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This week's SmackDown Live was reportedly the first show that Eric Bischoff was able to take the reins for and it was noticeable. The New Day was a fantastic addition to the commentary team because Xavier Woods and Big E were able to add an air of naturalism to the commentary table before they were replaced by Michael Cole for the second hour.
It was an interesting episode that saw three matches made official for SummerSlam as well as a number of others built up and ready to be announced in the coming weeks.
Whilst this week's SmackDown Live was an episode that seemed to flow quite nicely, there were a few things that the company could have done differently. Here are some of the biggest mistakes that were picked up as part of the show this week.
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#5. The only women's match was just seconds long
Bayley defends her SmackDown Women's Championship against Ember Moon next month at SummerSlam, but ahead of their showdown, Moon took on Charlotte Flair this week but the Women's Champion decided to get a closer view of proceedings.
Bayley was the distraction that Moon needed to pin Charlotte Flair in a matter of seconds before she was then able to feed Bayley to Flair and hit the Eclipse on both women to send quite a statement ahead of her title match.
This was the only women's match that was part of the show and it lasted merely a minute and Moon didn't even pick up the Championship belt and hold it up for the crowd when it was on the floor next to her which is slightly odd since that's usually the done thing ahead of a Championship match.
#4. Shane McMahon was all over this episode
Shane McMahon has been on Raw and SmackDown Live over the past few weeks taking slots that could have been used for more deserving wrestlers. Whilst McMahon wasn't part of The Raw Reunion, he kicked off this week's episode of SmackDown Live to accept Kevin Owens' challenge for SummerSlam before he then was spotted backstage.
After the backstage segment, McMahon went on to be the ring announcer for the main event and then took a Superman Punch and a Stunner from Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens to end the show.
It was hoped that the comments that Owens had made about McMahon and the way he is hated backstage would have some effect on how much he is used on SmackDown Live but instead, The Best in the World has continued to be used in the same way.
#3. Where was Daniel Bryan? He was a notable absentee last night
It's assumed that Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan will be challenging the SmackDown Tag Team Champions to a match at SummerSlam since the duo lost the title to The New Day back at Extreme Rules, but he was a noticeable absentee last night on SmackDown Live.
Last week it was reported that he had a career-defining announcement to make, but he was unable to actually announce it since he was interrupted. Other rumours this week suggested that Bryan would announce it as part of this week's show instead, but he wasn't in attendance.
The New Day were relegated to commentary and now just two weeks before SummerSlam, they are yet to find adequate challengers for their SmackDown Tag TeamChampionships at the Biggest Party of the Summer.
#2. All three announced matches followed the same story
This week's episode of SmackDown Live saw three matches officially announced for SummerSlam, but it appears that all three followed the same story in order to be made official. Kevin Owens challenged Shane McMahon to a match and he kicked off the show by accepting and making this match official.
Finn Balor then put in a challenge to Bray Wyatt for a match at SummerSlam and the star then appeared as part of a pre-recorded segment where he also revealed that he accepted Balor's challenge for a match on behalf of The Fiend.
Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton then seemingly decided that they would face off at The Biggest Party of the Summer since Kingston challenged Orton to a match despite the fact that Kingston is the WWE Champion. All these announcements followed the same story, which shows that WWE are running out of ideas.
#1. Shawn Michaels vs Dolph Ziggler?
Shawn Michaels was originally scheduled to be part of the commentary team for SmackDown Live this week, but ahead of the show, the plan looked as though it was changed.
Michaels was instead part of a segment on Miz TV where he was interrupted by Dolph Ziggler who went on to call Michaels and embarrassment because he returned to the ring back in November. This lead to a back and forth between the two men which saw Michaels claim that Dolph Ziggler was a second rate version of him and after a punch in the face, he was super kicked.
If this doesn't lead to a match between Ziggler and HBK then it's unknown why this happened in the first place and if it does, will Michaels be able to live up to the hype of another match?
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
