WWE SmackDown: 4 shockers & surprises from this week's episode (July 23, 2019)

WWE has been trying to build towards their second biggest show of the year, and with SummerSlam only a few weeks away, they’re trying to ensure that all their big superstars have a storyline heading into the event.

To ensure that they make the most of SummerSlam, the creatives have been trying to get the fans excited about the event in various ways. One of the biggest ways they’re doing this is by introducing Bray Wyatt’s Fiend persona for the event, which will surely be a treat for the fans.

Apart from that, we got our challenger for the WWE Championship on this week’s episode, as Kofi Kingston too handpicked his challenger just like Bayley did a week earlier.

In this article, we will look at the 4 biggest surprises and shocking moments from the show which made the entire experience either good or bad.

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#4 Apollo Crews new move

Apollo brought out the iconic move on Nakamura

It seems like Apollo Crews is finally getting his much-needed push as he has been made part of some interesting segments and matches in the past few weeks.

This week on SmackDown, Shinsuke Nakamura squared off with Apollo Crews in a non-title match to kick off the in-ring portion of this week's show.

It was surprising to see how well Apollo Crews performed in front of the veteran superstar who is regarded as one of the best in the world. Crews’ loss does not hurt him much, as a loss in a non-title match after a hard-fought match is better than winning and then progressing to a title match only to lose.

What was interesting, and rather surprising, was that Crews debuted his version of the Angle Slam on Nakamura. Apollo has shown respect to Angle many times and was a part of the selected few superstars who faced Angle before he retired. If Apollo is indeed getting a push and will be using this move in the future, it will work very well with the fans.

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

#3 Ember Moon’s turn

Moon turned heel and attacked both Charlotte and Bayley

Okay, so we know WWE has to explicitly state who is the heel and who is the face in any given major match, but now it is slowly getting ridiculous.

Last week on SmackDown Live, Bayley handpicked Ember Moon to challenge her for the SmackDown Women’s Championship after the two teamed and won a match.

While both women were doing well as babyfaces, Moon had no reason to turn heel going into SummerSlam. After all, Bayley gave her a chance to go for the title without much effort.

Instead, Moon turned heel after her match with Charlotte Flair this week and shocked everyone by delivring an Eclipse to Charlotte first, followed by Bayley.

This made little sense unless WWE is simply finding a way to insert Charlotte in the title match too, as Moon could have easily gone into SummerSlam as a babyface and given Bayley a tough time for the championship belt.

#2 Finn Balor’s challenge

Bray Wyatt continued to play mind-games with Balor

The Demon has been intimidating his opponents for a long time, and every time Finn Balor appears as The Demon in front of his opponents, they immediately are more terrified of him.

While The Demon has roamed the arenas of WWE for a long time, we never thought that anything could frighten him.

However, Balor returned to SmackDown this week and addressed his attack at the hands of Bray Wyatt's The Fiend persona. What was surprising was that the creatives have worked well on this story, and Balor was visibly shaken and terrified which makes this feud seem better now than it did last week.

The latest edition of The Firefly Funhouse interrupted Finn Balor’s interview. Bray Wyatt admitted The Fiend is not a fan of Balor's and he is officially accepting the challenge for a match at SummerSlam. His tone changed, and he said The Fiend remembers. The masked madman appeared and ended the video with "let me in."

#1 Roman Reigns vs Kevin Owens

There's no other way this segment could have ended

Speaking of face vs face bookings, WWE threw another screwball at its fans as they booked a match between two of its current biggest babyfaces as the main event.

Roman Reigns was again in the line of fire, while Kevin Owens is the new addition to the heelish trios’ targets.

If you believed even for a second that the creatives would let a match between the two big faces end decisively, you should probably stop watching wrestling.

What was most surprising was how the entire final segment of SmackDown ended, with the babyfaces standing tall once again while Shane, McIntyre, and Elias were down and out. This has happened too many times in the past now, and it makes no sense why Roman Reigns is still being kept in the feud which should have ended at Extreme Rules.

Reigns is currently without a match for SummerSlam, and this could be a way of giving him a good match for the event, but since he has beaten all three men in this heel team, he should be focusing on new opponents.