WWE SmackDown August 2: five talking points of the show

WWE SmackDown on August 2 was taped almost a week back and this paved way for a lot of spoilers online. This week’s SmackDown was promoted hugely as a show where Alberto Del Rio will choose his opponent for SummerSlam.

Apart from this, the show also featured a mild build up to a few other smaller feuds along with a few strong matches. Let us now look at the five talking points:

1. Alberto Del Rio is made to look a weak Champion

The entire show was based on Del Rio’s choosing of his SummerSlam opponent, and the moment arrived almost instantly, as Del Rio walked out to the ring on the show’s opening segment. While most of us were awaiting a good decision from the Mexican aristocrat, he went on to choose Ricardo Rodriguez as his opponent; he nearly chose him but didn’t courtesy Vickie Gurrero.

It is quite obvious that Del Rio is missing the presence of Ricardo as the latter makes Del Rio look a better character just with his mere presence. Ricardo brings the necessary flair that the Mexican needs especially during his entrances. Sadly, his character has taken a huge downfall over the past few weeks.

The show’s opening segment has made it quite obvious that Christian will beat Del Rio for the title at SummerSlam. His recent loss at RAW this week was an indication and the segment where he looked like a weak Champion nearly cemented this fact. Del Rio is an excellent in ring worker, but WWE needs to make sure that they tweak his character a little bit and make him less dependent on Ricardo, as he’ll surely not be around Del Rio forever.

2. Damien Sandow gets back at Cody Rhodes after Gulf of Mexico fiasco

Damien Sandow was humiliated by his former friend and tag team partner Cody Rhodes last week on SmackDown. He threw his MITB briefcase into the Gulf of Mexico after which Sandow was humiliated as he tried to retrieve it back. Sandow, who was waiting for an opportunity to vent out this anger, finally got his chance this week as he attacked Rhodes backstage. Officials had to pull Sandow back as he attacked Cody in a fit of rage.

The feud between the two is quite interesting and what’s more exciting is Rhodes’ growth as a babyface. Sandow isn’t what many would call a perfect heel at the moment and looks like he needs some more time right now with his gimmick. But as far as Rhodes is concerned, he looks quite the face that WWE wants at the moment. With a lack of good babyface to match the overflow of heels in the roster, Rhodes is the perfect answer right now.

The feud should continue ahead of SummerSlam, as the storyline between the two future top stars looks much better than the other top feuds. By the looks of it, Rhodes will beat Sandow for the briefcase at SummerSlam and cash in only to be denied the title courtesy a Sandow interruption. This will help Sandow make a mark for himself as a more hated heel and give Rhodes greater support from the fans.

3. Layla turns heel and joins AJ Lee

Layla’s turning heel was on the cards for a real long time now. With only two divas looking strong in the division, there was something WWE had to do with the others. Layla for long had been in support of Kaitlyn and turned her back on her this week during her title bout against AJ Lee.

The absence of Ziggler in the show brought out questions as to whether the feud between AJ, Big E and Ziggler has come to an end. If yes, then this is undoubtedly one of the most abrupt ends to a storyline.

Most of us are expecting a Big E vs. Ziggler match at SummerSlam and the fact that we saw a match at RAW does bring in doubts as to whether that is a possibility now. But the good thing with this is that AJ will focus more on her Divas Championship rather than her former boyfriend.

4. CM Punk in SmackDown

SmackDown normally doesn’t have top stars to boast about always, but this week was an exception as CM Punk made one of his rare appearances on the show this week. Though it didn’t do much to build his feud with Brock Lesnar, it gave us a match worth enjoying. Punk faced Fandango, which clearly indicated Punk’s ability to make a talent look good and Fandango’s ability to wrestle.

Let us hope we get to see big stars on SmackDown constantly as it can go a long way in helping rebuild the show’s reputation and ratings. SmackDown has the potential to be as good as RAW, given WWE makes plans to bring in a few top stars and also the World Heavyweight title completely to the blue brand.

5. One more match

This has sort of become a very common word for all the ‘Peeps’ as they have been trying to get their favourite Captain Charisma that much deserved one more title match. Christian has been the companies most under looked wrestler and despite his ability to be good on the mic, in the ring and also as an entertainer, he hasn’t managed to move up the ladder much.

However, this week on SmackDown, Christian fought his way to become the No. 1 contender in what would be an epic Triple Threat match. With three great wrestlers inside the ring, Christian managed to show his best against RVD and Orton.