5 things Super SmackDown got right on the episode after Royal Rumble (January 31, 2020)

The final WWE show of the week after Royal Rumble looked to achieve as much as RAW and NXT did, which made for a great week of wrestling.

WWE termed this week’s Friday Night SmackDown as Super SmackDown, to show that the show was going to build up some huge matches and possibly build towards the Super ShowDown event. The Super Bowl was also in the sights of the WWE creative.

The biggest match of the night saw Roman Reigns and The Usos battle against King Corbin, Robert Roode, and Dolph Ziggler. However, Braun Strowman had the biggest opportunity at hand as he was ready to take on the Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura for the title.

The show also looked to crown the next challengers for the New Day’s SmackDown Tag Team Championships, while the potential opponents for the Women’s Tag Team Championships also made progress.

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

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#5 End of Days?

This feels familiar.#SmackDown @WWERomanReigns @BaronCorbinWWE @WWEUsos pic.twitter.com/ZPNkyrKWMF

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) February 1, 2020

The rivalry between Roman Reigns and King Corbin has been a lengthy one. While it has had its great moments, the entire thing has been let down with some questionable match choices and ‘The Big Dog’ storyline.

This week, Reigns and The Usos were set to take on Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and Robert Roode is a six-man tag team match. Early in the night, The Usos dared Corbin to add a special stipulation to the match, and The King agreed. Thus, the losers would eat dog food.

During the match which took place during the main event, Reigns and his cousins dominated for most of the bout and he was able to roll up Corbin for the three-count.

Right after, Corbin tried to escape by was caught by Reigns with a Spear. The babyfaces then tied him to the turnbuckle with handcuffs and dumped a whole lot of dog food on him.

This was another bizarre match with a bizarre stipulation that ruined the ending on the rivalry which should have ended with Reigns’ victory at the Royal Rumble.

The best thing to come out of this rivalry was the return of The Usos and their partnership with Reigns. However, the end of this match could be termed the second-best thing, as it may be the end of this rivalry.

#4 Possible return of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships

Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross are on the rise again

Let’s begin with the backstage segment which was pure entertainment. Mandy Rose thanked big man Otis for helping her during the Royal Rumble match, and Otis asked Rose on a date. Rose accepted the date for Valentine’s day, ensuring that the 14 February episode of SmackDown will be a must-watch show!

Anyway, Fire and Desire took on Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss in tag team action again. The former has taken quite a few losses at the hands of the latter, and this week was no different for them.

While Sonya Deville tried to take control of the match, Rose fell to the Purge and Twisted Bliss to take the pinfall.

While Asuka had been busy building a feud with Becky Lynch and Kairi Sane has been away for some weeks due to an injury, it’s time that WWE brings the Women’s Tag Team Championships back into contention.

Bliss and Cross proved to be excellent Champions during their first run, and it’ll be good to watch these two compete for the titles as babyfaces against the Kabuki Warriors.

#3 Bayley finds a new challenger

Bayley and Naomi could give fans a rivalry they want to see

SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley came out to gloat over her victory against Lacey Evans. The two women met at Royal Rumble where fans expected Bayley to lose her title, but she outsmarted Evans in the battle to retain her Championship.

Bayley wanted the 2020 Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair to come out and challenge her for the title, but the returning Naomi made her way out to the middle.

Naomi received a massive pop when she returned to competition at the Royal Rumble, and she made it clear this week that Bayley had never beaten her.

This led to Bayley attacking her, but Naomi fought back and sent her running. This seems to have set up Bayley’s next challenge immediately while taking Flair out of the picture.

Not only will this be a huge opportunity for Naomi who has the WWE Universe behind her at the moment, but this could result in the first one-on-one match between the two women. It’ll be interesting to see where Evans and Flair head after this segment.

#2 The Miz & John Morrison rise

This week’s SmackDown did not have many great matches in terms of in-ring entertainment. Thus, this match was by far the highlight of the night as it consisted of four extremely well-oiled tag teams.

Heavy Machinery, The Miz & John Morrison, Revival, and Lucha House Party competed in a match to determine the #1 contenders for The New Day’s SmackDown Tag Team Championships.

Every team got their spotlight during the night, and soon it became obvious who was going to take the victory. However, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado gave a great performance during the match, which made it much better than it was.

To close the curtains, The Miz delivered his signature Skull Crushing Finale followed by the Starship Pain to take the victory.

The booking was good as it was obvious that Miz and Morrison were going to get a shot at the New Day’s titles because they’d beaten both men a couple of times one-on-one.

Miz had taken a few too many losses before Morrison’s return, and WWE did the right thing by pairing the two and giving them a chance to grab the blue belts.

#1 Braun Strowman wins his first

First of all, this match should have main evented instead of the six-man dog food tag team match. Braun Strowman has been struggling in WWE for years now, and this was his big moment which should have closed out the show.

Shinsuke Nakamura finally defended his Intercontinental Championship for the first time on television since October 18, 2019, where he lost the match by disqualification to Roman Reigns. The last we saw Nakamura defend his title was at WWE Starrcade against The Miz on December 1, 2019.

As usual, Cesaro and Sami Zayn tried their best to help Nakamura keep his title by distracting Strowman. However, The Monster Among Men wasn’t ready to give up the opportunity this time.

After Zayn exposed the turnbuckle for The Artist to capitalize, Strowman took advantage and threw him into it before hitting a running power slam. Once Nakamura was down on the mat, the three-count was inevitable.

This was a victory that Strowman needed and deserved after trying so hard to win a top title in the company. Nakamura could have done so much more with his title reign, but he barely ever defended it, and his alliance with The Critic of Critics has severely watered down his character.