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From Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross putting their Women's Tag Team Titles on the line to Mr. McMahon interrupting Triple H's 25th Anniversary celebration, this week's edition of SmackDown featured many contrasting moments.
Even by the Blue brand's unusual standards, last night's episode was a difficult show to judge. Two of its hottest programs including stars like Bray Wyatt and Mandy Rose weren't featured live this week. Instead, a huge chunk of the show was dedicated to a celebration of Triple H completing his 25 years in WWE.
The whole affair was still engaging as expected, but not on par with the previous episode's entertainment value.
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 (April 24, 2020).
#5: Sheamus snapped at Michael Cole once again
It is a mystery as to why Sheamus hasn't been given a qualifying opportunity for the Money in the Bank Ladder Match this year.
Maybe it has something to do with The Celtic Warrior teasing a feud against Jeff Hardy instead. Sheamus defeated Daniel Vidot in another exhibition match this week.
The commentary team also shed light on the fact that Sheamus has been increasingly unhappy with Michael Cole on the booth. Cole always shifts the conversation to Jeff Hardy's video segments, which will probably conclude on next week's episode.
Sheamus doesn't like that his dominance is not the center of conversation at the commentary table. After last night's bout, The Celtic Warrior approached Cole and smashed his headset in fury.
If things continue the way they are, Jeff Hardy and Sheamus will collide in an interesting feud upon the former's return, to say the least.
#4: The Forgotten Sons made a huge impact within the SmackDown Tag Team Division
With The New Day having won the Tag Team Titles for the eighth time as a unit last week, this episode focused on new challengers for Kofi & Big E.
Lucha House Party interrupted the duo's celebration in front of an empty Performance Center. Out of all SmackDown Tag Teams, Lucha House Party remain one of the least credible units to present a formidable challenge against The New Day.
The Miz & John Morrison crashed the party soon and twisted the conversation to their own favor in typical heel fashion.
The Forgotten Sons appeared and established themselves as the most promising tag team to challenge The New Day. The trio laid waste to all parties involved, and if there is a tag team to invest in right now, it has to be The Forgotten Sons.
Hopefully, WWE makes the right move here, because the last thing anyone wants to see is a promising trio being reduced to a slapstick segment similar to the Carpool Karaoke mess with The Viking Raiders on this week's RAW.
#3: Bayley indirectly cost Sasha Banks a chance to win the MITB briefcase
Lacey Evans and Sasha Banks fought for a chance to a qualify for the Women's MITB Ladder Match last night.
People expected Banks to pick up the victory. After all, in a scenario where Banks actually wins the MITB Ladder Match, it would make her equation with Bayley even more interesting than it already is.
But WWE decided to go the other route while still building towards a Bayley versus Sasha feud this week.
Bayley's intentions were to distract Lacey Evans so that Sasha could pick up a cheap win. The whole plan backfired when The Legit Boss took the loss because of Bayley's tactics.
Despite all of the shenanigans that have happened so far, Bayley and Sasha manage to stick together somehow. This breaks away from WWE's usual tropes of splitting a tag team.
Sure, Tamina attacked Bayley to make a statement at the end, but as I've said several times before, Sasha vs. Bayley is the endgame here.
Although Banks took the loss, it is good to see that WWE keeps building towards the eventual feud by subverting expectations.
#2: King Corbin is the first heel Superstar to qualify for the 2020 Men's MITB Ladder Match
Aleister Black, Daniel Bryan, Apollo Crews, and Rey Mysterio are all babyfaces who will be participating in this year's men's MITB Ladder Match.
A heel's presence is always necessary to introduce conflict into any wrestling situation. King Corbin is just the perfect candidate to fit that role.
The former MITB winner defeated Drew Gulak to earn himself a spot amongst all the others. Corbin also added an evil gesture to his victory by beating Gulak with a scepter after the bout finished.
Gulak had Daniel Bryan by his side, who was removed from the equation thanks to Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura's actions. As a result of what happened last night, Bryan and Corbin will face each other in a singles match next week.
Both MITB Ladder Match participants will wrestle to prove who is the better out of the two, however, it is imperative that more heel Superstars should be added to the Men's MITB Ladder Match itself.
#1: Triple H's 25th Anniversary celebration was a weird parody filled with bloopers and inside jokes
Triple H was joined by Shawn Michaels to celebrate his 25 years with the company at the end of the episode.
Ric Flair, Stephanie McMahon, and Road Dogg made cameos via video calls throughout the segment.
But Vince McMahon's appearance was the one that baffled everyone the most. From Gobbledy Gooker references to Bayley's disastrous "This is Your Life" segment, Mr. McMahon made all sorts of insider callbacks while mocking Triple H at the same time.
The segment came to a close when McMahon claimed that he loves Triple H, and went out to point that the anniversary celebration is still a terrible segment, thus bringing the theme of terrible segments to a full-circle.
Mr. McMahon told them to wrap it up and turned out the lights on Triple H's celebration to end the episode.
There are two sides to this conversation where some viewers hated it and the other half loved the segment for the self-parody it was.
To me, it came off as a situation where all characters involved deflated the energy of the room on purpose, perhaps to intentionally make this a bad segment to a point where it is actually enjoyable.
