SmackDown LIVE was a weird night to say the very least. We awaited Roman Reigns’ “SummerSlam Challenge” while also getting Trish Stratus on WWE TV to set up the big-time match with “The Queen”. Overall a good but confusing show with plenty of highlights to take a look at.
Charlotte vs Trish Stratus made OFFICIAL
SmackDown LIVE hailed from Memphis, Tennessee which meant it was time for Jerry Lawler to return to WWE TV. He would hold a “King’s Court” with special guest, WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus. Stratus would discuss with Lawler how she missed Raw Reunion as she was on vacation with her family and being a mother, which is why she could not be there. This led to the one and only queen of the WWE, Charlotte Flair, making her way down to the ring to do one thing and one thing only. She would officially challenge Trish Stratus to a match in Trish’s hometown of Toronto at the second biggest show of the year, SummerSlam.
This allows Charlotte to try and prove that she is the greatest of all-time as she already has the most championship reigns for a woman in WWE history, now she wants to beat Trish to further that notion. Trish would make it clear that Charlotte has to “beat the woman to be the woman”, accepting the challenge and setting up the huge match for SummerSlam. This could be one of Trish’s last matches, so we always appreciate when she does comeback, especially in a bout with Charlotte Flair that is one of the biggest in WWE’s women’s history.
Firefly Fun House with Rambling Rabbit
Rambling Rabbit appeared as the Firefly Fun House returned. He brought up his love for Finn Balor before letting the world know that the Fun House wasn’t as it appeared. He would run off as Bray Wyatt would appear, asking for the fireflies to let him in. One of those things you just have to see.
Going inside the mind of “The Viper”
There are very few times we get to see the cold, calculating side of Randy Orton anymore. He doesn’t wrestle full time on TV by any means and hasn’t really be included in much since WrestleMania. Last week it was made official that he would face Kofi Kingston at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship. It is a match 10 years in the making which led to a unique sit-down interview with Orton which highlighted the night where Orton screamed the “stupid, stupid, stupid” to Kingston and Kingston’s rise to the main event was halted. Orton discussed once again how being named Randy Orton got him to where he was while Kingston got lucky all because of Orton.
“The Viper” asked why he didn’t get a thank you for injuring Ali back before the Elimination Chamber. Doing that allowed Kofi to get the opportunity and ultimately become WWE Champion. He continued saying the only reason Kofi got there was because of him, and at SummerSlam, that will all come crashing down with an RKO. An excellent interview that can only continue the hype for this bout.
Roman Reigns gets squished… almost
As SmackDown LIVE was about to go off the air, Roman Reigns was prepared to lay down his SummerSlam Challenge in an interview with Kayla Braxton backstage. What instead happened was Roman Reigns would almost be completely taken out by a piece of staging equipment. It was weird, it wasn’t revealed who or what went on, which leaves us wondering one thing. Who is behind this attempt of crushing “The Big Dog”? Guess we will find out next week or at SummerSlam, but who really knows?
SmackDown LIVE MVP: Ali
On Saturday night, Ali had the opportunity to fight Shinsuke Nakamura with Finn Balor sick and out. Ali lost but showed the heart that fans knew he had in him. He got another opportunity at the Intercontinental Champion and did not let it go to waste. He came out of the box fast and didn’t really give Nakamura time to breath. Ali would reverse three total Kinshasa attempts, including the final one where he rolled him up for the victory. Ali seemingly has earned a shot at SummerSlam and if these two get the time, a great story should be told.
Another week of WWE TV has gone by and moved ahead a lot of stories while leaving a huge cliffhanger to end SmackDown LIVE. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out further about it and if it leads to Roman Reigns’ SummerSlam match.
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