7 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (July 10)

5. An Effective Tag Bout

Paige revived her Teddy Long tribute act last night, turning the AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura bout into a tag match when Rusev prompted the disqualification, and United States Champion Jeff Hardy ran down for the save.

As they did in the tag division, WWE combined two storylines within a single angle, albeit on a smaller scale. The tagger lasted just 5:30, and we joined it in progress after a commercial break. Still, it was entirely effective, with both sides putting forth solid work en route to the right outcome: Rusev pinning Hardy.

The United States Champion was obvious fall fodder. He was in there with the WWE Champion, the number one contender, and his own pay-per-view opponent. Nobody else could've afforded to take the fall ahead of Extreme Rules and WWE had just worked a non-finish in the set-up bout, so this was the right call.

Rusev scored the fall ahead of a WWE Championship match he'll almost certainly lose. The best case scenario is that he shines in defeat, and the company reward this with a renewed upper-midcard push, but we aren't holding our breath.