4 reasons why SummerSlam was the best WWE pay-per-view of 2018 so far

#3 Supreme storytelling from Smackdown

AJ Styles and Samoa Joe had a personal and intense battle.

Smackdown had a fantastic build-up to SummerSlam, littered with fantastic wrestling, great character development and exquisite production value. Most of the night’s eagerly anticipated matches were from the blue brand, and they delivered. Pretty much every match from Smackdown was good, if not great. Becky Lynch's post-match heel turn was fantastic, even if the crowd in the Barclays Centre heavily favoured the Irish Lass Kicker. The New Day and the Bludgeon Brothers had a really fun, spot-heavy match before it was abruptly ended by disqualification.

But the two most revered matches on the show, along with the IC title opener, stemmed from personal issues of varying degrees. AJ Styles and Samoa Joe had a brutal WWE Championship match, one which was actually so good that it didn’t really matter if the finish was inconclusive. Joe made some mid-match comments about Styles’ family that kicked the Champ into another gear. He lost his cool, and the match by disqualification. However, it did make perfect sense and we are set to see them face off inside Hell in a Cell in what surely promises to be an even better match.

Right after that, we got the most anticipated match of the year, between Daniel Bryan and The Miz. It was a match that was made in storytelling heaven, giving us some really fun moments throughout the 20-plus minute length. The action was enthralling and intense, even if the crowd was surprisingly dead for portions of the bout. Miz and Bryan did have the crowd back, as the match finished with Brooklyn wanting more. A Maryse assisted victory for The Miz is only the beginning of this program between the two and no matter when the rematch is, both Miz and Bryan should be proud of this effort.

Smackdown's theme for SummerSlam was storyline progression, and they did it really well.