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SmackDown opened with a segment from King Corbin, which saw him partner with Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. Corbin poked fun at Roman Reigns and his “Big Dog” tag, and a match between the heels Ziggler & Roode against the faces Mustafa Ali and Shorty G took place.
Throughout the night, the threat of a WWE NXT invasion loomed, as fans and the locker room were convinced that the Black & Gold brand would make their presence felt once again, especially after Bayley’s invasion of NXT a few days ago.
The Undisputed Era led the charge by ruining an epic match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships between The New Day and The Revival, while the women of NXT were also not too far behind in making their presence felt.
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In this article, we will look at the 4 things the company got right on this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown.
#4 Kept Braun Strowman on screen
Braun Strowman was the Monster Among Men on RAW, but his move to SmackDown has seen him turn to nothing more than just another babyface without a direction.
Strowman appeared last week in an odd segment with Tyson Fury, which was set up to get the crowd popping for Fury and to keep Strowman relevant even after a big defeat.
This week, however, Strowman was booked in an even more bizarre segment as he confronted Drew Gulak and the B-Team in the ring. After receiving a short beating, he laid out all three Superstars to maintain his dominance.
While the segment was a forgettable one, it did what it was meant to do. The segment allowed Strowman, one of SmackDown’s top Superstars, to stay relevant at a time when there is no direction for him.
Similar to what the company is doing with Sami Zayn and The Miz, they are doing everything possible to keep Strowman on the screen to retain the WWE Universe’s interest in him.
He will be facing The Fiend for the Universal Championship at Starrcade, therefore it's important to keep him in front of the fans.
#3 Team NXT’s pinfall loss
This week, Nikki Cross fought for the right to join Team SmackDown at Survivor Series as she squared off with women's champion Bayley.
However, Shayna Baszler appeared, which caused Bayley to make her way out of the ring, and then the group of Rhea Ripley, Tegan Knox, Mia Yim, and Dakota Kai appeared to lead another invasion on SmackDown.
After half of the SmackDown locker room came out, an eight-women Tag Team match was set between the four women of NXT, and SmackDown’s Sasha Banks, Dana Brooke, Carmella, and Cross.
After a good match that gave fans a taste of what to look forward to at Survivor Series, Cross delivered a twisting neck breaker on Kai for the pinfall victory.
Not only was this the right booking to build fan interest for Survivor Series, but the match also did a lot for Cross and her attempt to get included in Team SmackDown for the event.
Kai taking the pinfall also continued the story of how she is the weak link in the NXT women’s locker room, and this could continue to build her story before she either implodes or explodes.
#2 The blue Universal Championship
With a new Universal Champion, the company needed to change the red championship's design and color to fit in with the Blue brand.
Fans had been waiting to see how that would work out, and if Bray Wyatt would add his touch on the belt to make it more visually appealing to the WWE Universe which has usually criticized the Universal Championship’s design.
This week on The Firefly Fun House, WWE Universal Champion Wyatt gave the fans exactly what they were looking for. He unveiled the new Universal Championship belt, which has more or less the same design as the previous one but is blue now.
While we’d have loved to see the company allowing Wyatt to add The Fiend’s touches to it and make it more unique, it is still good enough to run around on the brand as the top championship belt.
What the company did right was change the color of the belt to fit in with SmackDown’s theme rather than continuing with the red belt and making things odd. Now fans can hope the company allows Wyatt to slowly make changes to the design of the belt if he is allowed to hold the championship for longer.
#1 A fitting first challenger for the title on SmackDown
The final segment of SmackDown was an interesting one. It wasn't a match to main-event the night, yet three of the biggest stars of the company were involved in an interesting segment that allowed fans to take a deep look into the Blue brand’s talent pool.
The Miz kicked off his signature Miz TV segment and introduced Daniel Bryan. The two men recapped The Fiend’s attack on him last week, and The Miz asked why he thinks he was attacked by Bray Wyatt. This prompted Bryan to erupt into a rant before being interrupted by Wyatt’s Firefly Fun House.
Wyatt asked Bryan to come and play with his new favorite toy, only if he said the magic YES word. Bryan refused and asked instead for a Universal Championship match, which Wyatt accepted by leading the crowd into a chorus of YES! chants.
The entire segment was simple, yet effectively set up Wyatt’s first title defense. What made things more interesting was the fact that Bryan claimed mental instability and said both he and Wyatt understand each other because of that shared trait.
Now you can vote for your favorite matches from the past week here!
