WWE SmackDown Live Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for August 15

SmackDown Live, Source: WWE.com

WWE made one last stop on the road to SummerSlam on Tuesday night. How did the superstars of SmackDown Live finish the pay per view build?

Previously on WWE SmackDown Live, the WWE Champion lost cleanly to a guy he’s beaten at three straight pay per view events. That’s not ideal. But what are you going to do, have the champ win?

Now we’re just days away from SummerSlam. Everything that took place on SmackDown this week had huge implications for the Biggest Party of the Summer. Champions faced off with their challengers. New matches were finalized. Questions were asked – and answered. And we made out final trip to Fashion Peaks.

The advertised main event of the evening? WWE Champion Jinder Mahal would face off against John Cena in a non-title match. The 16-time world champ missed out on a title match at SummerSlam, so he gets a consolation

victory

match instead just before SummerSlam.

The other big story on SmackDown Live surrounds the United States Championship. AJ Styles is set to defend the title against New Face of America Kevin Owens at SummerSlam. Last week, AJ accidentally hit Commissioner Shane McMahon with a Pele kick – doubly bad since Shane-O-Mac is the guest referee on Sunday. Styles wanted to clear the air with Shane tonight. How did it go?

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Please continue reading for all the results and highlights from SmackDown Live for August 15.

India-pendence Day

Kicking off the show this week was the WWE Champion, introduced and accompanied to the ring by the Singh Brothers. Unbeknownst to me (and probably most people), today is Independence Day in India. The Modern Day Maharajah is in a celebrating mood, bringing out a dance troupe for a party atmosphere. That’s followed by a lovely rendition of the Indian national anthem.

It’s probably the writing more than anything else, but this whole thing is very cringe worthy. Jinder is very proud of his heritage, and wants to share it with the world. Why that makes him a bad guy is beyond me. Especially in light of the recent events in Charlottesville, maybe a storyline that basically forces American fans to literally boo a foreigner isn’t the best thing to keep running with.

Eventually, Shinsuke Nakamura interrupts Jinder’s Punjabi speech. Obviously, Nakamura has learned quite a bit from John Cena as far as lousy babyface behavior goes. Apparently in Japan it’s their equivalent of Memorial Day, so that’s why Nak is out here. Congratulations, WWE, you’ve made Shinsuke Nakamura the “All Lives Matter” guy.

Nakamura proclaims that he’s going to take the title away from Mahal at SummerSlam. Well, he says that, “Sunday is SUMMERSLAM, and will be the day YOU LOSE the WWE Title… … … … … … TO ME!” I get that Shinsuke isn’t a native speaker, but can someone pul him aside and explain intonation and volume? It’s very awkward – which makes it a perfect fit for this opening segment.

Becky Lynch vs. Natalya

Result: Natalya defeated Becky Lynch via submission

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Joining the commentary team at ringside is SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi. She claims she’s just scouting Natalya ahead of their championship match this Sunday.

One thing I love about SmackDown Live that I wish would get carried over to Raw is the picture in picture during certain commercial breaks. With both shows on the same network in basically the same time slot it’s a no-brainer. When you lose a bunch of the match during an ad break, it screws up the flow of the contest. In an opening match like this, it helps with the continuity right off the bat.

The match was perfectly fine, if unspectacular. The closing sequence in particular was pretty good. When things follow basic logic, I’m always excited. Here, both competitors attempt their signature submission moves, but neither is worn down enough to get locked into the moves. Becky goes high risk to try and gain an edge, but high risk has a tendency to fail. Missing the leg drop from the top rope causes damage to the hamstring/back area, and Natalya immediately follows with a Sharpshooter.

Of course, the extra damage from the missed aerial move prevents Becky from escaping, and she’s forced to tap. Because Team Blue’s writing team believes in keeping things fairly equitable, no one is screaming that “Becky is getting buried,” or that “Natalya has to look strong going into a championship match.” It makes sense, and sometimes good wrestlers lose matches without being “buried.”

