5 Ups & 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (July 3)

4. Rusev Stands Tall

AJ Styles vs. Aiden English made all the sense in the world last night. It was a way of engineering a confrontation between the WWE Champion and his challenger, Rusev, without putting them in the ring together. 'The Phenomenal One' faced his hype man instead, and it was preceded by a segment slightly marred by Rusev's confusing tweener-isms, but not to the extent that he tanked the whole angle.

The match didn't last long, with 'The Shakespeare Of Song' jumping AJ at the bell, then trying to grind him down, before tapping out in four-and-a-half minutes. It was a perfect format. English isn't in Styles' league, and shouldn't be booked as such, but the attack allowed him to gain the upperhand on the WWE Champion. It worked, even though the action itself wasn't particularly eye-catching.

Afterwards, Rusev threw Styles into the post, then clamped him in the Accolade. The segment closed with him standing proud over his Extreme Rules opponent, continuing the momentum he built through last week's victory over Xavier Woods, with the big man once again presented as a credible opponent (even though he's definitely losing). A good job all round.