WWE SmackDown Revisited: Is WWE Making The AJ Styles Vs. Samoa Joe Feud Seem Like A Big Deal?

On this week's Wednesday edition of the Wrestling Inc. Podcast, which airs live every Wednesday at noon ET, Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman, Wrestling Inc. President Raj Giri and Justin Labar reviewed the latest edition of SmackDown Live discussing AJ Styles opening promo . The guys debated how important the feud between Samoa Joe and AJ Styles is. You can check out that part of the discussion below

AJ Styles opening promo:

Giri: "You know what, I thought it kind of cooled it down a bit. I thought on the go-home show to not have either guy on was a curious choice, really was kind of forgotten about in this whole match and I thought it made AJ Styles look weak. I thought AJ staying at home and saying he has to stay at home, almost in tears—you know, they wouldn't book the people they protect a lot. They would not protect Roman Reigns this way. They would not book The Undertaker or Brock [Lesnar], or Braun Strowman saying that they are going to stay at home because the family is upset. I think it made AJ Styles look weak. The crowd was booing him. He had a cool line in the end saying that he was going to bury [Samoa Joe]. I hope that is not hinting at a Buried Alive match. I thought it made AJ Styles look weak and it did nothing for me or the feud. I felt that last week's angle should have been the last one before Super Showdown".

Hausman: "Certainly a lot of fire last week, but I think you are going to get that Buried Alive match, Raj. I don't think that there will even be a winner even if they add a stipulation that there must be a winner in the match.

LaBar: "Well, they certainly didn't dump kerosene on the fire. I mean, the promo by AJ Styles was well executed and I like the twist of him to be the one to save Samoa Joe's job so that he can be the one to deliver the execution of Joe. At least if he is at home, he's at home sitting by himself on the couch. Let us at least see the family crying or scared. Not to have any man in the arena for the audience for your go-home in what is supposed to be this personal feud. I hope that it is the Buried Alive match. For what they have pulled and the whole home invasion and then the 'I'm staying home until Joe is out of the country heading to Australia,' this better be one of those matches—-I don't want to see both men coming to the ring and they wait for an introduction, and they wait for the bell to ring and lock up. When you do one of these home invasion angles, it has to be where AJ Styles is moving faster than normal, fighting in the isle way, kind of the way Ty Dillinger and Randy Orton were going at it."

Giri: "Isn't it interesting though how this is a WWE Championship feud and how personal they made it with the family's involved and how low of importance this feels heading into the Super Showdown?"

Hausman: "Well, I think they did that on purpose. I think they are doing that on purpose. I think they want to keep it hot, but not so hot where they build the finish of these two. They are in an interesting spot right now. They are doing something where they haven't traditionally done in the past which is to advertise multiple shows at the same time, right? You have Super Showdown but you also have Crown Jewel. Evolution doesn't involve men but that is still three shows you have there for the women you are working with, so you need some of these feuds to stay alive a little bit longer than they used to. I also think the multiple shows announcement thing is something they possibly picked up from the independents. I think a lot of independent promotions are doing that now where they are letting their fans know about a lot more shows so I think that this is intentionally done to make it not feel like the end, and I think that the 'buried alive' line was absolutely the set up for Crown Jewel or Survivor Series where they are going to bring it back."

Giri: "How many times can you do those matches [feud between Samoa Joe and AJ Styles]?

Hausman: "They are good. They are both very good wrestlers. There is actual legitimate emotion there, which is very rare nowadays."

Giri: "There is, but at some point they have to move on. Look, nothing on Raw or SmackDown is really knocking them dead right now as far as bringing in new viewers and knocking the world on fire. First of all, I think WWE needs to make this feud feel more important. If they are going to keep going with this you are bringing up that they don't want to give too much, but look at how they were pushing Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman, even though that wasn't going to the finish, they need to make the WWE Championship more important. They need to make AJ Styles more important. Stop always booking him, putting his match on in the middle or not last. They need to make this title feel more important."

LaBar: "As long as they have joint pay per views, AJ Styles is just not going to be on last. That is the reality of it. As long as Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns or even Brock Lesnar are involved in the Universal title picture. AJ Styles will just not go on last. The WWE Title can definitely be used some added importance to it. That is a little bit of where AJ Styles long run is something that can hurt things. Up until recently, a lot of it is mainly about AJ Styles claiming he is the best in the world and that nobody can beat him. This at least has a little bit of a dimension, little bit of depth, but this is really just him beating all of these opponents, the Nakamura thing was a little bit of a disappointment in what everyone's expectations were, so yeah, they can certainly add importance to this feud."

You can watch the full episode in the video above, or listen to it in the audio player below.

The Wrestling Inc. Podcast airs every Monday immediately following RAW, Wednesdays at noon ET and post-WWE PPV Sundays immediately after the event with Matt Morgan, Glenn Rubenstein and Raj Giri. Replays are streamed on our Facebook page Facebook.com/WrestlingINC the following day at noon ET except for the Wednesday podcast, which is available the same day at 3pm ET.

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