3 Interesting observations from this week's SmackDown Live (April 16, 2019)

From Roman Reigns claiming SmackDown Live as his new territory to Kevin Owens entertaining the fans as an honorary New Day member, this week's edition of WWE SmackDown Live (16th April 2019) featured a lot of contrasting moments indeed.

As a follow-up episode of this week's Superstar Shake Up special, I think that SmackDown Live did a pretty decent job as compared to a rather disappointing episode of Monday Night RAW. Of course, there were some faults here and there, and the show could have used a boost at several points.

Nevertheless, here are a few interesting observations you may have missed during this week's edition of SmackDown Live...

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#3 Kevin Owens is one of the best entertainers on the main roster

Kevin Owens gave it all as an honorary New Day member for the night

There is something really organic about Kevin Owens displaying his comedic skills in front of the WWE Universe. More often than not, you can tell when a comedic bit is not working in the WWE.

But Kevin Owens' comedic approach to entertaining skits is amazing. Not only did he entertain the fans as an honorary New Day member (Big O) last night, but Owens completely stole the show whenever he was on-screen during several moments throughout the episode.

On a sidenote, with all the comedic bits aside, Kofi Kingston hasn't been involved in a major feud since winning the WWE Title at WrestleMania 35. The same goes for Seth Rollins.

Hopefully, things will pick up from next week now that the Superstar Shake Up is done with. It will also be interesting to see if WWE deals with a possible confrontation between Big E and Kevin Owens in the future.

Does Kevin Owens being involved with The New Day lead to an unlikely New Day breakup? Perhaps there could be more to last night's entertaining skits that might lead to unfortunate consequences.

Whatever the case may be, Kevin Owens is easily one of the most entertaining stars on the main roster, who rarely misses his beat each and every week.

#2 Why Asuka's career just benefited from a long-awaited boost

Paige introduced Kairi Sane and Asuka as a brand new tag team on SmackDown Live

From being one of the top female athletes on the main roster, Asuka's career had dwindled as a result of some poor booking decisions in recent memory.

However, last night, Paige introduced a brand new tag team on the SmackDown Live roster, one that merged former SmackDown Live Women's Champion, Asuka, and former NXT Women's Champion, Kairi Sane.

Both of these women already have great chemistry with each other, and on top of that, Paige's new role as a manager for this duo benefits all parties involved.

With Paige as a manager, no one has to really worry about promos being a major obstruction in the way. Now that Kairi Sane and Asuka will be aiming for the Women's Tag Team Titles, we can certainly expect a long-awaited career resurgence for Asuka.

#1 Ironically, Roman Reigns was the biggest acquisition for SmackDown Live during the episode

Vince McMahon was playing the fans right from the start

As much as I love Elias, introducing him as the biggest acquisition in SmackDown Live history did nothing but make things more obvious.

It made the situation more obvious for the 'real' big acquisition to interrupt Elias towards the end of the show, and that superstar turned out to be Roman Reigns, whom the fans were expecting to move to SmackDown Live all along.

We are all aware how Vince McMahon has been insistent on getting Roman Reigns over with the fans since the start. So last night's setup that involved bringing out Elias only ensured that people would cheer when Roman Reigns would interrupt, eventually.

On top of that, Roman Reigns delivered a Superman Punch to Vince McMahon, and as the show ended, things have become more apparent now.

With his Shield brothers aside, Roman Reigns is here to take over SmackDown Live and fill the void left by superstars who moved over to Monday Night RAW.

In a way, Roman Reigns adds to the star power of the Blue brand, and that's a good thing. But at the same time, Roman Reigns will be aiming for the WWE Championship sooner than later, and I'll leave that up to the reader to decide whether this is a good sign of things to come or not.

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What did you think about this episode? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below, and stay tuned for more.