WWE SmackDown Live (July 30th, 2019): 5 points to note
WWE has wrapped up their latest episode of Tuesday night SmackDown Live and the show was pretty interesting, to say the least. While we did not see someone get brutally assaulted by their SummerSlam opponent as we saw on Raw this week, the blue brand had its fair share of surprises and moments that left fans talking after the show went off the air. With less than two weeks left for The Biggest Party of the Summer, SummerSlam, WWE has taken a more edgy approach to get fans excited for the second biggest event of the year.
Several new matches were set for SummerSlam on SmackDown Live this week. The 7-time Women's Champion Trish Stratus will return to the ring to take on the self-proclaimed "Queen of all Eras" Charlotte Flair, Sami Zayn challenged Aleister Black to a match at SummerSlam and Dolph Ziggler has been confirmed to face The Miz at the event. We also saw several Superstars from the red brand as Drew McIntyre faced Kevin Owens, Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross took on Ember Moon & Bayley and the US Champion AJ Styles (with The OC) took on the WWE Champion Kofi Kingston (with The New Day).
"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt made his presence known as he interrupted Finn Balor and cost the latter his match against Dolph Ziggler. And finally, another Superstar was a victim of attempted murder, as someone tried to seriously harm Roman Reigns when he was about to reveal his SummerSlam opponent. Plenty of things went down on the blue brand and right here, right now, we will look at the five points worth noting for this week's SmackDown Live:
#5 Ali will face Shinsuke Nakamura for the IC title at SummerSlam
Like I said, SummerSlam is less than two weeks away, and WWE has enough time to book new matches for the show. There are a lot of Superstars who will definitely sit-out SummerSlam, and two of the most popular Superstars on the blue brand, Ali and Nakamura, have not been confirmed to compete at the event...yet. Shinsuke Nakamura is the current Intercontinental Champion, and he needs a challenger for his title. Who else is a better challenger than WWE's resident Superhero Ali himself?
WWE is no doubt high on Ali, and after he pinned The Artist on SmackDown, there's no doubt that he will get a shot at the Intercontinental title. SummerSlam is WWE's upcoming pay-per-view and it's the company's second-biggest event after WrestleMania. If WWE truly wants to push Ali as a big star, there's no better time than to give Ali a shot or a possible run with the IC Championship.