WWE SmackDown 8/11/2023: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where we tune in against our better judgment to see if WWE can salvage any part of what was once potentially the greatest story in company history! Okay, so that came off a little bleak — suffice it to say, as anyone who has read any of our reviews this week is well aware, we were not a fan of the decision to have Jimmy Uso turn on Jey Uso in the main event of WWE SummerSlam. While there were other things on the "SmackDown" card that interested us, like the United States title match between Austin Theory and Santos Escobar, or Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka, we were kind of dreading the "Jimmy returns to The Bloodline" segment, which we viewed as a fundamentally misguided creative choice.

So how did that turn out? After seeing WWE's explanation and follow-up for SummerSlam, did we still hate the decision, or have we been won over? And what about the rest of the show, which, by the way, does matter, actually? You can't get opinions or analysis like these just by following our live coverage (though, to be clear, you should also do that). You can only get them when we reveal three things we hated and three things we loved about the 8/11/23 episode of "WWE SmackDown."

Maybe we should be more upset that the only women's match of the evening got cut off early, but damn it, it's just so good to see Damage CTRL wrecking people again. Being the primary force in the women's division, with one of their members holding a singles women's championship, was always what this group was supposed to be, and while it's beyond weird that it took WWE a full year to figure that out, we'd rather just enjoy it now that it's here. A few months ago, with Dakota Kai injured and the two women's championships seemingly firmly in the grasp of Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley, it felt like the stable was about to break up — a massive indictment of WWE creative after making them feel like a huge deal when they formed at SummerSlam 2022. But it didn't happen. They're still together, Kai is back on TV, and Bayley and IYO SKY have the perfect dynamic, with IYO as the preternaturally talented champion and Bayley as the annoying mouthpiece who takes credit for being champion. It's the ideal version of the stable. It's like what the Christian Cage/Luchasaurus pairing would be in AEW if it involved a title anyone cared about.

So yeah, we have no problem whatsoever with WWE announcing a match between Charlotte and Asuka just so Damage CTRL can show up and ruin it. That's what they should be doing. It's about time they got an actual run at the top of the division, and we hope it lasts a very long time.

On its face, we honestly didn't dislike AJ Styles vs. Karrion Kross, which is odd because we definitely expected to. At the very least, it was more entertaining than we were initially prepared to give it credit for. In fact, despite a pretty glaring botch midway through that saw Kross fall down trying to catch Styles out of the air and both men flail ineffectively for a few seconds while they tried to figure out what to do, it might even be Kross' best match on the main roster, which is kind of cool despite also being extremely sad.

Unfortunately, the match itself being halfway decent couldn't change the fact that this feud has been largely boring, or the fact that despite there being little reason to care about the outcome, Styles going over again is hilariously uninspired booking. Not that we're clamoring for a Kross push or anything, but when the feud includes three singles matches and Kross wins none of them, it doesn't really matter that the last one was a little longer. We would never advocate for anyone to lose their job without really good reasons, but if Kross is just going to get thoroughly dominated in every feud he's in, what's the point in employing him? Is he just going to keep doing spooky promos about the end times before coming out to the ring and losing over and over again? How much is "Bray Wyatt, but taller and less successful" really worth?

In general, we have a hard time getting into stories based primarily on backstage events or real-life happenings. We like our wrestling to be as contained within its own fictional world as possible. In the case of next week's first-time-ever singles match between Edge and Sheamus, however, we are prepared to make an exception.

We really loved this promo segment, which wasn't announced ahead of time and was a big surprise for the Calgary audience. Normally, when wrestlers appear to break character, reference outside events nobody really knew about, or in this case, play video of each other crashing and burning on mountain bikes, it's to make a feud more personal, to add new layers of conflict and antagonism to an existing rivalry. That's not what happened here, of course; Edge and Sheamus haven't even been in a non-Royal Rumble match together, let alone a storyline, since before Edge's first retirement. But with Edge's second retirement presumably upon him — last year, he intimated that he might hang up his boots for good the next time WWE is in Toronto, which happens to be next week — he clearly wanted to wrestle Sheamus, and for that to happen, he had to explain why he wanted to wrestle Sheamus. Hence, this segment, which was very sweet and earnest on the part of both men, with just enough of an edge at the very end (when Sheamus pulled Edge close and told him he hoped Edge wouldn't regret his choice) to make it more interesting than just a love-fest.

It worked for us, and it's good to see Sheamus doing something important after months of impotent feuding with Austin Theory. We're really looking forward to next week's match, and while the die-hard Edge fan in us hopes it's not his last, we also recognize that the time may have come.

The one thing that would weird us out a little bit if Edge's last match ends up being against Sheamus is the fact that it's not against Rey Mysterio, his former tag team championship partner. But we suppose Rey is just doing other stuff right now. Like apparently winning the United States Championship.

Look, no shade on Rey. We love Rey. But the way this whole thing played out was weird and disappointing for a couple reasons. First of all, we had a feeling Theory was losing his title Friday night, and we were really excited to see it go around the waist of Santos Escobar. We've been following Escobar since his days as King Cuerno in "Lucha Underground," and there's no better person to strap with "SmackDown's" midcard title. When Theory attacked him before the match, but he decided to gut it out and compete anyway, we figured they were doing a Cody Rhodes thing with him and having him battle through injury to take the belt. Instead, Theory attacked him again, and Mysterio got the match, the win, and the championship.

