WWE Smackville 2019 Review

WWE Smackville 2019
July 27, 2019
Nashville, Tennessee

The SmackDown Live brand comes to Nashville for a special WWE Network exclusive on a Saturday night in July. Kofi Kingston must defend his WWE Championship against his two latest foes in Dolph Ziggler and Samoa Joe before heading into Summerslam to take on Randy Orton.

Match 1: WWE Intercontinental Championship - Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Ali
With Finn Balor being out of commission due to injury, Ali serves as the replacement to face Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental Championship. Nakamura forces the referee to begin the match against Balor as the referee then calls for the bell and proceeds to count out Balor. Here, Ali comes out and steps in for the injured Balor. Despite the crowd being pretty quiet throughout the contest, the action was still pretty fast and certainly fun to watch. The two used their unique offenses nicely here to really help the viewers remember just how good Ali can be in the ring. However, a Kinshasa from Nakamura put an end to Ali and his big return.
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura
Rating: ***

Match 2: Elias vs. Kevin Owens
Elias came out for his big performance and as usual, did a great job of getting heat from the crowd while claiming Johnny Cash once told him that the Tennessee Titans will never win a Super Bowl. Kevin Owens interrupts Elias from behind and calls for a referee as an impromptu match has now begun. Pretty solid match here between the two as watching Owens wrestle as a babyface is definitely working better than the first time around. Elias is able to get in a decent amount of offense before getting hit with a Stunner by Owens to end the match. Fun to watch Elias on the guitar and fun to watch these two go at it in a short match before heading into the main event.
Winner: Kevin Owens
Rating: **1/4

Match 3: WWE Championship - Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Samoa Joe
Seeing Kofi Kingston as the top dog and WWE Champion never gets old to me. Also seeing Dolph Ziggler and Samoa Joe in the main event will never get old to me as well. Ziggler and Joe try to coexist early on to eliminate Kingston from the equation until animosity between the two grow pretty fast. Seriously, when does that ever work? Definitely cool to see the exchanges between all three guys with everyone doing a great job in making the match believable despite everyone pretty much knowing what the outcome would be. After a failed attempt of a Coquina Clutch, Joe walks right into a Trouble in Paradise for the the finish. While I enjoyed the match and enjoyed having this show in general on The Network, I question having Kingston having a random title defense right before Summerslam. In some ways, it kind of feels like it waters down the title's legitimacy with all these defenses. Would it really hurt to just get Kingston a partner and make this a big tag match? What do you guys think?
Winner: Kofi Kingston
Rating: ***1/2

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
If you know me, you love I love these WWE Network specials and how much I love to rave about them. Solid show here to continue the build towards the biggest show of the summer. While it was a little too short for my liking, it was still an enjoyable watch and really cool to see the WWE continuing to make efforts in putting out house shows on their Network.
Rating: 7/10