WWE SmackDown Live 8/8/17 Retro Recap

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Fred Richani recaps WWE SmackDown Live on Aug. 8, 2017, in Toronto, featuring Randy Orton vs. WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, Naomi vs. Carmella, Charlotte Flair vs. Lana and the return of James Ellsworth on the road to SummerSlam.

SmackDown Review

Adapted from the episode and edited for clarity and brevity. Listen above for the full review.

The show opened with John Cena and Baron Corbin continuing their confrontation, and Daniel Bryan made Cena vs. Corbin official for SummerSlam. Unfortunately, WWE didn’t take my suggestion to put Corbin’s Money in the Bank briefcase on the line. He’s been a lame-duck briefcase holder, losing match after match, and I’m just not feeling Baron Corbin.

James Ellsworth returned to help Carmella beat SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi, so Carmella now has a pinfall win over the champion without cashing in. Charlotte Flair beat Lana with the figure-four, and credit to Charlotte for getting a passable match out of her. The Usos beat Sami Zayn and Tye Dillinger. Poor Sami Zayn, one of the best workers in the business, losing random tag matches. The Usos have swagger and an awesome new theme song, and I don’t think they should have lost the tag team titles.

I wasn’t interested in Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles with Shane McMahon as referee until this segment. Owens showed footage of Shane screwing Stone Cold Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1998, shoved AJ, and when AJ went for a kick, Owens moved and AJ hit Shane. Well done, WWE. Breezango’s Twin Peaks parody revealed who beat up their horse, Tully: Arn Anderson, who said they should have named him Arn because he was the real horse of the Four Horsemen. Great stuff, and the Toronto crowd was hot all night.

Then the ending that pissed me off. Randy Orton pinned WWE Champion Jinder Mahal clean with an RKO in a non-title match, two weeks after their feud supposedly ended in a horrible Punjabi Prison match at Battleground. No Shinsuke Nakamura, no Rusev, no Corbin, no Singh Brothers. When a champion loses a non-title match right before a pay-per-view, that usually means he’s retaining, so Nakamura may lose his first main roster match to Jinder. And WWE gave away Cena vs. Nakamura, a dream match that could headline anywhere, on free TV last week. I like Jinder personally, and his evil foreigner character preaches fitness and diversity, but I have little interest in his title run. If Corbin cashes in and wins, he might be the most boring WWE champion ever. Still, thumbs up for the show.

From the mailbag: Would I ever be a WWE writer? Probably not. I love being independent, and the turnover there is huge. I’d rather contribute on my own terms. One of my early mentors was Dutch Mantell, and I worked at Spike TV back in the day. I think WWE is giving away big matches on free TV to boost ratings before football season and its next TV negotiation. Chad Gable could be the next Kurt Angle, even if he isn’t the one playing Angle’s son. And yes, I’m getting WWE 2K18, but 2K needs better quality control after patches made WWE 2K17’s frame rate worse.