10 Ups & 0 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jul 24)
2. AJ & Joe
Paige promised to reveal AJ Styles' SummerSlam challenger last night, but things didn't quite go how the General Manager had planned.
She arrived with the WWE Champion and an unsigned contract. Lord knows who she was going to hand the shot to, but James Ellsworth interrupted after the pleasantries, and Paige distracted herself by throwing the horrible little oik out of the building (and the company). Styles, meanwhile, took this in from the ring. This allowed an opportunistic Samoa Joe to emerge from the crowd, attack the champ, and choke him out, before marching over to sign the contract.
Joe crossed paths with Paige afterwards, telling the incensed GM that what he'd done was "phenomenal." The contract was signed, the ink had already dried, and by that point, there was nothing a flustered Paige could do about it. Perfect.
It's important to temper expectations on a show where the long-anticipated AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura feud turned out to be one of the year's greatest disappointments, but this is an exciting prospect. The duo have clashed before, and while neither are having stunning in-ring years, you'd expect them to deliver on the summer's biggest pay-per-views. Also, three weeks of cold-blooded Joe promos on the WWE Champion? Count us in.