After the match, Naomi saves Becky from a Natalya beat down, bringing out Carmella and James Ellsworth to gloat about the Money in the Bank briefcase. They’re really telegraphing a cash-in at SummerSlam, so my guess is it’s teased but doesn’t actually happen.

Rusev vs. Chad Gable

Result: Double count out

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Chad Gable is not of this world. That overhead belly to belly right off the bat was insane.

Sadly, that was basically the entire match. Rusev rolled to the outside, and when Gable followed he was brutalized. Steel steps, ring post, table – all until the ref hit the ten count for a draw.

The annihilation ended when Randy Orton – who Rusev attacked last week – came down to save Gable while he was on the announce table locked in the Accolade. Haha, just kidding, Orton doesn’t care about Gable. All Randy gives a damn about is Randy.

So when Rusev goes back into the ring with a mic, all he gets out is, “Randy…” before eating an RKO from outta nowhere. The fans cheer because the RKO is over, but no one cares that he just let a dude get beat down for no reason – while the fans chanted for Orton to come out for the save.

For all the good things on SmackDown on a weekly basis, the presentation of “good guys” is somehow even worse than on Raw.

Lana and Tamina

Manipulative rookie beauty proposes a partnership with veteran known for brute force. I smell a sitcom!

D-Bry, The Sickest MC From The Pac-NW

The Usos get confirmation that Big E and Xavier Woods will be the legal match participants at SummerSlam, then request a match with Kofi Kingston and Woods tonight. MC D-Bry offers the hookup because the Usos are “so cool.”

Source: WWE.com

American Idiots

Styles immediately calls out Shane McMahon, not wasting any time. Also not wasting any time is Shane, who preemptively blocks AJ’s apology to say no apology is necessary. Shane also buries all the other referees in WWE, saying he’s out there because he can “take a hit and keep going.” Ouch. Where’s Drake to stand up for his zebra brothers?

Styles is also concerned that Shane may use the accidental kick to justify a bias against The Phenomenal One. Shane states that the only way there will be a problem is if AJ lays his hands on him while he’s in an official capacity. And apparently, if AJ hits Shane, Shane will hit him right back. Pretty sure that’s not how refereeing works, but let’s roll with it.

Kevin Owens makes his way to the ring after the sound guy misses his cue and there’s a good 10 seconds of dead air. (Whoops!) KO tries to butter Shane up, but Shane is having none of it. Owens attempts to shake Shane’s hand, but is refused – instead, Shane wants Owens and Styles to shake hands. I think we all know how that worked out.

When the stare down inevitably breaks down, AJ again misses Owens, but Shane blocks the punch this time. As Shane and AJ argue, Owens loads up a superkick for Styles – but ends up connecting with Shane’s jaw. Gonna go out on a limb and say that on Sunday, Shane is going to get hit by – and then hit – both guys and what could be a great match will end up being an overbooked mess.

The New Day (Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston, w/ Big E) vs. The Usos (Jimmy & Jey)

Result: The Usos defeated The New Day via pinfall

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

Full disclosure: before tonight, I was a bit behind on SmackDown. I missed an episode when I was away on vacation and hadn’t watched it by last week, so I skipped that one too (for now). So maybe I’ve missed something, but did the announce team finally bring up the different strengths of the different pairings of New Day members? Tonight was the “speed” group of Kofi and Woods, but Sunday is the “strength” group of Big E and Woods. It’s only been years of New Day being a thing, glad to see someone is taking the time to justify strategy behind the teams.

And calling this the speed group made perfect sense right at the get go. Kofi and Woods were bouncing around like crazy leading up to the ad break. You would think a team like Jimmy and Jey – known for their high flying – would be the quicker team in most of their matches, but not tonight.

But once the Usos slowed things down, they were in perfect control. Even after Kofi finally broke free and tagged out, Jimmy and Jey still never took too much punishment. The big problem I had with this one was – you guessed it – THE USOS HAVE PINNED THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS.

I get that it’s a different pairing on Sunday, I do. But why would anyone build to a big title match by having the champs lose cleanly (mostly, at least) less than a week before said title match? And let’s remember this when we get to Cena/Mahal later, okay?

