GOLD ON THE LINE

It’s the end of another week, which brings us another SmackDown In A Nutshell. This time around, we’ve got lots of gold on the line tonight!

In case you missed that, we have an unexpected Intercontinental Championship bout between AJ Styles and Gran Metalik. That one gets capped off by yet another challenge to Bayley from Nikki Cross.

Beyond those, we can surely expect to see some things beginning to progress toward the impending SummerSlam later in August.

Will The King of Bros have something to say to Baron Corbin? I’d bet on it.

What about Jeff Hardy and Sheamus? I’d have to say the odds are high, but let’s find out.

In any case, there’s still lots of gold on the line tonight, what with two championship matches.

Let’s crack open this Nutshell!

Best Match of the night:

I have to go with two choices. Sadly, one of them wasn’t the SmackDown Women’s Championship match.

For me, the top two of the evening would be, in no particular order:

-Intercontinental Championship bout between AJ Styles and Gran Metalik.

-The Miz versus Big E.

Both were good.

Nikki and Bayley would probably get my third nod, the match itself was acceptable. The bigger bits came after the close.

GOLD ON THE LINE

Worst match of the night:

Was not feeling Naomi and Lacey. Fans feel Naomi deserves better…I don’t think this was it.

Star of the Night

I don’t know…no one screams star of the night here. Not tonight.

Well…maybe Big E. His singles run was and is long overdue.

For all those hoping for a Bobby Lashley world title run? I’d be ecstatic about a Big E. run.

Spot of the Night:

Shorty G’s German on Matt Riddle was sweet looking. I’ll take it.

Jobber of the Night:

Could be Lacey. Could be Drew Gulak.

Go ahead and flip that coin…

Upset of the Night:

None.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Holy cow, Shorty G took Corbin’s bounty and delivered a German to Matt Riddle.

Raise your hand if you had “Shorty G turns heel” on your 2020 bingo card.

Also…kind of did not expect The Fiend to attack Alexa Bliss to send us off air.

The way the match ended, I absolutely expected something. Honestly, I started expecting a run-in by Asuka to get some revenge on Bayley and Sasha Banks.

Then, before Cross shoved Alexa, I expected a heel turn-by Alexa on the downed Cross.

We got Nikki Cross shoving Bliss, who was then tormented and attacked by The Fiend. No doubt they will use Bliss in the Fiend/Wyatt angle, especially seeing as they already had her in the swamp match.

Interesting to see WWE play off the Team Little Big relationship.

Botch of the night:

I saw a few comments about a ref hugging Hardy in congratulating his sobriety. I get the positivity, but I also understand the optics.

Like, the refs should not be commiserating with the Superstars, even if when the cameras are off, they might. Keep some semblance of that wall up still.

LOL Moment of the night:

Otis and Mandy are back. I love me some Otis, and he’s always good for a laugh or two.

Noteworthy Moment:

Touched on them already, but to sum up…

-Shorty G is leaning heel now. Or, he just wanted the money and that becomes a small side story.

-Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross may be heading for a break up.

-Alexa Bliss may be heading for the swamp, now that The Fiend subdued her.

Overall lowlights:

It feels like many fans want better for Naomi…and while Lacey Evans was in the title picture not that long ago…she isn’t now.

That match just felt like filler to me. It didn’t feel like it was building toward anything bigger for Naomi yet.

Like, if WWE wanted, they could have made the winner of that match the #1 contender to Bayley. Or that the winner gets a title shot.

Not that it was promised-it wasn’t-but I was hoping for a little Asuka revenge tonight. I don’t doubt we will see it sooner than later, just didn’t happen yet.

Overall highlights:

The IC Championship match was very good. Hoping this encourages WWE to give more under-used guys chances.

The Miz and Big E delivered the goods. Miz really deserves a bigger role.

After the final bell:

You can see the foundations being laid down, or in some cases, reinforced, for some programs destined to pay off around or at SummerSlam.

Some are more intriguing that others.

I kind of wanted to hate The Fiend going after Alexa Bliss…but it’s made me want to see where it goes, and how it plays out.

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