WWE SmackDown Live recap: Our hero, Kevin Owens

This week on SmackDown Live, Shane McMahon stacks the deck against Kevin Owens, Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton take a trip down memory lane and more matches are made ahead of SummerSlam.

On Monday, the Raw Reunion dominated most of Monday Night Raw. While there were hints at some of the SummerSlam drama to come, building for WWE’s biggest summertime event wasn’t the point or the focus of the show.

But SmackDown Live this week should be a lot more SummerSlam-centric, with the ongoing rivalry between Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon and Kofi Kingston announcing his SummerSlam opponent being two of the biggest storylines of the show.

Here’s what went down on SmackDown Live on July 23.

David Otunga is taking over for both Corey Graves and Byron Saxton, and he and Tom Phillips are joined by The New Day’s Big E and Xavier Woods on commentary to open the show.

Shane McMahon accepts Kevin Owens’ challenge

Given we didn’t see him at all on Monday night, we get right into the Shane McMahon-ness of it all. The crowd immediately starts chanting “CM Punk!” Off to a good start, we are.

McMahon notes that Kevin Owens has challenged him to a match at SummerSlam and he accepts. Owens has said that should McMahon accept the match and Owens loses, he would quit the company, and thus McMahon has also approved the stipulation. He then shows us a clip from a year ago, when Owens quit. He’d also like to get it in writing.

This brings out Owens, who says he’s not the same broken-down man he was a year ago. He says he knew that McMahon would accept the challenge because, one, McMahon wants Owens gone and, two, because McMahon craves the spotlight. Owens promises he will be the victor at SummerSlam and he’s ready for a fight. Of course, this won’t be against McMahon; Owens will face Roman Reigns tonight.

Backstage, Elias and Drew McIntyre praise McMahon’s brilliance in pitting Owens against Reigns. McIntyre has been named the special guest referee for said match, while Elias will serve as special guest timekeeper. McMahon will serve as a special guest ring announcer.

Apollo Crews vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

In our first match, Apollo Crews faces Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (in a non-title bout). The New Day, meanwhile, remain on commentary and it’s — unsurprisingly — very entertaining, and a good choice with Graves and Saxton not around. It’s a whole different tone to the show.

Nakamura-Crews continues during the picture-in-picture commercial break with the champion dominating most of it. The increased violence and aggression from Nakamura serves him well and, most importantly, establishes him as a threat again.

Crews counters a submission attempt and starts to turn the momentum in his favor. He counters a Kinshasa attempt with an Olympic Slam for a near-fall, but a few miscues on Crews’ part opened him up to a Kinshasa, which connects and leads to Nakamura’s victory. Hey: a champion actually won a non-title match on WWE television!

Nakamura also gives Crews a post-match beatdown including another Kinshasa. The New Day cry out, “Apollo, where are your friends?!” imploring someone to help him — just not them. No, Crews, Big E and Woods are not your friends, at least when Nakamura is handing out Kinshasas.

Backstage …

So, at some point Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville may or may not get a shot at the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. We think.

Ali promo time!

Hi, Ali’s promos remain amazing, are filmed by Freelance Wrestling’s own Craig Mitchell (a talented videographer as well as talented pro wrestler) and this should be leading up to something great, potentially a match for Nakamura’s title.

MizTV with Shawn Michaels

On Monday Night Raw, MizTV featured Seth Rollins ahead of his SummerSlam meeting with Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. On SmackDown, MizTV returns, this time with guest Shawn Michaels, who will not be facing Lesnar at SummerSlam.

Big E and Woods singing along with Michael’s “Sexy Boy” entrance them was perhaps the highlight of the entire night.

The Miz and Michaels basically have a mutual appreciation society before turning their attentions to the Rollins-Lesnar SummerSlam matchup. This draws out Dolph Ziggler, who rails against WWE legends showing up and who also has an issue with The Miz.

Ziggler, who used to idolize Michaels, finds Michaels repeated returns to the company embarrassing (also embarrassing to Ziggler: Bill Goldberg) — they even broke Ziggler’s heart. Oh, Ziggler, did someone lose their smile?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJQ3nw1C6rs

Anyway, Michaels concedes he was also embarrassed, but he also finds Ziggler’s career embarrassing (“a second-rate Shawn Michaels wannabe” were the exact words). It’s Michaels who is somehow the second-rate Michaels, according to Ziggler. He talks and talks and The Miz is finally over it: Ziggler needs to do something about it, not keep complaining. The crowd agrees, chanting, “Do something!”

So he does — he attacks Miz and superkicks Michaels. Something, done.

Charlotte Flair vs. Ember Moon

Ember Moon faces Bayley for Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship at SummerSlam, which has now put her in the upper echelon of the division. That gives her a shot at Charlotte Flair tonight.

The match is quick, though, with Bayley’s music hitting, causing Flair to become distracted and Moon to get the roll-up pin. Flair thus attacks Bayley, allowing Moon to hit Flair with the Eclipse. She also had another Eclipse for Bayley. Moon’s playing the strategy game.

While that’s a nice little note, the match itself could and should have been longer. There were no women’s matches on Raw this week, concerned as they were with the Raw Reunion, and now what could have been a stellar one-on-one matchup lasted all of 20 seconds. The women’s division doesn’t seem to matter much anymore; so much for that Revolution that barely got started before it was kneecapped.

