Match Ratings For WWE Smackdown 7/30/19 From Sean Ross Sapp

Owens, Shane, Drew

• Shane McMahon appears on the TitanTron and says he’s not going to be there tonight. I wouldn’t want to be there either, based on the creative mess we’ve heard about today.
• He says his life coach is calming him down.
• Kevin Owens comes out to the ring and isn’t too sad about Shane McMahon not being there. He’s overjoyed and hypes up their upcoming Summerslam match.
• Drew McIntyre comes out and reveals they have a match tonight, then attacks Kevin Owens.
• After attacking Kevin Owens, he reveals that the match will get started right now. Not bad. A match kind of 9 minutes in, though it’ll be 13 after the break.

Kevin Owens defeated Drew McIntyre
7/10

• Drew McIntyre has control the first several minutes of this match, and throws Owens all over the ring.
• Owens battles back with a Cannonball, but does anyone buy that as the finish?
• I could buy a frog splash as a finish, though maybe not here. McIntyre gets his knees up on a Swanton.
• The swinging sitout side slam is a personal favorite move of mine, and McIntyre does it so well.
• A pop-up sitdown powerbomb hits for Owens, and it rules. What a fantastic spot.
• Another great spot is a White Noise falling backwards off the middle rope. This match is a barn burner.
• Drew sets up Kevin on the announcer’s table, but eats a Stunner.
• KO rolls him back in the ring and sets up a superkick and a Stunner to win.
• This ruled.

Backstage Crappenings

• Dolph Ziggler is big mad backstage, and eventually cuts the same kind of promo he has for a long, long time.
• Aleister Black is moody again. Later on, Sami Zayn says he thinks Aleister Black is hurt and begging for help
• Daniel Bryan still refuses to say anything.
• The OC are backstage, happy about how Summerslam is unfolding.
• Firefly Funhouse runs with the rabbit pretty excited about Summerslam. Bray Wyatt approaches and laughs maniacally.

Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross defeated Ember Moon & Bayley
5.75/10

• Bayley warns Ember Moon to not “try anything” in their match tonight. Why would this even be booked?
• We get a commercial mid-match, and I didn’t realize how much I missed those.
• We come back to Alexa and Nikki working over Bayley.
• Ember gets a hot tag, and it’s a good one. She really lays her stuff in there.
• Eclipse on Nikki, but Alexa posts Ember. Twisted Bliss lands on Ember and Alexa wins clean.
• We missed most of this match, but it was good. Between this and last night’s Becky Lynch match it seems like the style is stiffening up again.
• Bayley hits her finish on Ember Moon. Ember really got jobbed out in this segment.

Trish and Charlotte

• Jerry Lawler comes out and brings out Trish Stratus.
• In a very fake and set up spot, Jerry Lawler asks Trish if she wants to have a match to end things.
• Trish says she’s a mom now, but she’ll always have this itch.
• Charlotte comes out and challenges Trish.
• Whoever came up with this idea to set up Charlotte/Trish, whew. Charlotte calling her out cold would have been better. They just had to wedge Lawler in because of Memphis.
• Trish Stratus accepted Charlotte Flair‘s challenge for Summerslam, which will be her first singles match since facing (and losing to) Vickie Guerrero in March 2011.

Dolph Ziggler defeated Finn Balor
5/10

• Dolph Ziggler attacks during the commercial to kick the match off.
• Finn Balor takes over after the break and hits Eye of the Hurricane and sets up for a dive.
• The lights go out.
• It’s Bray Wyatt. He’s filmed different than everything I’ve seen before.
• Superkick from Ziggler, pinfall.

Ali defeated Shinsuke Nakamura
5/10 (short)

• Ali comes out aggressive and finds a bunch of success.
• Nakamura drops his face across the top rope, then does the reverse Exploder.
• Ali scores a huge superkick, and rolls up Nakamura shortly after.
• 50/50.

Kofi Kingston (w/ New Day) defeated AJ Styles (w/ THE OC)
6.75/10

• We see a pretty good Randy Orton video package explaining his disdain for Kofi Kingston.
• This for sure is getting turned into a six-man tag, I thought.
• There’s some good back and forth until AJ does one of the coolest and sickest looking apron sliding knees you’ll ever see in wrestling.
• This is a really physical match.
• Kofi hits an amazing tornado DDT.
• Trouble In Paradise counter, Ushigoroshi counter, SOS. Wonderful transition.
• New Day and the OC come face to face. They brawl and Kofi Trust Falls onto the pile.
• Trouble In Paradise midair to stop a Phenomenal Forearm. GREAT finish.
• They really didn’t need to book this match, but Kofi is a STRONG champion.

Reigns

• AHAHAHAHAHA OH MY GOD WHAT WAS THAT SEGMENT WITH ROMAN REIGNS.
• He’s about to announce his Summerslam challenge, and something falls on him.
• That Roman Reigns thing was one of the most unrealistic, hastily dumb shots I’ve ever seen. A production camera set up behind the rig that fell on him? It showed him getting squashed, then not? A camera rushing to him when there were already two there? WTF.
• He’s okay.

Rating guide

10- Perfect, 9- MOTY Territory, 8- Excellent, 7- Great, 6- Good, 5- Average to above average, 4- Slightly below average, 3 or below: Poor

Each match starts at a 5 and slides up and down based on entertainment, execution, time, environment, reaction and stakes. The ratings are in no way an indication of a “star rating,” which is a completely different system. A standard, non-offensive “TV match” lands at a 5. The gap between 5.75-6 is generally the largest, with anything reaching 6 being recommended viewing.
These are opinions, and incredibly inconsistent ones. Don’t take them too seriously, and have (and share) your own!