12 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Aug 6)

1. Extracting A Statement

Poor old Buddy Murphy. The guy finally gets himself involved in a big-time angle and ends up on the receiving end of a Roman Reigns bludgeoning. Whose mother did he offend backstage?

Jokes aside, it's good to see the former 205 Live standout embroiled in a storyline of this calibre, and his segment with Reigns was well done. It began with Roman walking into the men's locker-room then ordering the rank-and-file leave. Left alone with Murphy, he started extracting a statement by saying he knew Buddy was there. Answers weren't forthcoming. Buddy said that even if he did know who went after Reigns, he wouldn't tell him, and that's when the violence commenced, with Roman punching Murphy right in his laughing face, throwing him against a trashcan, then holding him against a wall, having gone full Bad Cop.

Buddy's answer? Rowan. Rowan was there, but he didn't see Daniel Bryan.

We then headed back to the ring where Bryan played-up his surprise as his enforcer stood there, looking all stoic. Meanwhile, Reigns seethed on the big screen, and the show came to an end.

This thing remains wide open. Sure, we're probably not getting that rumoured Bryan vs. Reigns SummerSlam match now, but the way this thing has panned out gives WWE so much more to work with. Let's see what happens at the pay-per-view, now.