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WWE SmackDown Live Results And Grades For July 24, 2018

By Kevin Parvizi

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Rusev vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas

Prior to SmackDown Live, Zelina Vega was at it again, this time picking a fight with Lana and Rusev to angle for another match for her client, Andrade “Cien” Almas. Last week, Almas made quite the impression in the first match of SmackDown Live against WWE Champion AJ Styles. Almas believes he is more deserving than Rusev as Styles’s competitor at SummerSlam, despite tapping out to Styles’s Calf Crusher last week.

So Paige booked a match between Rusev and Almas to start tonight’s show, and the winner will try to build their case towards facing Styles, despite the fact that both have already lost to AJ within the past week or two.

“Rusev Day!” chants ring out across the arena, so Lana joins in, chanting right at Vega and Almas to get in their heads. Almas is “Tranquilo”, doing his pose at the beginning of the match, but it doesn’t take long for Rusev to start dominating, as he uses his strength to get the upper hand on El Idolo.

It looked like Almas was down and out after absorbing a massive kick to the head, but Almas was barely able to kick out at 2.9. Vega was urging him to get to his feet after the move, knowing full well that Almas is in serious trouble.

Rusev went for a Machka Kick, but Almas countered and hit him with a massive chop instead. That only pissed off Rusev, who attacked Almas but was fooled. When Almas went for the knees in the corner at Vega’s behest, Rusev hit him with a Machka kick. Luckily for Almas, Rusev was so drained that he was unable to capitalize.

Lana and Vega start going at it, and English rushes in to help Lana. Instead, he gets shoved into Lana by Vega. Seeing this, Rusev grows concerned and is upset with English for a second week in a row. He already blames English for costing him against Styles at Extreme Rules, and because Almas capitalized after this distraction with a Hammerlock DDT for the W, English is in HUGE trouble. The Rusev Day break-up could be beginning!

Grade: B+, A fun match, loved the ending and the opening it creates for a break-up storyline, even if I REALLY don’t want Lana and Rusev to kick Aiden out!