SD Live: 7/23

[#AbsoluteUnit]

Here we go!

[Spidey]

HBK on MizTV did I hear that right?

[#AbsoluteUnit]

HBK on Miz TV tonight!

[Fire Marshall Bill]

So a match that has 0 chance of finishing clean.

[Spidey]

the fuck is Woods on XD

EDIT: and can I have more of him?!?

[Fire Marshall Bill]

More I think about the main event, more I see it ending up in a tag team match where Elias eats a stunner and gets pinned. Holla holla

[Spidey]

HERE WE GO

[Spidey]

YOU BASTARDS

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Stop sucking so much.

[Fire Marshall Bill]

â??Dudeâ??s fucking crazy.â?

[Fire Marshall Bill]

At this rate the match will be about 14 seconds.

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Why wouldnâ??t you just attack Drew immediately?

[klunderbunker]

Smackdown
Date: July 23, 2019
Location: American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Commentators: Tom Phillips, David Otunga

Depending on what you thought of last night’s Raw Reunion, this show either has a lot to live up to or a very easy path to being the best show of the week. We’re less than three weeks away from Summerslam and that means we could be in for an eventful night as the card gets filled in. If nothing else, we should be hearing about Kofi Kingston’s opponent, which shouldn’t be hard to figure out. Let’s get to it.

Click on the link below for the full review.

More The Other Speed (http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/07/23/smackdown-july-23-2019-more-the-other-speed/)

[Jack-Hammer]

A good show from the blue brand last night, in my opinion. The overall show was about building up and hyping SummerSlam with good, solid segments that worked. Even though Shane was on the show at the start and finish, it at least served a purpose in making his match with Owens official and ended on a high note with Shane eating two Stunners.

Nakamura vs. Crews was a good, competitive match that I initially had the bubble guts going into as I thought Nakamura was going to lose in order to set up a possible title match. Not only did that not happen, but they elevated Apollo by making him look good in defeat. WWE needs more of things: protect your champions, not just if they happen to be Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair or Brock Lesnar, and use champs to have competitive matches with opponents that make the opponents look good as well. It's simple, the fans enjoyed it and that's why it works.

I also, surprisingly, enjoyed the MizTV segment last night as it was fun getting HBK and Ziggler in the ring. This is one of those segments where WWE uses internet chatter and turns it into something. In this case, you have two view points that a lot of fans have: one is that Dolph Ziggler is a second class, Shawn Michales wannabee, which is something that many of us fans have said for years, and that HBK was pretty much an embarrassment when he came out of retirement for Crown Jewel last year which, reading in between the lines, goes hand in hand with all the complaints about these old veterans getting back into the ring knowing that they're unable to really deliver the goods beyond the simple nostalgia. Ziggler getting the last laugh and dropping HBK with a super kick was a great touch and it's a nice change from the "It should've been me" promo that Ziggler has cut almost every single time he's had a microphone in his hand the last several years.

I was sort of disappointed that we didn't see a real match between Charlotte Flair and Ember Moon, but not surprising since, as I alluded to, Charlotte is among the stars WWE protects the most. What was important here was moving things along with Ember's SummerSlam match with Bayley by having Ember amp things up by having her standing tall after nailing Bayley with the Eclipse. Most importantly, they're not making this a triple threat match, praise the Lord, and Charlotte's backstage interview later in the night suggests she'll have a match against someone that she says will be "better", which is intriguing. We might see a "mystery opponent" for Charlotte, possibly even someone brought up from NXT.

Kofi Kingston's segment with Randy Orton was really well done, in my opinion, and I really like the fact that they're using the history between the two for this feud rather than pretending that they weren't feuding roughly 10 years ago. I love the continuity and the story of Kofi being out to prove to Randy Orton, sort of the ultimate WWE Superstar, that he's worthy of being WWE Champion while the ultimate WWE Superstar looks to make Kofi a trivia question as to who Orton beat to win his 14th World Championship and a footnote in Orton's career just as it was a decade ago. Kofi getting the best of Orton here was the right call considering Orton did pin him in the tag bout last week and...well it's Orton, Orton's beaten everyone and done everything so he's not the one who needed to be kept looking strong.

We also have Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor for SummerSlam and I'd kinda like to have it wind up being "the Fiend" vs. "the Demon King" for SummerSlam. Both men have "monsters" as part of who they are, so Balor should let his come out and just let the two of them go out there and have at it. I wonder if Wyatt will wrestle while wearing the Fiend mask; I think he should if he's able to breathe well in the thing.

Overall, a good and focused show last night with some good SummerSlam build that already has me interested in seeing what happens.