Kofi Kingston’s SummerSlam opponent

Kofi Kingston arrives to the ring to announce who his challenger for his WWE Championship will be at SummerSlam. The New Day are no longer on commentary, either, with Michael Cole taking over. Cole and Tom Phillips sound way too similar and it’s eerie.

Kingston gets right to it: Randy Orton will be the challenger. Orton sloooowly makes his way to the ring. Kingston reminds Orton of their Madison Square Garden match in 2009, when the crowd was behind him and Kingston coming out victorious. Kingston believes Orton used his backstage influence to hold his career down. He says he has grown and worked hard and has surpassed Orton, much to Orton’s disdain.

Orton says he did hold Kingston back, because he wasn’t ready — and he’s not ready now. Again, another challenger to Kingston’s title claims Kingston’s reign is a fluke. Orton, meanwhile, says that he has earned his success without of any of the gimmicks that have helped Kingston over the years. He also reminds Kingston that he was the person to enable Kingston to get his title shot at WrestleMania to begin with, via Orton injuring Ali.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQhlp9XY3u0

Essentially, this is a rehashing of all the Kingston’s challengers’ talking points since WrestleMania. And perhaps until the story changes, the title remains Kingston’s. Just a thought. Orton did get a pin post-RKO over the champion last week, a reminder that anything can happen in the ring with the Viper. But things still seem to point to Kingston retaining. The 10 years of history between the two does add a nice narrative layer at least.

As Orton heads out, Samoa Joe heads in.

Kofi Kingston vs. Samoa Joe

Kingston will be defending his WWE Championship in a three-way dance on Saturday in the WWE Network “Smashville” live event against Samoa Joe and Dolph Ziggler. As such, he is set for a one-on-one non-title match against Joe tonight. Orton has decided to stick around.

Joe is dominant early but Kingston ups the pace to turn things in his favor.

https://twitter.com/tde_wrestling/status/1153837522901803013

Kingston’s advantage is brief, though, as Joe clearly has the power advantage and takes over (and slows things down) during the picture-in-picture commercial break.

Joe avoids the Trouble in Paradise once, and Kingston appears to set it up again, but Orton hits the ring. Kingston evades the RKO — Joe gets one instead — and that leads Kingston to hit Orton with Trouble in Paradise. Joe loses without losing (because he can’t win too many in WWE it appears).

Finn Balor challenges The Fiend

Two weeks ago, Finn Balor was attacked by Bray Wyatt as The Fiend on Raw. This week, he’s back to (perhaps) the safety of SmackDown with something to say. He’s also facing Nakamura for the Intercontinental Championship at “Smackville.”

Kayla asks Balor about the attack by Wyatt. Balor is not sure what Wyatt wants — to settle a score, or start a new fight. He’s certainly confused by Wyatt’s puppets and The Fiend’s attacks. But he’s not one to back down, so he’s challenging Wyatt/The Fiend to a SummerSlam match.

The Firefly Fun House then airs on the Titantron. Wyatt calls Balor “brave,” and says that he, Mercy the Buzzard and Ramblin Rabbit are big fans.

The Fiend, though, is not a fan. Wyatt says The Fiend accepts Balor’s challenge but warns that The Fiend is “an abomination,” who “remembers.” We’re then treated to a creepy Fiend montage. Will Balor’s Demon King emerge to face The Fiend in August?

Backstage, Charlotte Flair is not happy that she’s not at SummerSlam and that Ember Moon will be challenging for Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship. She demands a match at SummerSlam, against an opponent better than Moon.

Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns

Finally, it is main event time, with Kevin Owens facing Roman Reigns by decree of Shane McMahon. McMahon will serve as guest ring announcer, Drew McIntyre as guest referee and Elias as guest timekeeper.

Owens claims that he’ll go through Reigns, McIntyre and Elias to get his hands on McMahon this very night. Reigns doesn’t take kindly to this and the match gets underway.

It doesn’t take long until Elias and McIntyre get involved, but Reigns and Owens wipe them out. They set sights on McMahon briefly before the numbers game is too much. Owens is kicked outside of the ring and Reigns gets a beat down in it.

Owens drags McMahon out of the ring when he’s not paying attention, then hits both Elias and McIntyre with superkicks. Reigns spears McIntyre, and Owens Stunners Elias. The two then get McMahon back in the ring, where Reigns hits him with a Superman Punch and Owens connects with a Stunner.

With the crowd chanting, “one more time!” Owens delivers a second Stunner on McMahon and the faces are the heroes of the day. The beginning of the end of this McMahon-heavy spring and summer has been reached; the closure is in sight. And Owens is, as always, one of the very best performers in the company.

Owens is right: He’s now made us look forward to a Shane McMahon match.

Given that Raw was Reunion’d, SmackDown needed to do a lot of the heavy lifting this week in terms of SummerSlam storytelling. It did that all night long, with numerous SummerSlam matches created or confirmed and nearly everything that happened connected to things that will happen next month in Toronto. It was effective, entertaining, well paced and maybe, just maybe good.

What did you think of SmackDown Live this week? Can Shawn Michaels be a second-rate version of himself, given the laws of physics? Let us know in the comments below.