The biggest question coming out of "WWE SummerSlam" for "WWE SmackDown Live" is how one of its top stars Randy Orton would be after the hellacious beatdown Brock Lesnar gave him. The face of the show is definitely changing after that and after the way AJ Styles reigned triumphant over a defeated John Cena.
New Blue Championships
One of the biggest surprises, however, to come on this episode is the knowledge that "WWE SmackDown Live" finally has their own set of tag team and women's championships. That was the most important query left unanswered by the WWE Draft last month, especially after "WWE SmackDown Live" Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Daniel Bryan drafted tag teams and women without championships to fight for.
The new SmackDown Tag Team Championship (with a name that makes the championships look smaller than their counterparts on "WWE RAW") will be determined by an eight-team tournament that will culminate in the new "WWE SmackDown Live"-exclusive PPV event, "WWE Backlash" on September 11. On this episode, The Usos def. The Ascension and Breezango def. American Alpha to advance to the semifinals. Next week, the Vaudevillains, the Hype Bros, the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno, and one more unannounced team will face off to fill out the second semifinal bracket.
As for the SmackDown Women's Championship, there will be a six-pack challenge for the title at "WWE Backlash" that will include Nikki Bella, Alexa Bliss, Naomi, Becky Lynch, Carmella, and Natalya. A couple of women's matchups happened on this episode, namely Becky Lynch defeating Alexa Bliss to even their score from last week's episode, and Carmella attacking Nikki Bella to become a villain.
New Stories
The WWE Championship picture was shaken up again, this time with AJ Styles using his huge win against John Cena at "WWE SummerSlam" as leverage for a title match against Dean Ambrose. He taunted losing contender Dolph Ziggler along the way, and General Manager Daniel Bryan made a
"WWE SmackDown Live" main event match between the two. If AJ Styles won, he would get a one-on-one title shot; if Dolph Ziggler won, it would be a triple threat at "WWE Backlash." AJ Styles def. Dolph Ziggler, making the championship match one-on-one.
Randy Orton also came out to address the whole Brock Lesnar scenario, but before he could get too far, Bray Wyatt came and interrupted him. Wyatt left one of his usual cryptic messages, and if we're going to get an official matchup at "WWE Backlash" between the two, we'll find out on a future episode of "WWE SmackDown Live."
