3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Aug 4)
2. Bit Long-Winded
Right, so it became obvious as soon as the show went live that WWE was in time-killing mode on SmackDown. They'd already built most of SummerSlam, so there wasn't a whole hell of a lot to do in Ohio on Friday night. Even so, The Bloodline's segment was a tad clunky.
A video package detailing what 'Tribal Combat" means would've been enough without the revolving door in-ring promo skit worked by Paul Heyman, Jey Uso and Solo Sikoa. The latter two were already lined up for the main event, so their work in that earlier segment wasn't really necessary.
Having Heyman pontificate in-ring and in a video package was a little much too. Either or would've been fine, being totally honest. None of this was strong enough to carry without Roman Reigns, sadly, and that's worth pointing out.
Usually, Bloodline biz is fine whether he's present or not. That wasn't the case on this week's SmackDown!