Source: WWE.com (via Twitter)

Fashion Peaks – The Finale

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first: TWO WEEKS? Why you gotta make us wait two weeks for more Breezango? Is the SummerSlam fallout really so time-consuming that you can’t give these guys five minutes of next week’s show? Or are you scared that Brooklyn is going to hate it? (Spoiler: This is the kind of thing Brooklyn would eat up.)

And that’s pretty much it for the negatives. There’s really not a whole lot to say about these Breezango segments that hasn’t already been said. Tyler Breeze and Fandango have such incredible comedic instincts. Fandango, especially, looks like he could seamlessly work his way into a Naked Gun or Airplane! type film and not seem out of place. He’s so good at playing the absurdity straight.

It’s also nice to see The Ascension get something to do. The bungling of their main roster stint is one of WWE’s greatest failures – look at how feared Konnor and Viktor were in NXT, and how ridiculous they seem on SmackDown Live. Getting some screen time – even in a cop show parody as the bumbling fool criminals – is good for them.

I’m really glad that the whole Fashion Police thing took off like it did. Add in the recent news that John Cena and Nikki Bella are huge fans of what Breezango do, and they look like they’ve settled into a great place on Tuesday nights.

Source: WWE.com (via Twitter)

Jinder Mahal (w/ The Singh Brothers) vs. John Cena

Result: John Cena defeated Jinder Mahal via disqualification

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

Well, considering how I expected this to end, I was surprised. But the last five minutes of this episode of SmackDown Live are possibly the worst five minutes of wrestling programming I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen Bayley: This is Your Life, Katie Vick, and Lawrence Taylor main event WrestleMania.

Let’s recap everything before I started blacking out from anger at the stupidity of it all. Surprisingly, Jinder controlled much of the match. Sure, he had some help from the Singh Brothers, but the dude is still the WWE Champion. You know, theoretically the best wrestler in the company. That guy.

But when Mike Chioda tossed the Singhs from ringside, things changed. Cena began his comeback, hit an Attitude Adjustment from the middle rope, and looked like he was about to cleanly pin the WWE Champion. You know, like Randy Orton did last week. But Baron Corbin ran in to break up the pin, giving Cena a win via DQ.

And that’s when things took a turn for the worse…

Baron Corbin vs. Jinder Mahal

Result: Jinder Mahal defeated Baron Corbin via pinfall

Rating: -5 out of 5 stars

After Corbin (thought he) took out Cena, he decided to return to the ring and cash in his Money in the Bank Contract. Jinder was still down from the avalanche AA, so it seemed like a good idea. (It really didn’t seem like a good idea.)

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As Corbin screamed at the referee to get Jinder up, Stevie Wonder himself saw Cena climbing onto the ring apron. The bell rang, and Corbin – who had spent the last ten seconds looking at where Cena was – immediately stopped paying attention to the WWE Champion so he could punch John Cena. Understandable, but come on, man.

The ringing bell was like Popeye’s spinach for Jinder Mahal, who miraculously recovered to catch Corbin with a school boy, pinning him, and wiping out the MITB case in the worst way possible.

Let’s look at all the mistakes Corbin made in his five minutes of screen time:

• Not beating Cena up more than he did
• Leaving the ring before cashing in
• Neglecting to attack Jinder before officially cashing in
• Not attacking Cena before the bell rang
• Turning to hit Cena as the bell rang
• FORGETTING HE HAD A MATCH FOR THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP THAT HE DEMANDED

That’s more than one egregious error per minute on screen. It’s infuriating that something this stupid can still happen on WWE programming – and that if it did, it somehow didn’t happen on Raw instead.

So now at SummerSlam, there’s no chance of a Corbin cash in if Nakamura wins the title from Jinder. This means either Jinder wins and continues his title reign, or Nakamura becomes champion in the least likely title reign since Jinder Mahal. I don’t even know what to expect anymore.

Next: SummerSlam: Predictions for Nakamura/Mahal

That’s the last episode of WWE programming until SummerSlam, be sure to tune in!