WWE SmackDown: 4 Shockers & Surprises from this week’s episode (May 21, 2019)

Riding on the momentum gained from the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, SmackDown Live tried to deliver a great episode too even though they did not have the services of Brock Lesnar or Seth Rollins with them.

Instead, they relied on the two Women’s Champions and SmackDown’s greatest acquisition to date to make the main impact before the WWE Champion could take it all away and end things on a high.

With a surprise return this week, coupled with a few surprising bookings, the night was no less shocking as compared to last week. This gave fans something to think about and discuss on social media leading up to the next event, Super ShowDown.

With that said, we will take a look at the 4 biggest shockers from this week’s episode of SmackDown, and what implications it could have on the coming weeks.

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#4 Tag Team Championships

On Sunday night, The Usos took on the SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan in a non-title match at Money in the Bank. The Usos surprised everyone by defeating the champions in the matchup.

Even though we have had Money in the Bank, Raw, and SmackDown Live this week, none of the main roster tag team championships were defended on any of the shows. This was shocking as The IIconics battled in a six-woman tag team match where their Women’s Tag Team Championships were safe.

Since WWE is actually suffering from a case of a deteriorating and badly booked tag team division, it would be better if they start giving overlooked tag teams such as The Good Brothers a chance here and there to showcase themselves.

If WWE does take a step back to focus on their other champions and team them up thanks to the Wild Card Rule, it could have serious long-term effects on their tag division.

#3 Ali’s up and down booking

Since his move from 205 Live to the main roster, Ali has seen a lot of changes take place around him and even to his own name.

Along with that, Ali’s stock has also risen and fallen a number of times in just a few months. We have seen him pin the WWE Champion in televised matches while taking the fall for some newer talent too.

Once again WWE surprised us last night as they booked a match between Andrade and Ali after the Money in the Bank ladder match. While Andrade is already scheduled for a high-profile championship match at the Super ShowDown, it seems like Ali will most probably be a part of the 50-man battle royal.

While Ali walked into the match as the underdog, it was surprising that WWE booked him to pick up the win over the man who is scheduled to battle for the Intercontinental Championship soon.

While it is good to have 50-50 bookings between parallel superstars, Ali’s win this week came as a huge surprise.

#2 Elias’ swan song

This is a mistake WWE has been making for some time now, and Elias could very well become nothing more than an enhancement talent without any real qualifications himself.

On Sunday night, Elias lost to Roman Reigns in just ten seconds even though The Drifter had attacked The Big Dog with his acoustic guitar before the match.

Two nights later, Elias came out to exact revenge from Reigns with Shane-O-Mac by his side. Shane did his best to make sure that The Big Dog lost, but it didn't work. As McMahon distracted the referee, Elias grabbed his guitar but ran into a Spear for the loss.

It was surprising to watch WWE repeat the booking in which nothing much was achieved other than another embarrassment for Elias. Shane had already announced Reigns’ next challenger for Super ShowDown a night earlier, and the superstars should have simply worked towards that.

McIntyre came out later on to deliver a Claymore Kick to Reigns and flattened him out, proving to be a much better competitor than Elias could be. In the end, though, this whole segment was not about Elias, but Shane.

#1 The return of The Showoff

Kofi Kingston and Sami Zayn were scheduled for a match during the night which was first affected by Owens attacking Big E backstage.

During the match, Zayn performed well, but the WWE champion was on fire and never stayed down, managing to reverse the Blue Thunder Bomb into a Trouble in Paradise for the win.

After the match, Paul Heyman appeared to taunt Kofi and distracted the superstar only for Dolph Ziggler to make a surprise return and to assault The New Day leader from behind. Ziggler went on to deliver Kofi a beating which left him battered and bruised.

Later on, Ziggler challenged Kofi to a match for Super ShowDown, which Kofi has now accepted. The reason for Ziggler’s return is said to be Kevin Owen’s refusal to travel to Saudi Arabia, and therefore WWE had to find a quick replacement.

It is also shocking that WWE has gone down the same route as they did for Daniel Bryan a few months ago when he was challenged by a returning Kevin Owens.

Whether or not Ziggler will win the title is something we can’t predict at the moment, but we are sure that the two men will definitely have an explosive match inside the ring.