Im just hoping that Monday when the tournament start

When you have anywhere from six to 11 hours of television programming in a given week, one of the hardest things to maintain is balance -- balance between the in-ring action and the time on the microphone, balance between the competitors in each rivalry and enough balance to ensure each match and feud receives the appropriate amount of time.Tuesdays No Mercy go-home episode of SmackDown Live was incredibly well balanced, and most of it was thanks to the substantial base the last few weeks provided it.For the second straight week, the rivalry for the WWE world championship was almost completely confined to the final 30 minutes of the program, and yet that was more than enough time to drive home each and every point they had to get across. The champion,?AJ Styles, looked and acted every bit the braggadocios, overconfident man he was, because he had the facts and evidence to back it up.Styles pointed out that SmackDown Live had become the land of opportunity, and hed taken full advantage: He had the opportunity to beat up?John Cena?at SummerSlam, where he?stole the show and walked away with a clean victory. Then, when given the opportunity to take down Dean Ambrose?and?claim the WWE world championship, Styles took full advantage of the opening and won the most historically prestigious championship in the world of professional wrestling.Ambrose quickly interrupted him as the final 10 minutes of the show quickly snuck up on us. He did something unusual in praising Styles, acknowledging his 15-year career and record of winning almost every other major title under the sun; Ambrose stopped one step short of name-dropping the TNA heavyweight championship, but Daniel Bryan did it while Styles was on set during the Talking Smack post-show, marking one of the very first times that championship had ever been acknowledged on WWE airwaves.Thered be a quick change of tone, however, as Ambrose lambasted Styles for having just this one mountain left to climb, a chance to win it straight up like when hed beaten Cena, and he instead decided to take the low road. He blamed Cena, whose distraction helped cost Ambrose the world championship against Styles, especially considering hed had AJ pinned for 27 seconds when Cena got fed up with cheap shots from both Styles and Ambrose and inserted himself into last Tuesdays main event.And what better time than that moment for Cena to insert himself once more. Right as he held the microphone to his mouth, Styles cut him off and laid upon Cena the exact same level of ruthless razor-sharp cutdown Cena had laid upon Ambrose on last weeks Talking Smack. He all but laid out exactly what he, Ambrose and everyone watching expected Cena to say, and then cut his opponent down line by line.How dare you compare yourself to an icon, a legend, like Ric Flair, said Styles, who has a fairly lengthy history with Flair from their shared days in TNA. I dont care how many championships youve won -- youll never be in the same conversation as Ric Flair.Styles slammed it home by urging Cena to focus on Sunday, and not some lofty career résumé highlight. You chase history, I make history, Styles finished up, all but dropping the microphone as he took a step back and waited for Cenas response. But before he could say a single word, Ambrose followed up by cutting him off and predicting what Cena was going to say about him.Ambrose replied to Cenas insistence that hes not on the same level as his former Shield brethren Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns by pointing out that hes in the ring day in and day out, with no days off, and that hes had the most matches wrestled in each of the last two years.He then decided to lay in his haymaker, as Ambrose accused Cena of an almost Hulk Hogan level of playing the game and being as tight as possible with the bosses in order to stay at the top of the WWE.Youre a master of the political spin, thats how you stayed on top for 15 years, said Ambrose, blurring the lines between the story and real life. Heck thats why youre in the match.Ambrose even accused Cena of going out of his way to derail his career. Anyone whos been a threat to you, youve undercut them, he said. [But] Ive never been one of these guys who kissed your ass, or looked to you for advice. Im not going to play by your rules.It closed with Ambrose taking one last shot at Cena for being fake and plastic: Have fun being the guy who plays John Cena on TV.Rather than lay out an impassioned speech, especially after getting run down by his two opponents, Cena only had three words.Talk is cheap. With that, he incited a melee between the three of them, first attacking Ambrose before throwing AJ out of the ring. An Attitude Adjustment to Ambrose later, Cena lifted up the championship -- only for Styles