WWE SmackDown: 4 shockers & surprises from the episode after Extreme Rules (July 16, 2019)

No episode of WWE comes without its fair share of shocks and surprises, and this week’s episode of SmackDown was no different.

Shane McMahon called for a town hall meeting so that the wrestlers could voice their displeasures with current WWE management. This already gave us a hint of the surprises to come later in the night, but we got much more as the night progressed.

While Daniel Bryan did not get to make the career-changing announcement he’d promised to make, we got to see a big six-man tag team match which likely gave us the next challenger for the WWE Championship.

In this article, we will look at the 4 biggest surprises from the night and how they could impact the storylines and superstars involved in the coming weeks.

---

#4 Liv Morgan’s announcement

Liv Morgan had been away from television for quite some time since she was moved from Raw to SmackDown Live during the Superstars Shakeup.

During the opening segment of SmackDown, we were surprised to see WWE give overlooked superstars like Buddy Murphy, Apollo Crews, and Liv Morgan a chance to speak and get their two minutes of screentime.

Liv got something more, as she managed to compete later in the night against former SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair. While the result was fairly obvious, Liv performed extremely well as a singles competitor, giving fans a look at how well she can perform if given enough chances.

What happened after the match was even more surprising, as Liv ripped the headset off of Corey Graves and declared that Charlotte was right in calling her fake, promising a change.

Liv has one of the most unique looks and characters in WWE, and we hope that WWE is only going to change whatever is promised for the better while keeping her uniqueness alive.

See WWE Smackdown Results, Highlights of event, & more on WWE Smackdown Results page

#3 Bayley’s next challenger

There are many heels on SmackDown who could easily get up to challenge Bayley for her SmackDown Women’s Championship without really posing as a threat to The Hugger.

We saw two such women take on Bayley and Ember Moon in a tag team match where the babyfaces dominated much of the action and delivered a double finisher to bag the victory.

While fans were not expecting Bayley to handpick her next challenger, they were surprised to see her get interviewed right after the match and handpicking Ember Moon to be her next challenger for SummerSlam.

Without any story or context, we now have one of the best female workers on SmackDown inserted into the title picture with a loss in sight. Unless WWE is planning to turn Moon heel during SummerSlam and take the story further into the latter part of 2019, this booking makes little to no sense.

WWE could have done better by making Mandy Rose the next challenger while developing Ember Moon even further for a bigger clash later on.

#2 The stunning botch

The McMahon family is no stranger to Stunners. In fact, they might even get the move named after themselves soon.

Just like Shane has taken a stunner numerous times in the past, he was slated to take one during the ending moments of the opening segment of SmackDown.

All that was required from The Best in the World was to stay in place, take a kick to the gut, and happily eat the stunner to end the segment on a high.

Instead, Shane was unable to do so and sort of ruined the intensity of the moment which could have built Kevin Owens even more by the end of the night.

Shane McMahon dethroning Linda McMahon for the worst Stunner sell of all time #SDLive pic.twitter.com/f7qzrCAEFD

— WWE Critics (@WWECritics) July 17, 2019

Shane fell to his knees right after taking the kick rather than waiting for Owens to deliver the stunner. This led to Owens grabbing thin air rather than Shane’s head, and he had to get Shane back up to complete the move which surprised almost everyone in attendance and at home.

#1 Elias among wolves

Since arriving onto the main roster, Elias hasn’t been able to do much even after receiving much more spotlight than many other deserving superstars.

At a time when SmackDown is filled with great heels like Randy Orton, Cesaro, Samoa Joe, and Andrade, it’s odd that Elias gets to hang around the top when many others are at the bottom. The heels of SmackDown are not just extremely experienced and acomplished, but they are like wolves.

Similarly, it was surprising that this week on SmackDown, Elias got the opportunity to come out in front of New Day and demand a WWE Championship opportunity among men like Samoa Joe and Randy Orton.

Yes, Elias is a heel, and yes, this is exactly what heels do, but Elias has so many losses to his name that WWE should not be putting him on top with Joe and Orton at the moment.

It’s surprising to see how Elias has repeatedly stayed on the top while many other superstars have dropped down even with the immense amount of talent they possess.