5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (14 Aug - Results & Review)
WWE books 2 title changes; CM Punk and Kevin Owens take a step back; Chelsea Green = top babyface.
Any WWE weekly with 2 title changes, a confrontation pitting CM Punk opposite Kevin Owens, and veteran duo Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton brawling around the building will always be newsworthy. The writers squeezed a lot into Friday's allotted time here, so much so that they were forced to cut away from the closing stretch (which is becoming a bit of a bad habit) because there was just too much going on.
You've got to give it to SmackDown's creative team: There was always something fresh to pay close attention to, and the show was never less than watchable or noteworthy. It was well paced, but not everything hit its mark as intended. It'll surprise some that the biggest offenders were actually a pair of WWE's biggest star names. They meandered a little too hard on the mic, so it's probably for the best that their own title showdown is happening next week in Toronto.
On the plus side, Friday was a star-making night for one Chelsea Green. Company logic is all over the place in regards to a bid to strip her of the interim Women's Title, but Green and Nick Aldis excelled during an emotional segment that really got the night off to a fab start. The less said about who's challenging Chelsea next the better, but her performance on the mic cannot be denied. It was wonderfully spirited.
Here's all the good and bad from a broadcast designed to shift some chess pieces around the board and build towards Sunday Night's Main Event on 6 September.