It's always possible that Escobar was never supposed to be in the match in the first place. He won the United States contender's tournament when Mysterio had to forfeit in the finals due to a legitimate injury; we wouldn't be surprised if Escobar winning was never the plan, and this storyline was how they got back to Rey. But even then ... what is Rey Mysterio doing with the U.S. title belt? Shouldn't that be on someone like Escobar, or Butch, or (god help us) LA Knight? It just seems like a really strange decision to strap Mysterio when he's out here still wrestling after his Hall of Fame induction.

Don't get us wrong, we're still happy Theory lost, and we'll see where this Rey reign goes — we have a suspicion that Escobar (in character) might also be a little disappointed, and take that out on Rey, which could be very interesting. But in the immediate moment, it just seems like a weird bait-and-switch.

Speaking of LA Knight, we hated his segment again. Surprise! Maybe that's what happens when you put him in a match against Top Dolla and follow that up with another vague non-specific promo that's just another excuse to hypothetically wonder who, in fact, the game belongs to, so the crowd can do the call-and-response chanting that's literally Knight's only appeal. Or maybe it's just what happens when Michael Cole tries to rap on commentary. Either way, sorry, this sucked, like most things featuring Knight suck. Somebody explain the appeal, we are on our knees begging right now.

Even worse than the match and the promo, though, is the mere fact that we're now having to deal with this guy on both "Raw" and "SmackDown." What is happening. You've gone too far, WWE. It was all fun and games when you were trolling the internet fans by not giving what they (somehow, inexplicably) want, but now you are giving them what they want, and it's not fun anymore. Please stop. Unless you want us to make the "NAH" chant a thing. We'll do it. Try us. See if we won't.

...okay, it's possible we owe the Bloodline story an apology.

In our defense, we didn't see a way out for this storyline after SummerSlam. Some combination of the following things had clearly happened: Jimmy Uso had turned heel, Jimmy Uso had started a feud with his brother Jey, Jimmy Uso had re-joined The Bloodline. There was no universe in which none of those things had happened, was there?

Well, it turns out there was. At least, that's how it looks right now. "SmackDown" began with Roman Reigns arriving in Calgary and demanding to be acknowledged, as usual. Then he asked Paul Heyman where Jimmy was. He, like the rest of us, assumed Jimmy was coming back to the fold. Heyman said he hadn't seen Jimmy, and the one time he had talked to him on the phone, Jimmy had been hostile. When Jimmy arrived, Roman did the "winner of the Game of Thrones" thing he does so well, offering Jimmy anything he could possibly want in return for his help. But Jimmy wasn't helping Roman. He was helping Jey.

Jey came out to demand an explanation. He, like the rest of us, assumed Jimmy did what he did out of jealousy. But Jimmy wasn't jealous. He was worried for his brother, because you don't just become the undisputed world champion, you don't just become the Tribal Chief, without suffering the consequences. "Power corrupts" has been a major theme of the Bloodline story for a long time, and this plays directly into that theme. They have directly foreshadowed this exact plot point several times, to the point that a month ago, we thought there was a chance WWE might actually go with our idea of having Jey clearly being about to beat Roman, but to stop himself and lose the match intentionally, because he doesn't want to become what Roman became. We said they would never do it. They basically did it. The only difference is that instead of Jey realizing what he was doing and stopping himself, Jimmy realized it, and stopped him. Remember, the Tribal Combat match only happened because of what Roman did to Jimmy. If Jey had won the Tribal Chiefdom and the championship and started down a path of corruption (which, by the way, would absolutely have been our pitch for his next character arc if he had won) he would have been corrupted because of Jimmy. Jimmy couldn't let that happen.

It makes logical sense. It makes narrative sense. It makes thematic sense. In spite of everything, it turned out to be one of the right ways to move to the next chapter. And yes, we're as surprised as you are that our fingers are typing those words.

And then, the aftermath, which was almost as good. Because the thing we had already started to wonder as Jimmy spoke was "well, where the hell do we go from here?" Jey doesn't just instantly forgive his brother; that would be contrived and unrealistic. But when Jimmy leaves the ring, Roman starts gloating, starts manipulating, the way he always does, and Jey — in a move that demonstrates his character growth more than any promo could — is done listening to it. He superkicks him. He dodges an attack from Solo, superkicks him. Then he superkicks Roman again to counter the spear, then spears Roman himself. Dominant. Confident. A different Jey Uso.

Then Jey calls Jimmy back toward the ring. Jimmy, naturally, comes in for a hug — but Jey superkicks him, too. And why the hell not? Jimmy might have had good reasons for what he did, but he still cost Jey the match of his life, his chance to dethrone Roman, and then superkicked him. There was a reason we all thought Jimmy had turned heel, after all. And Jey? Jey is done with this. Done with the drama, done with the manipulation, done with the Bloodline, done with his family. He's leaving. And who can blame him? What else does he have left to prove?

Man, it was weird hating the Bloodline story for six days. We're glad that's over. When Jey eventually comes back, it'll be epic, but we hope that's not for a while. In the meantime ... we can't wait for next week.