WWE Smackdown Grades (16th July 2019): Grading tonight’s show, fights and moments
With Extreme Rules in the rear view mirror, Smackdown was set to kick off on the road to SummerSlam.
Tonight’s show was also rumoured to be the first edition of Eric Bischoff’s Smackdown as he begins his new role of ‘Executive Director’.
Prior to the show, WWE announced a Women’s Tag Team championship match between the IIconcics and the Kabuki Warriors.
As well as this, we were promised a ‘career-altering’ announcement from Daniel Bryan and first ever ‘Town Hall’ open forum where the Smackdown roster could air their grievances against Shane McMahon.
So was Smackdown given a fresh coat of paint or was it the same old stuff from WWE?
Let’s find out as we run through tonight’s show and give every match and moment it’s own grade.
#1 - "WWE's First Ever Town Hall Open Forum"
Smackdown opened by airing a video from earlier in the day of Kevin Owens arriving at the arena.
Owens was met by Shane McMahon, flanked by a team of security guards, who informed him that he had the night off and would not be allowed to attend the first ever “Town Hall”.
We then cut to the arena for the aforementioned “Town Hall” open forum.
Roman began proceedings by telling Shane that nobody respected him and he could “kiss his a**”.
The rest of the segment was mainly bickering between the Smackdown roster to set up matches for later in the night, such as Charlotte Flair vs. Liv Morgan and Apollo Crews vs. Andrade.
After cutting off the microphone when Kofi Kingston was talking, Shane then tried to wrap up the forum but was jumped by Kevin Owens, who hit Shane with a ‘Stunner’ before escaping through the crowd.
This segment didn’t have any flow to it and came across quite awkward, but at least it set up a few things that would pay off later in the show.
Grade: B-
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