5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Aug 12)
1. Bootleg Baszler
Final gripe of the week.
Sure, Liv Morgan has to say something about Shayna Baszler, but calling her a "bootleg Ronda Rousey" is probably not the way to go. Being fair, maybe that would've been a lesser evil had WWE not tag-teamed it with Ronda herself criticising Baszler despite Shayna being number one contender.
To top it all off, Liv got the last laugh by planting Baszler through a table during their contract signing. Meanwhile, fans in the stands chanted "YOU TAPPED OUT" relentlessly at Morgan. To quote well-known philosopher Scooby Doo - "R'uh r'oh".
WWE has to be very careful with all of this. Morgan is already on the proverbial shoogly nail as a champion babyface, and they surely don't want to make Shayna look like some cheap knock-off of the woman she beat. That's not how to sell a big pay-per-view bout, basically.