to attack and ultimately lay Cena out with a Phenomenal forearm. Just as it looked as if Styles would go out of the final SmackDown on top, Ambrose took a page out of Reigns playbook from Monday and struck from out of nowhere, hitting a Dirty Deeds on the steel entrance ramp as he stood tall.This kind of balance and struggle made all three men believable contenders (perhaps Styles and Cena slightly more so), and gave you just enough to want to tune in Sunday for No Mercy to see what happens.Not giving too much away, but enough to rile up the crowd -- one of the most important balances of all.From the moment it was announced that The Miz had produced a Dolphumentary to highlight the biggest moments of Dolph Zigglers career, it was clear to anyone whod watched more than a couple of hours of wrestling in their lives that this wasnt going to end well for Ziggler.What followed was a WWE24-style documentary entitled The Success of a Failure. Almost all of the lowest points of Zigglers career, from his debut as Kerwin Whites caddy (a short-term gimmick utilized by Chavo Guererro) to his role as Nicky from the Spirit Squad, his failed first world heavyweight championship run and all the moments of awfulness in-between.While a lesser man would have fallen apart at how much effort was put into this project demeaning him (and Ziggler did note how much production went into it during his Talking Smack appearance), he took it in stride. For every 10 embarrassments, there was one moment of pure joy, he said. He pointed out small things like a kid in the front row wearing his t-shirt and other shared moments, but The Miz couldnt help himself in taking the mockery one step further by raising Zigglers spirits.That the Miz would hire Kenny and Mikey, two of Zigglers former Spirit Squad compatriots, to both mock and then attack Ziggler was a wonderful surprise and put a nice bow on this rivalry heading into No Mercy. Not only did that step crystalize all the moments of failure that Miz was trying to prove, as Miz pointed towards Kenny and Mikey to show Ziggler his fate if he loses -- $5 autographs and bingo halls alongside his former spirit squad compatriots -- it also allowed Ziggler to shrug off a few of his demons face-to-face heading into Sundays pay-per-view.Given one last chance to speak on Talking Smack, Dolph hammered home how difficult a road hes had during his WWE career -- how big moments like his 2011 Royal Rumble match against Edge were wiped out by equally frustrating moments, like the glorified squash match that followed on SmackDown the next week.?He even pointed out how he was one of the few, and perhaps only, guy to get literally crapped upon on live television multiple times -- and how it might have been an actualization of how things have played out in his career.Hits and missesFor the second straight week, the Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton rivalry occupied the opening segment of SmackDown Live. Wyatt got his opportunity for revenge against Backlash opponent Kane, but because of Ortons distraction on the video screen, he couldnt even get a victory to balance things out. He instead wandered off, choosing to lose by count out, and then things got weird.Orton used Wyatts signature rocking chair to trap him in the back of a truck as he wandered around backstage. It provided an interesting turn to the one story on SmackDown that was meandering over the last few weeks, and created an interesting wrinkle; having Wyatt reach back to the earliest days of his time in WWE by mentioning Sister Abigail teleporting out of the locked truck reinforced his supernatural powers and threw the result of Sundays match further into question.We didnt get much of a chance to see Alexa Bliss vs. Nikki Bella, as the breakdown in the match caused by Carmella, followed by a save from Becky Lynch, led things to predictably transition into a tag-team contest. Unlike his frankly uncalled for (and continuously troubling trend of) speaking over whats supposed to be a silent and atmosphere-setting moment like Wyatts entrance, JBL was much better in the earliest stages of this tag match -- especially when he pointed out Bryan was channeling his inner Teddy Long by making this match.It was another good storytelling match in the womens division, as Bliss picked up a pinfall victory on Lynch and Nikki Bella and Carmella got just enough shots in on each other to build interest for their eventual in-ring showdown at No Mercy.We got a pretty good match from The Hype Bros in a victory over the seemingly forgotten Vaudevillains. The Ascension made an appearance too, giving us a reminder of what exists beyond Heath Slater and?Rhyno, The Usos and American Alpha on SmackDown Live. Of these three teams, the Hype Bros seem the most likely to be middle of the road and in line for the