Best and Worst of WWE SmackDown: John Cena BURIES Logan Paul, Charlotte Flair exposed, Miz is Awesome

WWE kicked off its European Summer Tour with last night's Friday Night SmackDown, emanating from Dublin, Ireland, for the first time ever. The show aired live around the globe on Netflix, whereas it aired in its regular timeslot in the United States on tape delay on the USA Network.

As expected, the crowd was red hot from start to finish, with Dublin's own Becky Lynch, the Women's Intercontinental Champion, kicking off SmackDown. The episode also featured an incredible promo from John Cena, as well as a crowd that really wanted to see The Miz.

It was a fun show for the most part, with several superstars impressing with their matches and segments, although it did have its fair share of disappointing TV. Nevertheless, it did mark an improvement over the quality of SmackDown episodes over the last few weeks. In this listicle, we shall discuss the Best and Worst of last night's WWE SmackDown.

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Best: Becky Lynch kicks off SmackDown in Dublin, Ireland

Despite being a RAW Superstar, it only seemed apt that Becky Lynch, an Irish icon and arguably the greatest female wrestler of all time, kicked off last night's SmackDown. She initially appeared to be legitimately emotional as she received the welcome she deserved from her hometown audience. Still, after playing along with them for a bit, Big Time Becks got down to business.

The Man suddenly shifted gears as she turned on the crowd, once again illustrating greatness with her effortless heel work. And as entertaining as it may have been for the audience watching on TV, it had to have been a special moment for Becky Lynch as well as the crowd in attendance. It was an awesome way to kick off the show, but the segment unfortunately went downhill when Lynch was interrupted.

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Worst: The presentation of Tiffany Stratton, Nia Jax, and Jade Cargill

Tiffany Stratton interrupted Becky Lynch, and a lackluster promo by the WWE Women's Champion was followed by an even more disappointing one from Nia Jax. When Lynch and Jax double-teamed Stratton, Jade Cargill made the save, setting up the tag team main event for last night's SmackDown.

The problem is how awfully Stratton, Jax, and Cargill have been presented over the past few months. Their undeveloped characters and lack of promo ability, coupled with overexposure due to a lack of other top women on the roster who can be elevated into those spots, completely suck the air out of the division. And that's exactly what they did to a sensational promo featuring hometown girl, Becky Lynch.

Overall, it was just an uninspired booking and continued a string of boring TV segments. Why couldn't Becky Lynch have been featured in a champion vs. champion main event against Tiffany Stratton on SmackDown last night? The match could have ended in some kind of DQ finish before Jade Cargill made the save to advance the Stratton-Cargill story, and that probably would have landed better if that moment had closed the show. Alternatively, Lynch could also have been involved in a champion vs. champion match with United States Champion, Giulia (more on that later).

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Best: We Want Miz

The Miz and Carmelo Hayes faced Motor City Machine Guns in the first match of the night on SmackDown, and the crowd made it clear who they were there to see. The most must-see superstar in WWE history basked in the fans' adulation, with fans chanting "We Want Miz" whenever he was not the legal man and cheering wildly when he tagged in. Consequently, they also booed whenever Hayes tagged in too.

This worked well with the basic story of the match, which saw Hayes and Miz constantly trying to one-up each other. While this would ordinarily lead to miscommunication, followed by a loss, and then eventual tensions in the weeks to follow, in a repeat of what happened last week, The Miz picked up a pin after Hayes took out Chris Sabin, but was taken out by Alex Shelley himself.

It was classic Miz: the veteran stealing a win for himself using his smarts, and the Dublin crowd reacted to that the way most people secretly do, enjoying wildly as their favorite cheat picked up a major win. The story between Miz and Hayes is sure to lead to a babyface turn, and if reactions such as tonight's continue to persist, The Miz may be turning babyface again soon.

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Worst: The Women's United States Championship picture

Last night saw another backstage segment featuring Mia Yim, Kiana James, and Giulia, and the proceedings implied that Yim would be wrestling James imminently to potentially earn a title shot against Giulia. While that was more headway than we have made in this picture over the past two months combined, there was so much more that WWE could have done with Giulia tonight.

A champion vs. champion match with Becky Lynch last night on SmackDown could have been massive for Giulia, and she could also have been involved as Lynch's tag team partner in the main event instead of Nia Jax. Instead, the Women's United States Champion continues to remain an afterthought, and we are likely to see Yim beat James for a shot at Giulia in the next few weeks, before Giulia predictably dispatches of Yim.

Nikki Cross was seen on screen sneaking up and keeping an eye on what was going on, too, but until the pace of storytelling improves and more interesting personalities arise to vie for the Women's United States Championship, Giulia and the title itself are unlikely to be anything more than overlooked and underutilized.

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Best: Charlotte Flair gets exposed on SmackDown

Charlotte Flair suffered a surprising loss to Piper Niven on SmackDown last night, which exposed a weakness in her character: she needs Alexa Bliss by her side to survive in the tag team division. The Goddess' absence last night could initiate a realization in Charlotte that she needs her tag team partner by her side now.

This subtle storytelling maneuver allowed the Charlotte-Alexa dynamic to evolve in the latter's absence while also giving Piper Niven a massive win and furthering Niven and Alba Fyre's case for a shot at the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. Bliss and Flair stick out as among the few bright spots in the SmackDown Women's Division right now, and hopefully, their relationship continues to be explored in depth, and a breakup is not rushed.

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Best: John Cena BURIES Logan Paul

Words of obeisance from a mere mortal can barely do justice to John Cena's verbal performance against Logan Paul last night on SmackDown, much like words from a mere mortal couldn't have even come close to replicating that kind of promo. John Cena absolutely buried Logan Paul last night, and he followed up on that FU (Cena shockingly even flipped the bird last night) with an Attitude Adjustment to lay Paul out.

Among the hits of the segment on SmackDown was fans chanting "w****r" at the social media sensation, and when Cena later referenced the one word that has been constant in describing Logan Paul throughout his WWE tenure, he had originally meant "outsider," but conceded that the Dublin crowd was right as well. Cena then clarified that he didn't believe Paul to be an outsider. Cena did, however, consider him a disappointment.

John Cena trashed Logan Paul for using WWE as a tool to market 'Prime,' and in a phrase reminiscent of his promo against Austin Theory, warned Paul that his match against Cena at Clash in Paris would be the most important match of his career.

Cena also mentioned the likes of Dominik Mysterio, Seth Rollins, and Jacob Fatu as people he would have much rather faced on his farewell tour. He added how fans could see through Paul and the fact that he was there for the wrong reasons and didn't deserve to be facing Cena.