WWE: 5 top moments from this week’s shows (July 29-31, 2019)

WWE presented a series of roller coaster rides this week on Raw, SmackDown Live, and NXT, as they focused completely on building towards SummerSlam and NXT TakeOver. All three brands managed to serve this purpose to near perfection this week, as all attention was on the superstars who would play the biggest parts during the Biggest Party of the Summer.

From Roman Reigns coming under attack from a mysterious assailant, to Seth Rollins getting destroyed by The Beast, and to Natalya applying the Sharpshooter to Becky Lynch and laying down a special stipulation for their SummerSlam battle, there were surely some high points during this week’s shows.

However, some moments topped these and made it to our list of the top 5 moments from this week’s shows on the WWE Network. What were they? Find out below!

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#5. New Raw Tag Team Champions

The Revival would have been a great choice as the Raw Tag Team champions had WWE not booked them extremely poorly over the past year. With the arrival of The Usos on Raw, we were certain that the battle for the title would remain between these two teams for most of 2019.

However, a push for the Good Brothers came as soon as they were paired with AJ Styles once again to form The O.C. While the move wasn’t very predictable, it was surely a welcome one as WWE had seemingly forgotten about the two extremely talented men over the past year or so.

Thanks to Styles’ partnership with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, the two men managed to shock everyone by taking home the Raw Tag Team Championships so early into their most recent push.

Now that The O.C. holds three top titles of the company, WWE has the services of a top heel stable that was reformed just a few weeks ago.

#4. Ali’s win over Shinsuke Nakamura

Ali has been a very good inclusion to the main roster, and has received quite a few shots at the company's gold.

While he had been away from the wrestling ring for a short period of time, he returned to replace Finn Balor in one of the top matches at the recent Smackville event. During the match, in which he took on Shinsuke Nakamura, Ali put on a good performance in a losing effort.

This earned him a non-title rematch on SmackDown Live this week, in which he brought the fight back to The Artist. Ali seemed to have learned from his mistakes in his second chance and countered the Kinshasa again and again until he managed to set up Nakamura for an upset victory.

While many would argue that it was too early for Nakamura to once again lose so early in his title reign, it was done perfectly well to set up a rivalry between the two men. This will also help WWE set up a match between the two men at SummerSlam, which could potentially be a show-stealer considering both men’s styles and talent.

#3. Fandango’s return

While Tyler Breeze had a decent stay in the WWE main roster, he clearly missed his days in NXT, where he was a bigger star and returned to the third brand to prove what he's got.

This past week on NXT, Prince Pretty took on Jaxson Ryker of the Forgotten Sons. While Breeze has learned to fight against all odds thanks to the nature of his enhancement talent character on the main roster, a beatdown by all three members from the heel stable was proving to be too much after he pinned Ryker for the win.

This was a perfect set up to make the return of Breeze’s longtime friend and partner Fandango, who arrived amid a huge pop from the crowd. Fandango had been away from the ring for a long time following an injury, but returned to ensure that the other member of The Fashion Police did not get written away too.

With Breezango back in NXT, and proving to be fan favorites, it will be interesting to see how they function in the tag team division and whether they will rise to the top of the mountain.

#2. The Bitter End

Last week's episode of NXT made things extremely interesting when they added Pete Dunne to an already interesting rivalry brewing between The Velveteen Dream and Roderick Strong for the NXT North American Championship.

This week, The Bruiserweight took on Strong one-on-one in what we were hoping would be the match of the night. Instead, it turned out to be the match of the week, as both the talented performers completely killed it inside the square circle. The two men know wrestling better than nearly anyone, and that was clearly on display once again this week.

What made the entire segment even better was the fact that Dunne could not connect The Bitter End to Strong, and instead worked on his fingers to ensure that he wouldn’t last too long. Dunne fought out of the Strong Hold and snapped his opponent's fingers. Strong tapped as the former United Kingdom champion pulled on his digits, bringing the physical battle to a close.

After the match, Velveteen Dream entered the ring and ate the Bitter End from Dunne to close out the show, showing the entire world who was the favorite to take the title home after TakeOver.

#1. Charlotte’s challenge

Trish Stratus made a grand return to SmackDown Live this week, as she was the star guest on Jerry Lawler's "King's Court" interview segment. Lawler asked Stratus if she had ever considered competing in one last match.

The WWE Hall of Famer claimed she was not interested, but Charlotte Flair interrupted and taunted the legend before laying down a challenge for SummerSlam.

While we were ready for The Queen of Queens to face Charlotte Flair sooner than later and assumed that this segment was scheduled to achieve just that, it was still a welcomed moment for us all the same.

This now allows Flair to have as big a match as both of WWE's female champions at SummerSlam, even without a title involved. It also allows the fans to get three top female matches at the same event.

The return of Trish Stratus and the booking of such a big match without any background in such a short time during one segment has got to be the highlight of the week!

What was your favorite part of WWE TV this week? Head to the comments and let us know!