5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE Smackdown Live (Aug 23)
1. Up - Cooler Heads Prevail
It doesn't take a close analysis of WWE programming to see that the company has some booking issues, and first and foremost amongst them is the way wins and losses are handled. Only the very, very top stars (think John Cena, Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, and no one else) are booked with any sort of momentum, while the rest of the talent are undermined by shaky records.
All of that goes to say that had Dolph Ziggler beaten AJ Styles to make the main event of Backlash a triple threat match, it would have sucked, but it wouldn't have been surprising - that's just how WWE books. Styles is probably going to win the WWE World Championship soon, so would a loss beforehand hurt him? Yes, but the creative team doesn't usually seem to realize things like that.
Instead, the company decided to keep Styles's push going. Instead of jobbing the red-hot "Phenomenal One" out to the tepid "Showoff," they let Styles get the big win in a great Smackdown main event, making the title match at Backlash a far more attractive one-on-one contest. All that's left now is for Styles to beat Dean Ambrose - let's hope that's handled right, as well.