3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Aug 4)
Downs...
4. Oh, You’ve Done The Heavy Lifting?!
WWE running three separate vignettes for Asuka, Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair suggests they've done all the hard yards building their upcoming Triple Threat. The bad news? That match remains one of SummerSlam's least-enticing, and Asuka (the defending champion) is still the weakest aspect of it.
Creative phoned-in some last-minute hype here like that's all they needed.
Candidly, Asuka continuing to be overlooked as champion has sucked. So, mind you, has the wishy-washy booking for both Belair and Flair. Neither is coming across as a must-see character on SmackDown right now, and there isn't exactly a whole lot of momentum whizzing around this feud generally.
It's worrying that WWE believes this rivalry is pay-per-view ready as is. Asuka looks secondary, Charlotte is still flitting between on/off unwanted babyface tropes, and Bianca has been caught in no man's land for far too long now.