WWE Smackville (July 2019)

 

Original Airdate: July 27, 2019

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Tom Phillips and David Otunga

Opening WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Shinsuke Nakamura v Ali: Ali is a surprise sub for an injured Finn Balor here. Nakamura looks good with that belt, it suits him. Nakamura dominates him at the bell, so Ali starts flipping around to distance himself, and throws a spinheel kick to send the champ to the outside. Ali dives after him with a plancha, and he rolls Nakamura back in for a flying bodypress for two. Ali tries a springboard from there, but Nakamura knocks him off the ropes to the outside, and the champ follows with a baseball slide. Nakamura with a kneesmash for two on the way back in, and he corners Ali for a bootchoke from there. Gourdbuster sets up some knees to the ribs on a grounded Ali for two, and Nakamura grabs a front-facelock. Ali fights to a vertical base, so Nakamura shifts to a sleeper to try and hold off the escape attempt, but Ali manages a victory cradle for two. Nakamura charges to cut off a potential comeback, but Ali is ready with a dropkick to hold him off, and he starts making said comeback. Ali with a dropkick for two, so Nakamura throws his own spinheel kick, and follows with a sliding German suplex. What a weird spot. He goes for the kill, but Ali is ready with a superkick, and a springboard tornado DDT gets the challenger two. Ali goes up with a flying 450 splash, but Nakamura dodges, and Kinshasa retains at 8:03. This was fine, and they did a good job of making you believe Ali might actually walk away with the title here. **

Kevin Owens v Elias: Elias unloads on him in the corner at the bell, but Owens turns the tables. Cross corner whip, but Elias reverses, only for Owens to rebounds out of the corner with a clothesline. He adds a senton splash that sends Elias bailing, and Kevin preps a dive, but Elias distances himself. Owens avoids the dive in time, however, and he cracks Elias with a chop on the outside. He rolls Elias back in, but gets nailed with a bicycle kick as he follows, and Elias stretches him around the ring post. Elias with a ropewalk kneesmash for two, but a superplex attempt gets blocked, and Owens dives with a flying somersault senton splash for two. Stunner, but Elias counters with a high knee, and he goes up for a flying elbowdrop, but nobody's home! That allows Owen to drop him with the stunner, and that's that at 4:49. Not much here. *

Main Event: WWE Title Triple Threat Match: Kofi Kingston v Samoa Joe v Dolph Ziggler: First falls wins. Kofi blasts Ziggler with a running dropkick to knock him to the outside right away, and he dodges a charge from Joe to take the high ground. Dive time, but Ziggler trips him up while the champ runs the ropes, and Kofi eats guardrail. Joe and Ziggler beat on him on the outside, and that trend continues as they head back in. Kofi manages to fight off the double teaming long enough to dive at Dolph with a flying bodypress, but Joe tosses him to the outside before he can cover, and steals the pin attempt himself, for two. That leads to a shoving match between the two heels, but Kofi breaks it up by diving in at both of them, and he hits Ziggler with the Boom Drop. Trouble in Paradise, but Ziggler bails to the outside to avoid it, and Joe sneaks up on the champ with a Samoan drop for two. Superplex, but Kofi blocks, so Ziggler runs up to try, but that leads to another altercation with Joe. Ziggler gets the better of it with a DDT, but then Kofi dives off the top at him for two. Reversal sequence ends in Kofi hitting the SOS, but Joe breaks the count at two, and dumps both men to the outside. Kofi eats steps out there, and Dolph takes a hiptoss onto the announce table. Weak looking bump there from Ziggler. Back in, Joe looks to polish off the champion, but a backelbow only gets two. Coquina Clutch, but Kofi uses a jawbreaker to escape. Trouble, but Joe catches the leg and counters to an anklelock, but Kofi makes a quick escape. Joe responds by slapping on the Clutch, but Ziggler breaks it up with a superkick for two - count broken by Kingston. That leads to a slugfest between Kofi and Dolph, with Ziggler getting the better of it with a Zig Zag for two. Ziggler tries a superkick despite Joe very obviously getting ready to cut him off, and indeed he is cut off by Joe with a suplex. That allows Joe to go for the kill on Kingston again, but Kofi slips out of the Clutch again, and Trouble retains at 12:08. *

BUExperience: I’m still all for these specials, but man, they seem to get more pointless each time out, don’t they?

DUD