The Good
For Raw, the big announcement Stephanie McMahon had to start the show was that WWE will have its first ever all women’s PPV. This is such a great achievement for women’s wrestling and they definitely deserve to have the spotlight. This event will be in late October and it should be something all wrestling fans should look forward to.
For Smackdown, we got heel Randy Orton back and it is going to be great. Orton came out and finally explained his actions as to why he attacked Jeff Hardy. He said that he wasn’t getting the respect he deserves and he is absolutely right considering how the fans treated him when he was a good guy. Orton stated his main goal is to now take the superstars that are considered “heroes” and take them out. Fans demanded for Orton to be a heel and they got him now in full effect.
The Bad
For Raw, you would think that when a rivalry that has a trilogy of fights, that those were good fights and the third one is to finish it once and for all. That is NOT the case with Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. Reigns defeated Bobby Lashley to face Lesnar at Summerslam and I do not understand why WWE insists on going down this route. Their match at Wrestlemania was the worst of the night and now they plan on having this as the main event again?!? This also now makes Lashley beating Reigns at Extreme Rules completely irrelevant too. WWE just wants to shove Roman Reigns down our throat at this point and I find it ridiculous that we have to see this terrible rivalry get built up again.
For Smackdown, they are going to try and build Asuka back up by defeating Billie Kay in a singles match this week, but after the disaster that happened with her and Carmella, it may take a while before we see her back on the top. What also doesn’t make much sense is that later in the show, Paige finally decided to fire James Ellsworth. That also just leaves Asuka hanging because then it asks, what would happen if she faced Carmella without Ellsworth interfering in both matches? Either way, this whole ordeal doesn’t help Asuka much.
The Final Verdict
Overall, both shows are starting to establish the card for Summerslam. We had a few championship matches announced as well as a match with a very important stipulation. With that being said though, I would have to say that Smackdown had the better show this week. We had entertaining matches, got a segment to find out who will face AJ Styles at Summerslam, and we have a mini tournament to decide who will face the Bludgeon Brothers at Summerslam too. Both brands are going to be pushing their big matches as much as possible going forward. Hopefully though, they can just tell the stories right so that fans can get behind them.
