SmackDown In A Nutshell: Will It Be A Stunning Town Hall?

Much attention has been given to Kevin Owens and his version of a pipe bomb promo that he dropped on SmackDown last week. The comments were, of course, not to positive as it pertains to the owner’s son, Shane McMahon. Regardless of how you feel about either Shane or Kevin, you have to admit there were some sharp comments made last week, so it would only be normal for fans to expect some fashion of a response-and we are right to expect one. On tonight’s blue brand festivities, Shane McMahon has decided to host a Town Hall, allowing the Superstars to air any grievances. In other news, we did just have an eventful Extreme Rules, so it will be interesting to see what comes next. Let’s also not forget that all eyes have now shifted to SummerSlam. It would be reasonable to expect that the hype surrounding that show will amp up now that it’s the next show up on the PPV slate. Let’s crack open this Nutshell and see what happens!

Best Match of the night:

Nothing as good as RAW the night before.

That said, something needs to land here, so I’d take Cesaro and Aleister Black. Even if the match deserved more time, it was still a good match.

Worst match of the night:

I almost feel like saying that there were just too many to throw in here. Liv Morgan and Charlotte? Ember Moon teaming with Bayley? Too many matches just didn’t work on the blue brand tonight.

Star of the Night

Kevin Owens continues to impress in his latest iteration.

Jobber of the Night:

I am kind of leaning toward Liv Morgan here…her match was just so short, and seemed like a waste.

Upset of the Night:

Nothing. No action like we had last night.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

The Stunners on Shane McMahon should be worth calling out. The varying reactions for heel and face , and how Shane handled then, will be telling.

Botch of the night:

Apparently, Shane needs some practice taking Stunners….he botched one from Kevin Owens badly.

Noteworthy Moment:

I can’t say there was much in the way of one tonight.

Overall lowlights:

No Eric Bischoff in front of the cameras. We knew he should be getting into things following Extreme Rules, so today would be a possibility. It’s entirely possible he was back behind the scenes and not getting mentioned, if only because his backstage role is supposed to be, well, behind the scenes.

The women’s tag title match. Sure, it’s great that we finally saw The Iiconics defend against a legit team. It’s disappointing to get what we got, though it seems likely that the big pay off match is being saved for August at this point.

Overall highlights:

You could, if you looked close enough, see signs of progress. It seems to lag behind RAW, and I can’t say for sure if Bischoff was involved or not. My main gripe is with too many short wagons.

After the final bell:

All in all, not a great show. When compared with RAW last night, it doesn’t look well at all. To be fair, RAW had a big show that gave us a few great matches and a big semi-surprise return (semi, because while we knew Wyatt was coming, the who and when and where was unknown).

Still, every show is allowed to have a not so good showing. Tonight fit that for the blue brand.

What will be really big is how well RAW does next week for the reunion show…and what, if anything, they could do to combat the measure.

One thing is for sure-things are getting a lot more interesting, especially with SummerSlam on it’s way.