5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (July 14)

1. Rusev Did Not Need To Lose

Lana Zack Ryder Dolph Ziggler Rusev

It was strange to see Zack Ryder lose to Sheamus on Raw this past Monday. Surely it would have been better for Ryder (who is being geared for a shot at the WWE United States Title) to win, then be beaten up by Sheamus and picked clean by Rusev. The illogical feel of the title hunt continued on SmackDown.

In fairness, it did make sense that Zack wanted revenge on Rusev for his actions. By effectively costing him his match against Dolph Ziggler, he achieved that redemption, but it didn't exactly help the reigning United States champ. At this current point in time, Rusev simply shouldn't be losing to anybody, interference or not.

WWE have done an excellent job in rebuilding an aura around the Bulgarian, but the Ziggler loss doesn't help. Now, the company have a situation wherein both members of the title match at Battleground have lost throwaway matches. That's pretty nonsensical from a momentum standpoint.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.