7 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (July 31)
6. Triple Trouble
The United States division has become a regular highlight on SmackDown. The insertion of evil Shinsuke Nakamura, Randy Orton's recent psychotic break, and Jeff Hardy's face-painted babyface fire are transforming what was, up until a few weeks ago, one of WWE's most lacklustre scenes, and it continued last night.
Fed-up with Randy's tormenting and lost without the US Title, Jeff hit the ring, cutting another solid promo. He called 'The Viper' out as part of this. Orton emerged, but so did Nakamura, who jumped Hardy from behind, and almost came into confrontation with Randy himself. He didn't, though. 'The Viper' allowed the United States Champion to nail Jeff with a Kinshasa, and Orton didn't leap until action until Nakamura had departed, flogging Hardy's dead horse in a prolonged beatdown that concluded with him washing the former champion's face-paint away.
The segment was entirely effective in pushing the characters forward, continuing recent themes, and drip-feeding the Nakamura/Orton strain without diving in head-first. It's working, and it'll almost certainly culminate in a Triple Threat match at SummerSlam.