occasional tag title match in the future. Between Zack Ryders lingering popularity and Mojo Rawleys Rob Gronkowski connection, they have far more working in their favor than the rest of the lower tier of the SmackDown tag team division.Neither the tag champions nor the No. 1 contenders were in tag-team action Tuesday, with Jimmy Uso getting rolled up for a quick loss to Jason Jordan. It didnt do much to harm The Usos, who look poised to win the SmackDown tag team championships on Sunday. Slater and Rhyno coming out to save Jordan was a nice touch, and a way to prevent the implication of a serious injury that would have lingered and felt a little too similar to the fate suffered by Chad Gable.The ending of Jack Swagger vs. Baron Corbin was OK in principle, but the execution was poor -- potentially failing to soften the blow of a loss for Corbin. For better or worse, were likely to see more from these two in the weeks to come. 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NEW YORK -- Top-ranked Serena Williams, who is seeking a record 23rd Grand Slam title, will meet two-time major semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova in the first round of the US Open, it was announced Friday.Makarova made two straight major semis: at the 2014 US Open, where she lost to Williams, and the 2015 Australian Open. Her ranking has slipped to 36th, and she just missed a seed at Flushing Meadows. The Russian is coming off an Olympic doubles gold medal.Im OK with it, Williams said of the match. I think I try to look at it as we all always have tough matches. I played her I think in the semis before. I know shes a good player. Ive just got to do the best I can.Williams said she hasnt practiced much because of an injury to her right shoulder, which bothered her during her third-round loss at the Olympics and was the reason she pulled out of the hard-court warm-up event in Cincinnati.I have not played a lot, I havent practiced a lot, but Im just now starting to feel a little better, said Williams, who added that shes been doing a lot of physical therapy.Williams could face fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals, which is also when she could potentially meet sister Venus. Australian Open champ Angelique Kerber and French Open winner Garbine Muguruza are in the other half of the draw, which was set Friday.Williams is tied with Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam titles during the Open era.On the mens side, top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who injured his left wrist just before the Rio Olympics,?will open the final Grand Slam event of the season against 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist Jerzy Janowicz.Janowicz has been ranked as high as 14th but has struggled in recent years and missed much of this season because of injuries. Hes currently ranked 228th and used a protected ranking to get into the US Open.The right-handed Djokovic, who needs the left wrist for his backhand, said hell be ready too make his title defense at Flushing Meadows.ddddddddddddIm doing everything in my power with the medical team to make sure that Im as close to 100 percent as possible during the course of this tournament, at least for the beginning of it, Djokovic said Friday. After undergoing certain treatments, Ive gotten better. Im just hoping that Monday when the tournament starts Ill be able to, as I said, get as close to the maximum of executing my backhand shot as possible.?The 12-time major champ also said his issues at Wimbledon, where he was upset in the third round, werent physical, but there were other things I was going through.He declined to elaborate on those problems other than to say they had been resolved.Other than that loss in the Olympic Games and Wimbledon, Ive had a phenomenal season -- definitely rank this season one of the best that Ive had in career, Djokovic said. So I dont feel like it has shaken me too much. I just hope to be healthy and to be enabled to play the way I wish to play in US Open. Thats why Im here.Fridays draw set Djokovic and Rafael Nadal as potential semifinal opponents, while Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka are in the other half of the bracket.Nadal, who has missed more than two months since withdrawing from the French Open with a left wrist injury, said he still isnt 100 percent but I can start to hit my normal forehand.When Nadal first came back from the injury, he had to adjust his technique to avoid pain. Now he says he needs to get comfortable again with his regular stroke.Olympic silver medalist Juan Martin del Potro could face 19th-seeded American Steve Johnson in the second round. Ranked No. 142 because of three left wrist surgeries, the 2009 US Open champ got in with a wild card.The Associated Press contributed to this report. ' ' '