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This week’s SmackDown hosted a full roster of Superstars, as the company returned to the United Kingdom for the latest episode. This allowed us to once again see Tyson Fury inside the ring, as he made a rather interesting announcement and offer to his former opponent, Braun Strowman which has opened the door to many possibilities.
The night was led by an ordinary promo by King Corbin but kept on getting better, especially with the invasion of NXT UK’s Imperium, who did a great job at sending a message to the entire WWE Universe.
The New Day defeated The Revival during the night to once again become the SmackDown Tag Team Champions, mere weeks before the Survivor Series pay-per-view.
In this article, we will look at the 5 things that the company got right on this week's episode of SmackDown.
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#5 Shorty G & Ali’s big match
SmackDown had some interesting matches this week, and one of the big matches was between the teams of Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro, and Shorty G & Ali.
Three of the four men had already locked horns in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel, whilst Cesaro has been generously used as the weak link in teams to take pinfall losses that haven’t worked well with the extremely talented Superstar.
However, this week, Cesaro’s fortunes turned around as the heelish duo managed to win the hard-fought match.
What was interesting to see was the fact that WWE is trying to build Ali and Shorty G by giving them matches against bigger and more experienced Superstars. It must not be forgotten that Ali arrived on SmackDown and seemed like a future WWE Champion, but fell down the ranks due to some injuries. Now that the company is looking to build him again as he is a great overseas prospect for them.
Shorty G was nowhere as prominent as he is today, and the talented Superstar deserves to get the spotlight and big bookings that he is currently getting. Hopefully, both men will soon get a taste of the mid-card Championship on the roster.
#4 The demolition duo
While we cannot be too sure as to what the creatives are thinking at the moment, it was interesting to watch Tyson Fury show up in front of his home crowd on Friday Night SmackDown. He discussed his upcoming fight with Deontay Wilder before going back to Crown Jewel and the man who he defeated at the event, Braun Strowman.
In a surprising turn of events, Fury offered Strowman an opportunity to fight as tag team partners whenever they battle next. While Strowman seemed surprised at the idea of teaming up with the man who embarrassed him, he ended up shaking Fury’s hand and teased a partnership.
This was a surprising way to get Strowman back up on his feet after yet another major loss in his career. While fans were wondering how The Monster Among Men would react to his loss at Crown Jewel, this was surely something they were not anticipating.
It was also a great way to tease yet another match for Fury inside the WWE ring, and we could even watch the two men become Tag Team Champions during their next outing. Strowman is no stranger to odd pairings and short Tag Team Championship reigns, and this could prove to be another similar storyline for Strowman to keep him relevant.
The overall effect could help bring Strowman back to prominence again as it seems like even SmackDown isn’t sure what to do with the big man after picking him up from the RAW roster.
#3 Baron Corbin’s victory over Roman Reigns
Let us forget about King Corbin’s opening segment during the night and get to the main event straight away. Reigns and Corbin battled inside the Blue ring in a match which was originally scripted to take place last week after Team Hogan, led by Reigns, defeated Team Flair.
The two men had a decent match on Friday Night SmackDown in what seems like a long rivalry between the two men. Reigns hasn’t been able to find any top competitor on the Blue brand yet and has battled against Elias, Shane McMahon, and Rowan in the past. Corbin is a step up for The Big Dog, who is struggling to get good storylines going, especially after Daniel Bryan turned babyface.
Even though this was not the match people expected between the two men, Corbin has much more character and charisma than Rowan and poses a much higher threat to Reigns which can make the feud more believable in the coming weeks.
A loss for Reigns ensures that the rivalry is far from over, as the feud can’t end before Reigns picks up some obvious, yet underdog-ish victories. Will the company help the rivalry by giving Corbin a much better promo next time?
#2 The Fiend’s attack on Daniel Bryan
Sami Zayn, since the last few weeks, has desperately tried to convince Daniel Bryan to join forces with him and Nakamura, to form a heel stable, but to no avail. This week, Bryan showed a bit of interest in Zayn’s offer and walked out to watch Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro defeat the babyfaces Ali and Shorty G.
Following the match, we saw a backstage segment between Zayn and Bryan, which slowly got a little heated. Suddenly the lights went out and came back on to reveal the Universal Champion The Fiend Bray Wyatt standing behind Bryan as Zayn ran for his life.
The Fiend Bray Wyatt applied the Mandible Claw to the former WWE Champion and left him lying on the floor as the segment came to an end.
This was a good way to keep The Fiend away from the ring, and still make a massive statement. While this does not confirm that we will have a program between Bryan and The Fiend, it does open up a possibility of a match between the two men for Survivor Series.
On the other hand, it also makes the choice for Bryan even more complicated, as we don’t know whether he will join Sami Zayn, go after Nakamura’s Intercontinental Champion, or look to extract revenge from The Fiend.
#1 A heel faction for SmackDown
WWE teased a great faction between The Revival and Randy Orton before Orton was drafted to the RAW roster and the wildcard rule lost its charm.
This week on SmackDown, the company teased yet another faction, this time between the villainous King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and Robert Roode. This is an odd pairing, to say the least, however, both Ziggler and Roode desperately need a direction to follow now as they seem to be out of any story.
King Corbin has proven to be the King of factions and team-ups in recent times and has aligned with men such as Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, Shinsuke Nakamura, and many others this year.
If the company is planning to plan a long term program between these three men, it could prove to be the right call as they seem to be three of the biggest heels on SmackDown who could do well to stack up the odds against the babyfaces. It looks like their first assignment is to make Reigns look like a babyface yet again so that his victories feel bigger night after night.
Just like The Undisputed Era is leading NXT, and The O.C. are working for RAW, we could watch these three men become the resident heel stable on SmackDown.
