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

3. What A Waste

Dolph Ziggler Ali
WWE.com

While giving Dolph Ziggler a tune-up victory ahead of SummerSlam was a solid idea, particularly after Shawn Michaels knocked his face off on Raw, WWE picked the wrong opponent in Ali.

The former 205 Live star falling to Zigglypuff in under five minutes was a massive waste. The past few months have seen WWE invest considerable time into building the guy back up through vignettes and promos, and it looked like he was heading towards Intercontinental Championship contention after besting Shinsuke Nakamura last week. Such things had gone some way towards making him feel important again. A worthwhile endeavour indeed, but why bother if the plan was to job him out before he had enough legitimacy to absorb such losses?

The bout itself was actually reasonably exciting. Surely WWE had someone else to feed to Ziggler instead, though?

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Channel Manager
Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.