5 Biggest news stories from WWE SmackDown (August 7, 2020)

From Braun Strowman's first appearance after the Wyatt Swamp Fight to another cliffhanger ending, this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown featured many contrasting moments.

An adverse effect of implementing wild and unexpected ideas is that the show's quality also undergoes extreme highs and lows on a weekly basis. While SmackDown failed to capture the positive momentum from previous week's episode, it still featured many newsworthy moments that has got the show trending on social media.

Which show did you like better this week, RAW or SmackDown? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Here are the five biggest news stories from this week's episode of WWE SmackDown (August 7, 2020).

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#5: RETRIBUTION invaded SmackDown in another cliffhanger ending

If there was a reason to watch this week's WWE SmackDown, it had to be RETRIBUTION's invasion at the end of this particular episode.

On WWE RAW, we got a short glimpse of how these miscreants caused technical problems and blackouts throughout the show. But on the Blue Brand, the entire faction arrived with weapons in their hands.

Covered in black outfits, they chased away Michael Cole and Corey Graves, while also beating up some Performance Center recruits near ringside.

Vanessa Borne, Chelsea Green, and Dominik Dijakovic are rumored to be members of RETRIBUTION, and it wouldn't be too far-fetched if a rebel like Tommaso Ciampa turns out to be their leader.

Last week's SmackDown ended with a cliffhanger between Alexa Bliss and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, and while that felt like an out-of-the-box decision, the same can be said for RETRIBUTION's arrival.

Whether or not these volatile ideas will pay off is something we can't predict at the moment. But it's appreciable that WWE's creative staff has stopped playing it safe when it comes to some major storylines.

#4: Sonya Deville aligned herself with The Miz & John Morrison against Mandy Rose and Heavy Machinery

This week, The Miz & John Morrison hosted a "Dirt Sheet" segment, which kicked-off with the duo making fun of Mandy Rose's hair after what happened on last week's episode of WWE SmackDown.

While that may have been unnecessarily goofy in any other case, it fits perfectly within the context of Miz & Morrison's silly act. Sonya Deville came out and cut another fiery promo, but The Dirt Sheet duo got ambushed by Heavy Machinery to set-up a tag team main event.

WWE SmackDown has become a volatile show, so there was no way a normal tag team match would end this particular episode, which is why Mandy Rose came out to beat up Sonya Deville when the latter was standing near ringside, in cahoots with The Dirt Sheet duo.

On paper, the match ended in a no contest, but the situation grew out of control pretty quickly, as both parties had to separate Mandy and Sonya from each other.

It all felt organic in the sense that Mandy and Sonya's WWE feud has become personal at this point, and the eventual transition into RETRIBUTION's arrival was a great touch from a production standpoint on this week's WWE SmackDown.

#3: Sheamus and King Corbin somehow got involved in a "heel vs. heel" feud against each other

Well, it can't be denied that WWE has suddenly made some very unorthodox or unusual decisions. However, many of those unexpected decisions have been quite unnecessary in some way or another.

Nia Jax beating up a WWE official on this week's RAW, even after she had been suspended, was an example of the aforementioned situation.

On last night's WWE SmackDown, however, viewers were subjected to a "heel vs. heel" feud for some reason.

As Sheamus faced Matt Riddle in the opening bout, Shorty G came out and interfered, which automatically gave Riddle a disqualification victory.

Sheamus didn't like that King Corbin's "ransom" cost him a victory against Riddle last night, and before you know it, Sheamus cost Corbin a match against Jeff Hardy later in the episode.

Despite all Jeff Hardy has been through, it looks like Sheamus attacking him at this stage was just a mere payback against King Corbin.

On one hand, it's an intriguing mystery why WWE chose to break their own trope by pitting two of the most despicable heels against each other. However, does Sheamus vs. King Corbin sound like a must-see feud to you at this point in time?

#2: Stephanie McMahon revealed SummerSlam plans for Bayley & Sasha Banks

The Golden Role Models were featured in a limited capacity during this week's WWE SmackDown, and even then, Bayley & Sasha Banks managed to maximize the potential of the screentime they were provided with.

Backstage, Sasha & Bayley were informed that Stephanie McMahon wanted to have a chat with them via satellite. It was funny to see how the Golden Role Models tried to please their superior in classic heel fashion, and to no one's surprise, it didn't work in their favor.

A triple-brand battle royal will take place on next week's WWE SmackDown, and the winner will face Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship at SummerSlam.

The fact that WWE chose to involve NXT and RAW as well hints towards the possibility that the challenger will end up being someone outside of SmackDown.

But that's not it for Bayley, who has to face Asuka on next week's WWE RAW, and should Bayley lose, her best friend Sasha Banks will have no other choice but to face Asuka at SummerSlam.

Although unlikely, it would be interesting to see who will challenge Sasha for the RAW Women's title should Asuka lose next week.

#1: Braun Strowman challenged The Fiend to a SummerSlam match as "The Monster"

As the biggest self-proclaimed Bray Wyatt fan, I still wouldn't call the follow-up to last week's cliffhanger "satisfactory". To me, this WWE segment was a tale of two parts.

Alexa Bliss and The Fiend's "Beauty and the Beast" dynamic was intriguing. Maybe they're going forward with a Stockholm Syndrome angle or perhaps it was just an interesting display of how a creature of evil like The Fiend can't stand Alexa's empathetic gesture.

So I do think that this particular dynamic was a positive outcome that has some potential to be built upon.

However, everything about Braun Strowman completely derailed the momentum of this segment on WWE SmackDown.

He overdid the character's deep or creepy voice to a point where it just became goofy. Strowman may not be the best actor in WWE, but even his character traits felt out of place this week.

Strowman claims he doesn't care for Alexa's well-being, which sounds completely uncharacteristic of him. Maybe his character is in the process of changing. But if Strowman didn't care for Bliss, either way, he did challenge The Fiend to a match at SummerSlam. Isn't that exactly what The Fiend wanted in the first place?

Strowman acts as if he's superior to Bray Wyatt's tricks, but from an overarching perspective, The Fiend is still controlling the narrative here.