10 Biggest Talking Points From WWE SmackDown (Aug 16)
9. Commercial Failure?
In my Raw and Smackdown articles, I've spent a lot of time talking about how badly WWE is using Apollo Crews. What's really frustrating about Crews's career path, though, is that someone at the company actually thinks he's being pushed. He's been featured regularly on TV since his debut and he wins more matches than he loses, but that's not enough.
Now, he's going to challenge The Miz for the Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam, but he doesn't have the momentum he should.
Crews's undermining continued on Smackdown. The opening segment with Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler aired as part of Miz TV, and when the show returned from commercial, we were shown a clip of what happened during the break: Miz started cutting a promo on Apollo "Creed", then Crews came out, corrected him, and gave him the Spin-out Powerbomb.
It's nice to see Crews actually getting to participate in an angle, but why did it have to occur during the break? It was shown on TV anyway, so couldn't The Miz have still been in the ring when the break ended? Having the showdown take place during a commercial just tells fans that it's not as important as what happens on the show.