{"id":220939,"date":"2026-08-17T11:26:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=220939"},"modified":"2026-08-17T11:26:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:26:02","slug":"wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-8-14-kevin-owens-and-cm-punk-bring-the-tension-but-who-deserves-cheers-chelsea-gunther-gets-the-right-kind-of-crowd-heat-tag-title-change-jayne-beats-tiffany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/08\/17\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-8-14-kevin-owens-and-cm-punk-bring-the-tension-but-who-deserves-cheers-chelsea-gunther-gets-the-right-kind-of-crowd-heat-tag-title-change-jayne-beats-tiffany\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES (8\/14): Kevin Owens and CM Punk bring the tension but who deserves cheers, Chelsea-Gunther gets the right kind of crowd heat, Tag Title Change, Jayne beats Tiffany"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3968306145\" 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><p><strong>NICK ALDIS\/CHELSEA GREEN\/GUNTHER SEGMENT &#8211; HIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, they got there. They actually made Chelsea Green feel important, albeit by default thanks to her unfortunate injury. The vibe of this is what I was hoping for last week, the show after her title victory at SummerSlam. From her entrance onwards, this was a more serious Chelsea Green, talking about how she&#8217;s made out to be a comedy character and bemoaning it; I thought it helped too. She also garnered sympathy well, and you could see how much being WWE Women&#8217;s Champion meant to her.<\/p>\n<p>Nick Aldis was really good too, and it continues to be refreshing to have a GM character not on the heel side; you could see that in the crowd&#8217;s reaction when he overturned his decision.<\/p>\n<p>Gunther&#8217;s interruption was unexpected, added an interesting element, and also had me thinking about whether separate writing teams are handling main-event duties. Because this segment with Matt Cardona coming to stand up for his wife was very much like the Otis story on Raw: with a clearly defined heel (Gunther) acting unlikeable and a heroic face (Cardona) doing the right thing, thus gaining the support of the crowd, who wanted him to take it to Gunther. Now imagine that concept in the main event picture\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>GUNTHER vs. MATT CARDONA &#8211; HIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Only a short match, but there were some good elements to like. Going back to Cardona standing up for his wife without entrance music (finally), and this could be the first time in recent memory where an \u2018impromptu\u2019 match was called and the wrestlers were not in wrestling gear; love that.<\/p>\n<p>I was happy Gunther didn&#8217;t just smash right through Cardona; that would have really made him look like a total loser considering the circumstances, and I have to admit, the low blow into the near-fall got me. I actually thought they were giving Cardona a win over Gunther. The finish of multiple powerbombs into the Boston Crab was great; nice to see Gunther going back to having multiple ways he can win a match, not just the sleeper.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BARON CORBIN vs. CARMELO HAYES \u2013 US Title match &#8211; MISS<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-931030319\" 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<p>This was okay for a TV match, but felt deflating with Carmelo losing pretty definitively to Corbin. I guess I didn&#8217;t expect it, seeing as this was Hayes&#8217; hometown. They appear to want to make Corbin seem like a legitimate tough man to knock from his crown. That\u2019s Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams who have now failed to beat the returning Corbin; the question is, who are they doing this for? Is there a wrestler they have planned to defeat Corbin for the US Title because they seem to want it to be a big deal when it happens?<\/p>\n<p><strong>KEVIN OWENS-CM PUNK SEGMENT &#8211; HIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wow, okay&#8230; When these two are in the ring with microphones, you can just feel the tension, whether they are cool with each other or not; when the cameras are rolling, it certainly doesn&#8217;t appear so. We all know both Owens and Punk are top-tier with promos. It seemed they had bullet points they had to cover, but there was for sure some element of letting them riff on the fly involved, too.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the problem is back; however, as mentioned earlier, it&#8217;s the main event scene, so we have no idea who to cheer and boo. I will say Punk seems to be edging stronger and stronger on heel material against Owens; I can only assume that&#8217;s because of the perceived upcoming home advantage in Toronto for the title match next week. Either way, it is engrossing stuff; I just think it would be even more so if (a) they had more time before the match and (b) if one of them was all the way heel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DAMIEN PRIEST &amp; R-TRUTH vs. THE WAR RAIDERS vs. THE MFTS (Tama Tonga &amp; Talla Tonga w\/Haku) \u2013 WWE Tag Team Title match &#8211; MISS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t, in good conscience, give a championship match at barely 7 minutes a hit. However, the right result happened, and the match was pretty good while it lasted. It is definitely the right time to get the tag team championships off Priest and Truth. The MFTs may not be jaw-droppingly great, but they are a clear tag team, and my faint hope is that this could be the beginning of treating the tag team scene much better. Granted, a 7-minute match is not a great sign of that, but there is always hope.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TIFFANY STRATTON vs. JACY JAYNE (w\/Falon Henley, Lainey Reid) \u2013 US Title match &#8211; HIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not much longer than the tag title match, but just enough to sway a hit. Tiffany Stratton had her best in-ring night in a while here, and they both worked really hard, with Chelsea Green out there, which indirectly led to the finish; it&#8217;s clear the slow turn of Tiffy on Chelsea is underway.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-930276378\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>That is absolutely the right move for Stratton; her character is a ton better off as an obnoxious heel. My only worry is that with Blake Monroe around and debuting soon (maybe, possibly), are they too similar?<\/p>\n<p>Great sign for Jacy Jayne and Fatal Influence. Now all holding gold, they seem to be in a good spot, and it is still super early in their main roster run.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CODY RHODES vs. SAMI ZAYN &#8211; MISS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Non-match, of course; it didn&#8217;t take rocket science to work out that was going to be the case, seeing as the match started so late. At least this wasn&#8217;t a pre-advertised match.<\/p>\n<p>The response to the beatdown was again confusion. Confusion from the crowd about how to react: both times, the crowd had no idea what to do. It&#8217;s getting comical now that the writers of these segments can&#8217;t see this happening. This is such a strange way to bring back one of the most popular wrestlers you have in Randy Orton &#8211; they will NEVER boo him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FINAL THOUGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although up and down, the show did fly by. Not surprising, really, seeing as they definitely went over the allocated time in segments, as multiple things planned for the show had to air after the show finished on WWE YouTube.<\/p>\n<p>The show, and all of WWE, seems to be written by two separate creative teams: one is trying to use tried-and-trusted methods (Otis, Cardona segments), the other, which is unfortunately the main event scene, is stubbornly refusing to allow viewers to root for one person. Yes, it is very frustrating.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show (8\/14) - WWE Smackdown w\/Keller &amp; Barnett\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6RAjVewEBcQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-501976125\"><div id=\"pwtor-138145263\"><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>NICK ALDIS\/CHELSEA GREEN\/GUNTHER SEGMENT &#8211; HIT Well, they got there. They actually made Chelsea Green feel important, albeit by default thanks to her unfortunate injury. The vibe of this is what I was hoping for <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/08\/17\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses-8-14-kevin-owens-and-cm-punk-bring-the-tension-but-who-deserves-cheers-chelsea-gunther-gets-the-right-kind-of-crowd-heat-tag-title-change-jayne-beats-tiffany\/\" title=\"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES (8\/14): Kevin Owens and CM Punk bring the tension but who deserves cheers, Chelsea-Gunther gets the right kind of crowd heat, Tag Title Change, Jayne beats Tiffany\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220969,"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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-17-at-11.18.33-AM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220939","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220939"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220970,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220939\/revisions\/220970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}