5 Mistakes that WWE made this week on SmackDown Live (June 18th, 2019)

The final build-up to Stomping Grounds this Sunday night took place live from The Toyota Arena in Ontario, California. It was a strange episode of the show as the push towards Sunday night continued but a number of interesting faces were missing from the buildup.

The Wild Card Rule was in full effect, whilst the company also announced a final match for Stomping Grounds which will see Heavy Machinery step up to Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan with the SmackDown Tag Team Championships on the line.

It was another lackluster episode of SmackDown Live off the back of an improved episode of Monday Night Raw live from Los Angeles. The company could have done so much more with the talent that they have, but here are the biggest mistakes that were made on the show.

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#5 No Finn Balor

Finn Balor is the Intercontinental Champion on SmackDown Live after being switched over to The Blue Brand as part of The Superstar Shakeup back in April. Balor was feuding with Andrade heading into Super Showdown and successfully defended his Championship against El Idolo in Saudi Arabia.

Andrade was then hit with the news that his mother had passed away whilst he was in The Middle East, so he has missed the last few episodes of SmackDown Live before returning this week to attack Apollo Crews backstage.

Balor doesn't have a storyline right now and won't be defending his Championship this weekend at Stomping Grounds. According to various reports, the WWE Universe was not happy about the absence of The Demon King this week which put a dark cloud over the show for many fans in attendance.

#4 No Women's Match

Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross made the trip over from Monday Night Raw so that they could take full advantage of The Wild Card Rule and host a Moment of Bliss, but this didn't actually lead to a match.

Bliss and Cross instead attacked Bayley on the stage before The Women's Tag Team Champions were seen backstage where Paige informed them that they would be facing Kairi Sane and Asuka in Tokyo for a chance to fight for the Tag Team Championships.

Interestingly, there was then another backstage segment between Ember Moon, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville where Moon finally stepped up and took the fight to the two women who have been annoying her for the past few weeks. There certainly wasn't a lack of females present on SmackDown Live this week, but there was no in-ring action for the crowd who had paid for admission.

#3 What Wild Card Rule?

Vince McMahon announced The Wild Card Rule a few months ago and ever since it has seemed as though The Brand Split has become a thing of the past with many stars being able to appear on both brands without the need to be part of the rule like The IIconics.

This week on SmackDown Live, Nikki Cross, Alexa Bliss, Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, and The Miz all took advantage of the Wild Card Rule despite the fact that there are only supposed to be four Superstars making their way over to the opposite brand on a weekly basis.

The promo between Shane McMahon, The Miz and McIntyre could easily have been cut out and a women's match could have taken place instead, but it appears that McMahon is just taking TV time on both brands right now.

#2 Makeshift main event?

Last night on SmackDown Live, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn teamed up to take on Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston in a two out of three falls match that ended 2-0 to the Champions. This is just one night after the duo teamed with Baron Corbin against The New Day in the same match on Raw.

Owens and Zayn aren't even part of Stomping Grounds on Sunday night but it seems that they have had a lot of TV time over the past week against stars that should have been focused on their own matches. Owens and Zayn could have challenged for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships if they were used effectively since the best competition on The Blue Brand is now considered to be Heavy Machinery and The B Team, which is shocking considering The New Day are on SmackDown Live!

#1 No Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns is on the poster for Stomping Grounds this weekend, but he wasn't on Raw or SmackDown last week and wasn't part of SmackDown this week either. This meant that Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre had to try and build up the match on their own, which didn't go very well.

Much like the absence of Finn Balor, many fans in attendance were not happy about the fact that The Big Dog didn't appear just days before he takes on Drew McIntyre. Roman Reigns gained the upper hand on both Drew McIntyre and McMahon on Raw so there was no reason why he shouldn't have been on SmackDown Live. That is unless the company opted to allow the storyline between The Miz and Shane to continue instead so that there's something to fall back on following this weekend's show.