2-hour runtime has helped the blue brand tremendously.
There were a few surprising treats lurking in the women's division, but we need to talk about how paper thin the Women's Tag-Team Title division is. Nikki Bella's return shouldn't mask how threadbare the whole thing is, and there was no need to make new champs Fatal Influence look like complete and utter losers here.
Back on the plus side, a contract signing segment between Gunther and Nick Aldis was pulsating television. There's a coolness to Aldis on the mic that many WWE fans won't have seen before when he's playing a constantly harassed GM. On the opposite side of the coin, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk came up just short in their quest to sell bad blood before meeting for the top title.
Here's all the good and bad.