10 Biggest Talking Points From WWE SmackDown (Aug 9)
An uneasy alliance is formed.
With only two weeks left until SummerSlam, Raw presented a show that felt more like a waste of time than a hard sell for the strongest card of the year. Talented stars weren't used, segments dragged on, and important upcoming matches were largely ignored. It would fall to Smackdown to carry the lion's share of the smart booking this week.
Coming into Smackdown, the show had its advantages and disadvantages. The main event for the broadcast was already set up on last week's show, and would advance the WWE Championship feud between Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler. On the other hand, though, many of the brand's stars would miss the show due to other bookings.
Of course, the one advantage that Smackdown always has is that it's two hours long, and that helped make the show a clear winner over Raw this week. Everything seemed to serve a purpose (well, almost everything - sorry, Scooby), and more often than not, the purpose was to make Smackdown a stronger brand and SummerSlam a more hotly-anticipated show. The roster may still be thin and perfection may be a pipe dream, but at least the priorities on the blue brand seem straight.
Here are 10 big talking points from August 9's Smackdown:
10. Same As It Ever Was
Following the end of last week's Smackdown, it was pretty obvious that this week's main event was going to pit Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler against Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan. Sure enough, that's what happened, and it's fine. In order to get there, though, we had to sit through some repetitive promos.
Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan were out first, and Wyatt's been cutting the same promo for three years. It's not so much his fault - the fact that he never wins any important matches means that his character is totally stagnant. Nevertheless, Wyatt came out complaining about his loss, but acknowledging that he was a "god" and you can never kill a god. Okay.
Wyatt continued to go on about how he has no allegiance to Smackdown or Raw - it's simply him versus the world - until Ambrose finally interrupted. After that, Dolph got involved and we got the brawl we needed to set up the main event. Dolph, though, accidentally leveled Ambrose with a superkick, creating a question as to how the heroes could possible coexist.