WWE SmackDown: 4 things WWE got just right on this week’s episode (August 20, 2019)

SmackDown Live is on par with Raw at the moment and has managed to deliver some great matches over the past week.

This week was no different, as we got to witness some of the best matches this month on the blue brand. Andrade gave a great performance against the rising star Apollo Crews, while Buddy Murphy showed why he's SmackDown's 'best-kept secret'.

SmackDown once again handed us the number one contender for the SmackDown Women's Championship without any real backstory or in-ring action. On the other hand, WWE continued to develop the story of Roman Reigns' attacker, and took it to a weird part by the end of the show.

In this article, we will look at the 4 things WWE managed to get absolutely right on this week's episode of SmackDown Live.

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#4 Gave Shinsuke Nakamura the only thing he’d been missing

From being a Royal Rumble winner to completely disappearing off television with a mid-card title in hand, Shinsuke Nakamura has seen many ups and downs during his WWE career.

After being exported from NXT to the main roster, fans were certain that Nakamura would enjoy much more success than he has gotten till now, and there were many question marks raised over his booking.

While Nakamura always was the best wrestler in the ring, the only thing missing from the package was mic skills. Enter Sami Zayn, who has now been paired with the Japanese superstar as his mouthpiece.

Sami is incredible on the mic, so much so that when he was with Kevin Owens he got to do most of the talking even though Owens is out of this world himself.

WWE seems to have finally figured out the only weak point of Nakamura, and has hit the nail right on the head!

See WWE Smackdown Results, Highlights of event, & more on WWE Smackdown Results page

#3 Let Elias progress in the KOTR tournament

Fans expected Elias to be much bigger than he is, similar to Shinsuke Nakamura. While Elias didn't have NXT revolve around him, he certainly has most of SmackDown revolving around him now.

His influence and character have allowed him to get a lot of screentime even without really competing in matches while other more talented superstars have been kept on the sidelines.

While most of his recent success revolves around his alliance with Shane McMahon, even the most hardcore Kevin Owens fans will agree that WWE made the right decision on SmackDown this week.

Elias defeated Owens thanks to Shane's distractions and progressed in the tournament. Elias is one superstar who needs so time to show his wrestling skills and also get a push while battling rather than talking and singing.

On the other hand, Owens seemed to be out of place in the King of the Ring tournament solely due to the fact that he is as big as Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, and Daniel Bryan, and doesn't need to prove himself in a tournament which might not mean much going forward.

Instead, Owens deserves to continue what he is currently doing and get the WWE Universe behind him in his quest to take out Shane for good.

#2 Catapulted Buddy Murphy

If you've ever watched 205 Live in the past year, you'd have noted that no one performs better in the ring than Buddy Murphy. However, since he was elevated to the main roster, he remained out of the ring and never got to kickstart a feud with Ali or any other superstar.

Thanks to the fans noticing him during the attack on Roman Reigns, WWE finally decided to bring the Aussie into the picture and gave him a match against Reigns last week. Not only did Murphy impress almost everyone in the WWE Universe, but Reigns did an even better job at selling how good Murphy is.

While we believed that was a one-off push for the superstar, we were proved wrong this week as Murphy came face to face with the man who is known to elevate talent.

Daniel Bryan single-handedly gave Ali the push he deserved on the main roster and seems to have done an equal if not a better job at giving Murphy a push. WWE made the right decision by booking Bryan to face Murphy rather than throwing in Rowan into the picture and allowing Murphy to pick up the win.

#1 Made Randy Orton Kofi Kingston’s Samoa Joe

When AJ Styles reigned as the WWE Champion for a long time, the most interesting feud he got involved in was against none other than Samoa Joe. Not only did Joe push Styles to the limit inside the ring, but he also managed to give him some of the toughest moments outside it and played a lot of mental games.

As much of a babyface Styles was at the time, Joe managed to break him. Similarly, Randy Orton has managed to break Kofi Kingston, who had been the nice guy of SmackDown for far too long.

While Kofi is not going to turn heel, he has managed to show his emotions and aggressive sides and bring out what Orton wanted to bring out of him. This will surely make their feud even more interesting in the coming days as The Revival and Randy keep on pushing down the New Day.

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