5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (Aug 2)

1. Losers: WWE Creative

One of SmackDown Live’s major problems last week was that it felt like a Raw rehash, and fell into the B-show category by default. Like Raw, SD’s night was largely taken-up by a contendership series, but the blue brand couldn’t deliver the same high level of in-ring reaction as its red cousin, and as such, SmackDown limped to a disappointing first week.

Shedding the “B” tag was one of the Brand Split’s biggest goals, but last week’s creative direction only compounded the show’s lesser status. SmackDown took several big strides forward with a number of great segments this week, but the repetition remains.

Lesnar’s attack on Orton was a direct repeat of what happened on Raw, only with the roles reversed. Raw opened with a lengthy in-ring talking segment, and while SmackDown didn’t technically start this way, Dean Ambrose was in the ring with a microphone a few minutes into the show. Then there’s AJ Styles and John Cena, who produced a fantastically tense face-to-face segment, but one that felt very similar to Finn Bálor and Seth Rollins’ own confrontation on Monday.

SmackDown’s segments, for the most part, delivered far more convincingly than Raw’s, but that doesn’t change the fact that much of this show felt like a retread. If this is how WWE plan on booking things on a week-in/week-out basis, the 2016 Brand Split is going to flop.

And now for the winners...