{"id":124116,"date":"2021-07-31T23:35:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T04:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=124116"},"modified":"2021-07-31T23:35:33","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T04:35:33","slug":"wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-7-30-the-best-in-banks-is-back-crowds-are-a-factor-a-bad-night-for-finn-balor-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/07\/31\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-7-30-the-best-in-banks-is-back-crowds-are-a-factor-a-bad-night-for-finn-balor-more\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES 7\/30: The best in Banks is back, crowds are a factor, a bad night for Finn Balor, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4180809048\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>Hits<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The Best is Back<\/strong><br \/>\nMuch has been made about Roman Reigns vs. John Cena, but look no further than this week\u2019s show to see that the real main event of Summerslam is Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair. Banks looked incredibly motivated in her return this week with a spark that just separates her from the rest. Belair, for her part, looks worthy of being in there with the exceptional Banks, which is a compliment in itself. The women\u2019s tag main event was very good with all playing their parts well, but make no mistake about it, it\u2019s all about Banks being simply the best that made this show feel special.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Literally the Head of the Table<\/strong><br \/>\nThe moment of Paul Heyman putting Reigns as the literal head of the table was just so good. It\u2019s regrettable that the shenanigans around Reigns this week were damaging and poorly coordinated because he was his usual spectacular self. That is an assumed \u2018hit\u2019 each week.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Crowd Elevated Undercard<\/strong><br \/>\nThe undercard of Smackdown was fine this week. Nothing overly spectacular, but some good action in the six-man tag and the Rey Mysterio vs. Jimmy Uso matches. Both of these matches were very much helped along by a hot crowd which has really elevated everything the past couple weeks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Changing it Up<\/strong><br \/>\nI actually liked the Edge and Rollins attack taking place off screen. It gives fans a reason to attend live tapings in the vein of \u2018anything can happen at any time\u2019. It was a nice move for a show that already had so much on its plate. With that said, it did give the overall vibe that maybe the WWE backstage is tiring of Edge\u2019s role right now. He wasn\u2019t exactly protected in his positioning here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Overall Show<\/strong><br \/>\nThis isn\u2019t a runaway hit for me, but now two weeks in to the new \u2018season\u2019 of WWE, and Smackdown is still carrying the torch of the best WWE show. The biggest hit, though, is that it is clear that several key Smackdown roster members are over with the crowd, which really was the biggest question of all.<\/p>\n<h3>Misses<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Bad Habits Die Hard<\/strong><br \/>\nWell that didn\u2019t take long. After just a couple of weeks, John Cena has managed to find himself as annoying as ever and in a role that keeps other wrestlers (in this week\u2019s case, Finn Balor) down. How can you justify calling him a face when he steals another man\u2019s opportunity? How does it help anyone to insinuate how much weaker Balor is than Cena? It\u2019s really a shame.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Balor\u2019s Burial<\/strong><br \/>\nThis week was simply crushing for Finn Balor. Leaving last week\u2019s episode, Balor had the intrigue and excitement surrounding the prospect of a championship shot giving him extra wind in his sails. This week he was insulted, outsmarted, and left for dead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Make it Make Sense<\/strong><br \/>\nHow is there a disqualification in a 24\/7 match when we have seen over and over again that the title changes hand regardless of situation? How does something like that even leave the writers room? This is just an excuse to show Reggie\u2019s acrobatics on Sin Cara\u2019s old trampoline. It is also simply wasted screen time.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1054779497\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>CATCH-UP:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/07\/30\/7-30-wwe-smackdown-tv-results-mcdonalds-alt-perspective-report-on-balor-reigns-fallout-john-cenas-next-move-summerslam-hype\/\">7\/30 WWE SMACKDOWN TV RESULTS: McDonald\u2019s report on Balor-Reigns fallout, John Cena\u2019s next move, Summerslam hype<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2176931714\"><div id=\"pwtor-51472767\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Hits The Best is Back Much has been made about Roman Reigns vs. John Cena, but look no further than this week\u2019s show to see that the real main event of Summerslam is Sasha Banks <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/07\/31\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-7-30-the-best-in-banks-is-back-crowds-are-a-factor-a-bad-night-for-finn-balor-more\/\" title=\"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES 7\/30: The best in Banks is back, crowds are a factor, a bad night for Finn Balor, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":93791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[72,71,117],"class_list":["post-124116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","tag-smackdown","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-smackdown"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2020\/02\/BalorFinn2020WK_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124117,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124116\/revisions\/124117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}