5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (31 July - Results & Review)
2. US Title Build Dies A Death
Comeback (ex-)king Baron Corbin burst back into sight on the 10 July SmackDown when he put a stop to Trick Williams vs. Carmelo Hayes by ambushing both men. At first, your writer called for calm and to see how things might shake out for Corbs. After all, everyone deserves a chance to properly bed in and follow up. WWE's grand follow up? Book a United States Title match for SummerSlam that they pretty much forgot all about until Friday's show.
Trick tried to bring the energy by calling out Baron, but then Corbin meandered on the mic before Williams cut his balls off by saying he isn’t better than he was the first time around. Baron is going with the ‘patient veteran’ gimmick, which is fair enough, but this wasn’t very good. WWE hasn’t been able to capitalise on Corbin’s comeback, and neither has he. Not thus far, at least.
Here’s hoping the actual match is worthwhile, because this went nowhere. It makes next to no sense that Baron attacked Trick (and Melo) willingly upon his return, but then played it cool here by backing away from a fight. It made him look weak and non-threatening, to be perfectly honest, which is precisely the opposite of what he should be when coming for the US gold.
Sometimes, it is as though AI scripts these segments. No thought or care is given to what's happened before or what the motivations of each worker should be. It's like pressing the reset button every week on some of these dudes.