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SmackDown was raring to go this week after the announcement of Goldberg’s appearance on the Blue brand on the road to WWE Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia.
This week’s show decided to give fans a lot of tag team action in order to keep all the top teams in the fans’ minds. With the return of The Miz and John Morrison, SmackDown needed to make the division the most prominent one.
Roman Reigns and King Corbin also appeared during the show to set up another match in their rivalry as the two men will soon meet in a Steel Cage match down the road.
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The women of SmackDown capped off the show with an interesting Fatal 4-Way match to crown the No.1 contender to Bayley’s Championship.
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In this article, we will look at the 5 things WWE got right on this week’s SmackDown.
#5 SmackDown’s Tag Team division continued shaping up
Friday Night saw The Miz and John Morrison reintroduce The Dirt Sheet on SmackDown. The duo premiered the Once Upon A Time...On The Dirt Sheet movie trailer, which was excellent to watch.
The heels were interrupted by The New Day, who were later interrupted by Dolph Ziggler and Rober Roode’s music, allowing Miz and Morrison to attack Kofi Kingston and Big E.
Ziggler and Roode’s arrival gave way to a match between them and The Usos once again.
The two teams battled it out on SmackDown once again in what fans hoped would be the final chapter in their rivalry. The Usos, along with Roman Reigns, had already defeated the team of King Corbin, Ziggler, and Roode in a Loser Eats Dog Food fight last week.
The twins continued the momentum and once again defeated the heels after a hard-fought match, ensuring their rise after their comeback remained stable.
Later in the night, we saw The Revival possibly joining Sami Zayn’s heel stable as they came out to attack the new Intercontinental Champion, Braun Strowman.
SmackDown did well to keep all five of their top tag teams at the forefront during the night even though only two of the teams competed in a match. This will help the brand continue to shape up their division well.
#4 Elias’ victory
Elias returned to the ring this week to play a new song titled “Third Time’s The Charm.” Unfortunately, The Drifter wasn’t lucky enough to end his song once again as he was interrupted by Cesaro which led to a match between the two men.
Cesaro showed his strength once again and worked over Elias for most of the clash. The Swiss Cyborg seemed strong throughout, and fans were hoping that he would finally pick up a much-needed victory after some very unfortunate bookings.
However, Elias wasn’t ready to give up and continued to stay in the match even though Cesaro hit massive uppercuts and suplexes to keep his opponent down. An elbow drop was enough for Elias to pick up the victory on SmackDown in his quest to become a fan-favorite babyface.
While it was unfortunate to watch Cesaro go down like that once again, especially at a time when WWE is building Sheamus back up again, it was good to watch Elias pick up a big win over a big Superstar.
Elias has been struggling on the main roster for some time now, and this new babyface run along with a few much-needed victories can surely help The Drifter become one of SmackDown’s more prominent mid-carders soon.
#3 Carmella’s shocker
The main event of the night saw four of SmackDown’s top women battle in a Fatal 4-Way No. 1 Contender's Match for a shot at the SmackDown Women’s Championship currently held by Bayley.
The Champion watched from ringside as Dana Brooke, Carmella, Naomi, and Alexa Bliss battled to get a shot at the title. All four women got their spots during the match even though the entire affair had a little story.
It was more of watching four women deliver some strong moves, their finishers, and near pinfalls and breakups.
Naomi and Bliss seemed to be the two women with the great chance of bagging the victory, but interference and attack from Bayley on Naomi proved to be a setback to the former Champion.
Carmella proved to take advantage as she managed to shock everyone by picking up the upset victory after taking out Naomi. This was a result no one was expecting, but it was good to watch Carmella get back into prominence after a run as R-Truth’s associate during his 24/7 Championship shenanigans.
After the match, Bayley entered the ring and laid out Carmella before standing tall to close out the show. The two women will likely battle at WWE Super Showdown where we could witness the first-ever Women’s Championship match on Saudi Arabian soil.
#2 The New Daniel Bryan?
The Planet’s Champion had a rather strange encounter with a man who has kids backstage on SmackDown. Heath Slater said everything wrong he could to enrage Daniel Bryan which led to a match between the two men in the ring.
The One Man Rock Band was no match for the multi-time WWE Champion who did not go easy on his opponent at all. Bryan is used to battling against the biggest and best wrestlers in the industry, and taking on Slater but giving a great performance was something that only he could have done.
He made Slater forget about his kids by delivering a bearing he’d never forget. From a running knee to nonstop stomps, there was everything in the match that Slater did not sign up for. Finally, Bryan locked in the LeBelle Lock for a submission victory, making fans wonder what had gotten into Bryan.
It seems like his last interaction with The Fiend has changed him once again, and it’s possible that we will see another New Daniel Bryan emerge from the ashes sooner than later.
With The Leader of the Yes Movement taking out his frustration on an enhancement talent, WWE is sending an interesting message to the fans.
#1 The Legend vs. The Fiend
No one wants to be next in WWE when Goldberg lays down a challenge until of course, you are The Fiend.
The legendary Goldberg was scheduled to appear on this week’s show and announce who he’d like to face at WWE Super Showdown later this month. Goldberg appeared on the screen from his home in Texas and made it clear that he wanted another run with the Universal Championship.
Before he could continue, the wacky Bray Wyatt appeared on-screen in another episode of the Firefly Fun House. He immediately tried to play mind games with one of the strongest heads in the company but did not manage to get through as he’d expected.
Goldberg wasted little time in giving fans something to cheer about by exclaiming “The Fiend, Bray Wyatt. You’re Next!”
While the former Universal Champion wanted to unnerve the current Champion, Wyatt demanded to “Let Me In” before The Fiend closed out the segment.
SmackDown did a decent job of setting up this match with very little story with a simple segment. Fans wanted Goldberg to go after a big fish in the sea, and he’s decided to go after the biggest one of them all.
Legends of WWE have never had a pleasant interaction with The Fiend, and it will be exciting to see how this pairing works out, especially considering the fact that The Fiend is unbeaten on television.
