WWE SmackDown (8/11/19): 3 things we learned

This week's episode of SmackDown continued the buildup to Survivor Series 2019 with an average show. After last week's NXT invasion, fans expected another great show, but that didn't happen. WWE has to step up their programming else they could alienate even the most loyal fans.

In this week's episode, a few interesting things happened. Sami Zayn continued his quest to convince Daniel Bryan to join the Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. Much like the last time Zayn tried it, there was no response from Bryan. Instead, the lights went out as The Fiend appeared backstage and attacked Bryan.

Meanwhile, Sasha Banks became the captain of the SmackDown women's team at Survivor Series. Dana Brooke and Carmella also booked their spots in the match after their victory against Fire and Desire.

The Revival lost their titles to the New Day, who won their seventh tag titles and got their first win over The Revival. With that said, there are a few things we learned from the show. So let's look at the three things we learned from this week's episode of SmackDown.

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#3 They don't have anything planned for Ali

Ali is a great wrestler who's also charismatic and can easily get fans to cheer him on. But he has found himself losing every opportunity presented to him due to WWE's inconsistent booking of his character. After getting injured earlier this year, he lost his opportunity to Kofi Kingston, who went on to become WWE Champion.

Ever since Ali came back to WWE, he has been shown in various vignettes cutting promos about making a change and helping the world. However, his actual presentation has been far from that and doesn't seem like the guy is going to change anything. Besides being part of the victorious Team Hogan at Crown Jewel, Ali has pretty much not won a single match for a while.

That's not a good sign and indicates that WWE doesn't have anything planned for him at the moment. It looks like they rushed him up with those vignettes without having any long term plan. They may have scrapped the angle now which affects Ali and puts another block in his way.

#2 Tyson Fury and Braun Strowman may team up soon

At Crown Jewel 2019, Tyson Fury beat Braun Strowman by count-out after knocking him to the outside. This loss was another block in Strowman's path to success, as he has always been losing when it mattered. At this rate, he will lose all momentum and never get back on top again.

On this week's show, Strowman came out during Fury's promo. The two men put their differences aside and shook their hands as fans popped, and they also announced that if they were to wrestle again, it would be in a tag team match. The B-Team interrupted the duo to come out and mock them.

But fans knew what was coming as Strowman and Fury worked together to send the two guys packing. This possibly means that Strowman and Fury will indeed team up at a future PPV event and be victorious. It's also intriguing how many more appearances Fury will make before his boxing match.

#1 The Fiend wants revenge on Daniel Bryan

During the show, Sami Zayn continued to try to convince Daniel Bryan to join himself and Shinsuke Nakamura. Last week, Bryan didn't give a clear answer and just walked away, but the same thing happened this time as he still didn't take any side. Instead, he got attacked by the Universal Champion The Fiend, which raises the curiosity of fans.

It indicates that these two wrestlers will square off at Survivor Series, and it's also easy to figure out why The Fiend attacked Bryan. A long time ago, the former warned the people that he never forgets. This means he doesn't forget the people who wronged him and will take revenge on them.

If fans can remember, the story between the two of them back in 2013-14 was great and led to one of the loudest pops ever when Bryan attacked Bray Wyatt. So, that story could be used to propel the match going to the PPV.