WWE Smackdown - Grading tonight’s show (2nd July 2019)
There was a renewed sense of optimism and intrigue heading in to tonight’s Smackdown Live after a newsworthy edition of Raw last night.
Paul Heyman’s fingerprints were all over last night’s show, so would we see any of Eric Bischoff’s influence tonight?
Prior to start of the show, WWE announced another match for the upcoming Extreme Rules pay-per-view. After a couple of victories over the tag team champions, Big E and Xavier Woods will be taking on Daniel Bryan and Rowan for the titles on 14th July.
But what other developments would we see in Smackdown’s current storylines? Would we find out who knocked on Aleister Black’s door? Will there be any other NXT call-ups after Street Profits' Raw debut?
Let’s take a look at what went down on tonight’s show and give each segment a grade.
#1 - The Kevin Owens Show
Smackdown kicked off with an edition of ‘The Kevin Owens Show’ with Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre as guests. After a brief recap of The Undertaker’s appearance on last night’s Raw, Shane revealed that their scheduled tag team match at Extreme Rules would now be a ‘No Holds Barred’ match.
Tensions began to rise between Owens and his guests after he suggested that Shane and Drew were scared of Taker. It looked as though this would lead to a brawl between the three men, until Dolph Ziggler interrupted proceedings.
Owens then had a war of words with Ziggler and, for some reason, this led to Shane making a match where Kevin and Dolph would team up against Heavy Machinery in the night’s main event. If Kevin and Dolph won, they would be added to the Tag Team Title match between New Day and Bryan and Rowan at Extreme Rules.
This was a bland and nonsensical segment to kick off the show, a far cry from the hot angle that opened Raw last night.
Grade: D+