5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (9 Aug)
Who moved forwards, and who fell backwards?
The 2016 Brand Split’s third week has produced a stalemate. While the first week saw Raw take the lead before SmackDown equalised on the second, there was little to choose between WWE’s two biggest shows this week. Neither was a knockout, but they weren’t a disaster either. Monday and Tuesday saw two interchangeable shows with some moving parts, and some stagnation: the kind of middle-of-the-road broadcasts that fans have come to expect midway through a WWE PPV build.
Last week saw SmackDown return to form with a highly-enjoyable show bolstered by some great segment work and a tremendous Dolph Ziggler vs. Bray Wyatt main event. While light on other in-ring action, the show added several new layers to SmackDown’s biggest SummerSlam matches (Ziggler vs. Ambrose, Cena vs. Styles), and felt like a step in the right direction for the apparent “B show”.
This week wasn’t quite as dynamic. There were a handful of matches, but only a couple stretched beyond the 10-minute mark, and with AJ Styles and John Cena away on WWE’s tour of Australia and New Zealand, WWE’s hands were tied. Still, plenty of wrestlers were able to gain traction on the road to SummerSlam, while others fell behind the pack.
Going beyond straightforward match results, here are the 5 biggest winners and losers from SmackDown Live.