5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (23 Aug)

4. Losers: The Production Team

AJ Styles Dolph Ziggler
WWE.com

Kevin Dunn takes a lot of slack as WWE’s Executive Vice President and Line Producer, but it’s mostly justified. He’s been producing WWE television since 1988, yet Raw and SmackDown remain rife with basic directing errors almost 30 years later, and while Dunn no doubt has a very difficult job on his hands, last night’s main event saw a major blunder.

AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler were wrestling one of the very best TV wrestling matches of the year. A shot at the WWE World Championship was at stake: if Styles won, he’d face Dean Ambrose alone at Backlash, while a Ziggler victory would make it a three-way. The match was reaching its conclusion just over 20 minutes in, and the production team failed to capture the decisive moment as the referee took a mild distraction bump, AJ used the ropes to low blow Dolph, gain the advantage, and hit the Styles Clash for the win.

There was just about enough coverage for a fully switched-on fan to figure out what had happened, but this was inexcusable from the producers. Styles had to cheat to win, but the camera angles were all wrong, and the moment was lost.

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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.