Tonight, on the With Spandex WWE Smackdown Live open discussion thread for August 1, 2017:
Tuesday’s edition of SmackDown LIVE will go down as one of the biggest in history. Not only does this week’s episode feature a United States Title rematch between reigning champion AJ Styles and Kevin Owens, but it will also host a first-time-ever dream match between John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura. Don’t miss a second of the action on SmackDown LIVE, tomorrow at 8/7 C on USA Network! — via WWE.com
Our five-point preview:
1. Smackdown Live is in Cleveland tonight, so expect Dolph Ziggler to get trotted out at some point and be quickly pinned by, I dunno … Mojo Rawley? Sure, that works.
2. We’re getting yet another U.S. Title match between current champion AJ Styles and the man he won it from last week, Kevin Owens. I’m sure nothing will happen in the way of distractions or interference and the match will have a totally clean finish.
3. About that totally clean finish: Kevin Owens’ former best friend Chris Jericho is back and out for blood. I’d have to assume the odds of Y2J’s music hitting during the AJ/KO finishing sequence are currently somewhere around 2/9, so bet wisely.
4. This will be the last episode of Smackdown before James Ellsworth’s 30-day suspension is lifted, so begin anticipating or dreading his return next week, depending on which side of the coin you fall on — personally, I hope he comes back and declares himself a free agent, then gets interrupted by Rusev and ends up in a flag match at SummerSlam. See, WWE creative? It pays to not clean off that dry-erase board!
5. Oh, right, John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura are wrestling tonight. That should be cool for a few minutes, at least until the Great Khali comes down excruciatingly slowly and climbs into the ring excruciatingly slowly and head-chops both of them excruciatingly slowly, then we watch what’s left of the Singh brothers beat down both guys because we live in a world where no one is allowed to be happy.
As always, we’re including 10 of the best comments from tonight’s open discussion thread in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Smackdown Live report. Reply to your favorites with a +1 to nominate them for consideration, and share the open thread around so we can get some fresh voices and jokes in here. Enjoy the show!
