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While Raw built up its SummerSlam angles well, SmackDown's punches failed to connect. There was a fantastic AJ Styles vs. Kofi Kingston match, but other than that, this show was forgettable as "wild card" stupidity roared back to life, dominating much of the two hours.
Nevertheless, did anyone manage to get something out of it? Let's take a look.
Loser: Drew McIntyre
Kevin Owens didn't gain from this so much as Drew McIntyre lost from it.
Last fall and through the start of this year, Drew McIntyre looked like one of WWE's hottest prospects in 2019. Many believed that it would only be a matter of time until he wore gold around his waist, possibly even a world title.
Now, he's a lackey to Shane McMahon that loses all the time.
It's hard to see how he comes back from this anytime soon. The match itself was good, but it shows that WWE doesn't have any major plans for Drew McIntyre, though he'll continue to be a featured competitor.
Loser: Ember Moon
Oh, look! A babyface champion and her babyface challenger team up in a tag team match. Add more "wild card" nonsense on top of it with the presence of Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross.
And then, most bizarrely of all, Ember Moon lost cleanly to Alexa Bliss, undercutting her effectiveness as a challenger to Bayley's title.
The match itself should be good, but why should anybody get excited about it if it's going to be booked like this?
This is the kind of formulaic booking that needs to go if WWE wants to regain some lapsed fans. It's just one example of many that WWE has no idea how to book exciting matches up and down the card anymore.
Sadly, they weren't done.
Winner: Charlotte Flair
Unfortunately, the most exciting women's match at SummerSlam won't involve any of the titles (do those tag team titles still exist, by the way?). Instead, it will be the pure spectacle of seeing Charlotte Flair take on Trish Stratus. There is some angle to explore there, as Charlotte is the woman that broke her record for most women's title reigns in WWE.
This should be notable, at the least.
Loser: Finn Balor
Bray Wyatt's fiend gimmick is still just about the best thing going in WWE. Unfortunately, Finn Balor looks like a total dud of a challenger for him at SummerSlam. The age-old distraction finish saw him losing to Dolph Ziggler of all people.
If we don't see Finn Balor break out the war paint soon, there will be a major disappointment on the faces of many fans. The Fiend vs. The Demon is easily the best match they could have for SummerSlam.
Loser: Shinsuke Nakamura
Look at that! A champion loses in a non-title match!
This is again the kind of formulaic nonsense that WWE uses to undercut itself so spectacularly. Routinely, it makes every title but the two world titles mean little because the champions lose all the time.
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Ali looks like it will be the Intercontinental Championship match at SummerSlam, which should be a good one, but lazy builds like this add nothing to the potential excitement of such a match.
Loser: AJ Styles
This was a great match. Unfortunately, even with all the chaos at ringside, AJ Styles lost in it, just ahead of his big match with Ricochet at SummerSlam.
Protecting the WWE Champion would take priority, but it does make you question the wisdom of this match happening at all, no matter how much of a treat it was to see it on TV.
Not to mention that it's more of the unwanted"wild card" rule.
If nothing else, at least Randy Orton could have inserted himself into the chaos and made the match come to a no-contest with a sadistic attack like we loved seeing so much at this time last year.
