SD Live: July 17th Edition

This week of Smackdown Live continues to build on the good foundation they have had for the past month in retrospect to Raw. Quite frankly, SD Live has been more enjoyable to watch. It’s amazing what you can do when you just let your good wrestlers do what they do best. With Extreme Rules out of our system, now you will see the major story lines taking form in reference to Summerslam.

Almas Showcase: What is the best way to start off the episode with a straight match between two of your best wrestlers on the brand? Andrade “Cien” Almas has been getting his feet wet with a small feud with Sin Cara, but hasn’t really gotten a chance to show what he can do like his previous matches with Aleister Black and Johnny Gargano on NXT. Remember that all of the NXT audience does not translate to the main roster audience? How do you showcase a really good wrestler that you want to build to be a top star? Pair him with the Smackdown champion/brand workhorse A.J. Styles.

You had to know right off the bat that he wasn’t going to beat A.J. However, there are more ways to get someone over and this was it. He countered a lot of A.J. signature spots and was able to hit some of his own. Not only was this the best way to start off Smackdown, but it makes you want to see this match again down the road.

Next week, Paige will announce who A.J.’s opponent will be at Summerslam. There will probably be something similar that happened on Raw. We have a month until the biggest show of the summer and with a roster with a lot of talent, there will most likely be multi-man matches in order to determine the number one contender.

Becky’s Hot Streak Continues: It seemed like some time ago that we were all wondering why Becky Lynch was taking loss after loss. Becky hasn’t lost a singles match on Smackdown since May 15th. She’s a cool 6-0 since then. Given what happened with Asuka at Extreme Rules, Becky Lynch and Carmella could be on a collision course for Summerslam. Fans love Becky and they loathe Carmella as the cocky heel figure who somehow escapes with the women’s title.

R.I.P. Team Hell No: Everybody has been waiting when the inevitable build between The Miz and Daniel Bryan would happen. I get it! It’s the best feud on the show and probably the best in WWE. This was ever since that much storied Talking Smack segment where nobody considered the possibility of Daniel Bryan being an active member of the WWE roster again. (Bring back Talking Smack!)

Smackdown Live has done the right thing in making this a slow burn. Miz interjected himself to be the antagonist in the brief Team Hell No reunion and has cost Daniel Bryan a match as well. With the funeral of Team Hell No, The Miz cut a good promo and explained why he thought Daniel Bryan’s return has been less than stellar. That with the conclusion of Team Hell No, DB was just hanging on nostalgia to get the fans. Miz escapes the DB onslaught because that’s what he does. At Summerslam, there won’t be any running. Both men will be able to hash out their differences.

Jeff Hardy Loses Out To The Viper: What are Randy Orton‘s motives for constantly going after Jeff Hardy and leaving Shinsuke Nakamura alone in bewilderment? Well, we don’t know yet. I would imagine that we will get more insight on this next week, but ruthless Randy Orton is the best Randy Orton. I mean, pulling on the ear piercing – yikes! With various injuries, Jeff Hardy could use the time off to heal. I think this was the way that they write him off the show for a while.

Shinsuke Nakamura having the U.S. title is going to be great in the meantime. The intrigue of what Orton is exactly doing and why he isn’t going after Nakamura just yet will keep the title in a good spot.

SAnitY Continues To Reign Over New Day: I like the pairing of a new stable with a well-established stable. Eric Young and Kofi Kingston had a pretty solid match with SAnity getting their second win over The New Day. Anticipate singles matches like this with each stable going forward and maybe concluding their feud with another gimmick match.