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WWE has wrapped up their latest episode of Tuesday night SmackDown Live and the show was pretty interesting, to say the least. While we did not see someone get brutally assaulted by their SummerSlam opponent as we saw on Raw this week, the blue brand had its fair share of surprises and moments that left fans talking after the show went off the air. With less than two weeks left for The Biggest Party of the Summer, SummerSlam, WWE has taken a more edgy approach to get fans excited for the second biggest event of the year.
Several new matches were set for SummerSlam on SmackDown Live this week. The 7-time Women's Champion Trish Stratus will return to the ring to take on the self-proclaimed "Queen of all Eras" Charlotte Flair, Sami Zayn challenged Aleister Black to a match at SummerSlam and Dolph Ziggler has been confirmed to face The Miz at the event. We also saw several Superstars from the red brand as Drew McIntyre faced Kevin Owens, Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross took on Ember Moon & Bayley and the US Champion AJ Styles (with The OC) took on the WWE Champion Kofi Kingston (with The New Day).
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"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt made his presence known as he interrupted Finn Balor and cost the latter his match against Dolph Ziggler. And finally, another Superstar was a victim of attempted murder, as someone tried to seriously harm Roman Reigns when he was about to reveal his SummerSlam opponent. Plenty of things went down on the blue brand and right here, right now, we will look at the five points worth noting for this week's SmackDown Live:
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#5 Ali will face Shinsuke Nakamura for the IC title at SummerSlam
Like I said, SummerSlam is less than two weeks away, and WWE has enough time to book new matches for the show. There are a lot of Superstars who will definitely sit-out SummerSlam, and two of the most popular Superstars on the blue brand, Ali and Nakamura, have not been confirmed to compete at the event...yet. Shinsuke Nakamura is the current Intercontinental Champion, and he needs a challenger for his title. Who else is a better challenger than WWE's resident Superhero Ali himself?
WWE is no doubt high on Ali, and after he pinned The Artist on SmackDown, there's no doubt that he will get a shot at the Intercontinental title. SummerSlam is WWE's upcoming pay-per-view and it's the company's second-biggest event after WrestleMania. If WWE truly wants to push Ali as a big star, there's no better time than to give Ali a shot or a possible run with the IC Championship.
#4 WWE no longer sees Drew McIntyre as a main event star
One upon a time, The Scottish Psychopath Drew McIntyre was a force to be reckoned with. He was a monster. He had a winning streak. But now, McIntyre has been losing most of his matches to make his opponents look good. He was pinned by Roman Reigns more than once this year. He was fed to Kevin Owens this week and while it made Owens look good heading to SummerSlam, the same can't be said for Drew.
The man who should've been in his first reign as Universal Champion is now Shane McMahon's lackey. During McIntyre's first run with WWE, he was 'The Chosen One' and was said to be a future World Champion but WWE failed to live up to their word. They released him years later and now that he's back, it looks like the company is making the same mistake again by not making him the main event star that he should be.
#3 Dolph Ziggler may not actually be The Miz's opponent for SummerSlam
Dolph Ziggler has been confirmed to take on The Miz at SummerSlam. Great. Although this match has been confirmed by WWE, there's a very little chance that it might not happen. Last week, Dolph Ziggler attacked The Miz and Shawn Michaels. And this week, the match was set for The Biggest Party of the Summer. However, Ziggler has been name-dropping Goldberg lately, and Miz was nowhere to be seen on SmackDown this week to get retribution for what happened last week.
Dolph has been rumored to face another Superstar at SummerSlam, and that Superstar is none other than Goldberg. It would make much more sense for a match between the two to take place, as Goldberg could be looking for a new challenger after his underwhelming match with The Undertaker at Super ShowDown. Also, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter revealed that the match between the Ziggler and Miz is just a red herring and WWE may have other plans for Ziggler.
#2 Kofi Kingston's victory hurt AJ Styles/The OC's momentum
Kofi Kingston is the WWE Champion and there's nothing wrong with WWE protecting the champion ahead of his title defense against Randy Orton at SummerSlam. However, AJ Styles is a big star and he is the current United States Champion. He too will be defending his title at the event, against the former US Champion Ricochet. Styles has just reunited with his real-life friends Gallows and Anderson and they are, or at least should be, the biggest heel stable in the company.
The OC is part of Raw anyway and thanks to the unpopular "Wild Card Rule," this match was able to take place when in fact it shouldn't have. Neither Styles nor Kofi needed a loss. They both should look strong heading into SummerSlam and Styles losing did not benefit him in any way. At least WWE should've gone the smart route by letting Randy Orton RKO Kofi outta nowhere, ending the match by disqualification.
#1 Two former Shield members were met with unfortunate incidents
This week in WWE, we nearly saw the destruction of two former Shield members - Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. While Rollins got absolutely brutalized by the Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, who is his SummerSlam opponent, Roman Reigns was almost crushed to death by someone, possibly his SummerSlam opponent, before the latter could reveal who he will face at The Biggest Party of the Summer. It looks like someone is set on wiping out the two remaining Shield members.
This tells us how malicious Rollins and Reigns' SummerSlam opponents are and how they will annihilate their opponents at the event. Oh boy! Things are surely getting heated for SummerSlam and it looks like a war will break out. At the PPV, rivalries will end and new champions could be crowned. Get ready folks, this will be one heck of a show!
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