5 Things WWE SmackDown got right this week (August 7, 2020)

WWE SmackDown has been building towards SummerSlam pretty well, and they used this week’s episode to their advantage once again.

During the show, we saw a series of matches ending in disqualifications, however, they ended up making the mark that was required from them. Sheamus competed against Matt Riddle, King Corbin competed against Jeff Hardy, and Sheamus took on Corbin later in the night.

Bray Wyatt and his The Fiend persona appeared during the show, and we were not disappointed by their arrival. That wasn’t all, as Stephanie McMahon dropped a huge bomb on Bayley and Sasha Banks’ parade just in time to get the SmackDown Women’s Champion a match for SummerSlam.

Towards the end of the show, Heavy Machinery collided with The Miz and John Morrison, and the entire segment ended in chaos. That wasn’t all, as WWE’s newest faction arrived to make a statement and possibly hint towards a big angle at WWE SummerSlam.

In this article, we will look at the 5 things WWE got right on this week’s SmackDown.

---

#5 Cesaro’s display of power on WWE SmackDown

Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado had a brief backstage interaction with SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura last week, and we got a match between Dorado and Cesaro this week.

Metalik and Nakamura watched on from ringside as Dorado tried to prove a point and show that his team deserved a shot at the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.

While Dorado pulled out some of his best high-flying moves against The Swiss Cyborg, he was no match for his opponent’s strength. Cesaro had such a power advantage over Dorado that he could throw him around like a rag doll without breaking a sweat.

After some back and forth action, The Swiss Cyborg was able to catch Dorado with The Neutralizer for the victory.

While the match wasn’t too special, it once again allowed Cesaro to show his phenomenal skills and power. Cesaro is as good in the ring as anyone else on SmackDown, and just like Big E, deserves a big solo run that can help him get to the WWE Universal Championship picture before its too late.

For the time being, this match seemed like a filler that allowed Cesaro to show that The Lucha House Party is not ready for a title match against the international team yet.

#4 A series of disqualifications led to a big match on WWE SmackDown

Matt Riddle was scheduled to compete against Sheamus on this week’s show, and this allowed The Celtic Warrior a big chance to showcase his strengths in the WWE SmackDown ring.

While Riddle had been overpowering most of his opponents on SmackDown, he met his match in Sheamus who managed to get the better of Riddle for most of the match. While it seemed like Riddle was on his way to losing the match, Shorty G arrived to attack the Superstar outside the ring.

This led to a disqualification victory for The Original Bro who then unloaded on Shorty G. After Riddle was done, Sheamus took down Shorty with a couple of Brogue Kicks.

Later on SmackDown, Corbin competed against Jeff Hardy and had him on the ropes before Sheamus interfered and took Hardy down with a Brogue Kick to allow him to pick up a disqualification win over Corbin.

The King wasn’t happy and took on The Celtic Warrior right away. While the two big men had a great match, Riddle distracted Corbin and allowed Sheamus to hit the Brogue Kick for the victory.

This was a great mix of matches that could ultimately lead to a partnership between Riddle and Sheamus against Corbin and Shorty G. While Sheamus is a pure heel at the moment, he could join forces with Riddle for a short time to neutralize Corbin and get some big matches.

#3 A possible brand switch for a RAW or NXT Superstar to WWE SmackDown

WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley was out in the ring with RAW Women’s Champion Sasha Banks as both women showed how proud they were to hold all the gold on the main roster.

Stephanie McMahon appeared on the big screen and congratulated the duo, but made it clear that she wasn’t happy with the heels’ dirty tricks that allowed them to win their matches.

Stephanie then revealed that both The Golden Role Models will be defending their titles at SummerSlam, with Banks facing Asuka if The Empress of Tomorrow defeats Bayley on the upcoming episode of RAW, and Bayley's opponent will be selected via a triple-brand Battle Royal next week on SmackDown.

The heels weren’t too pleased, but this opens up the possibility of a RAW or NXT Superstar moving to SmackDown following the Battle Royal and possibly winning the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

NXT’s Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox, and RAW’s Shayna Baszler could end up being great opponents for Bayley at SummerSlam. This could allow SmackDown to build towards an even stronger women's division considering that there aren't many worthy challengers for Bayley in the roster at the moment.

#2 Braun Strowman teases a heel turn on WWE SmackDown

This week’s WWE SmackDown saw a recap of The Wyatt Swamp Fight which resulted in the ‘drowning’ of WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman. This was followed by The Fiend’s attack on Alexa Bliss last week on SmackDown.

Following this, Wyatt was back in the Firefly Fun House where he addressed the WWE Universe from. He claimed that what The Fiend did to Bliss last week was purely Strowman’s fault as The Monster Among Men wasn’t there to stop the maniac on SmackDown.

Wyatt then teased an appearance from The Fiend later in the show. That is exactly what we got as somewhere halfway through the show The Fiend arrived as Bliss sat in the middle of the ring.

The evil WWE Superstar almost applied The Mandible Claw to the former RAW Women’s Champion, but she managed to stop him with just one touch. This was followed by Strowman’s appearance on the big screen as The Monster Among Men revealed a new side to him.

Strowman claimed that he did not care about Bliss and claimed that the only thing he cared for was destroying Wyatt. The Monster claimed that he was pushed to his breaking point and it was impossible to contain his evil now.

This was a great promo from Strowman that now hints towards his heel turn, something that Wyatt had been trying to get out of him for some time. It will be interesting to see how WWE books this angle on SmackDown heading up to SummerSlam.

#1 RETRIBUTION strikes on WWE SmackDown

This week on WWE RAW, we saw the show go through some production issues following which we saw a group of people set fire to a power generator outside the arena. Before SmackDown this week, WWE confirmed that the name of the faction was RETRIBUTION, however, it was unclear who was part of the faction.

Sportskeeda’s journalist Tom Colohue revealed a bit about RETRIBUTION on the latest episode of the Dropkick DiSKussions podcast:

"The WWE do know. There is an actual plan for these particular individuals. The idea of a new faction was something that was written at the last minute. From what I can tell, this was essentially the NXT call-ups who were coming up soon, who were sitting by the sidelines waiting for the opportunity, for example, Dominik Dijakovic and Chelsea Green are people that have been mentioned, maybe Vanessa Borne as well. There is a plan, and they did have the people they wanted in those outfits, but it sure doesn't feel like it sometimes, does it? When you consider that's really all we got. To be fair, they didn't hype this one up initially. The news got out by a different wrestling journalist, and then they decided to hype it up in addition."

This week on WWE SmackDown, the faction appeared at the end of the show, and this time tore the arena up from inside out. They took down the talent around the ring and even threatened the announce team and the crew in the arena. The faction vandalized the entire SmackDown ring and made a huge statement to end the show.

Many fans are comparing this to the arrival of The Nexus, and we could see several NXT Superstars make their debut on RAW and SmackDown in the coming weeks as part of RETRIBUTION!