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While WWE SmackDown had booked a big Intercontinental Championship match for this week’s show, things did not go as planned for the Blue brand. The brand was going ahead well until several WWE employees tested positive for the virus earlier this week, forcing the company to scrap some plans and go ahead with new ones.
The Intercontinental Championship Match between AJ Styles and Drew Gulak was written off for this week, and fans were made aware that Kayla Braxton, Adam Pearce, Renee Young, and Jamie Noble were a few of the many people who’ve tested positive.
However, the show must go on and therefore WWE went to Plan B as they booked three big matches for the night and decided to give a fitting tribute to The Undertaker who announced his retirement from sports entertainment earlier this week during the end of his docuseries ‘The Last Ride.’
We wish all those who’ve been affected by the virus a speedy recovery and hope that they will be able to fit back into their roles comfortably once they recover.
While this week’s episode of SmackDown did not feature many matches or segments, everything the brand tried to do did fall well in place. In this article, we will look at the 5 things WWE got right on this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown.
#5 The Undertaker tribute
This week’s WWE SmackDown opened with a video package for The Undertaker after which we saw the SmackDown roster chant "Thank you, Taker".
After the break, WWE replayed the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 36, a match that will likely go down in history as Taker’s final wrestling match.
During the match, we saw several top current and former Superstars show their respect to The Phenom and praise his work both inside and outside the ring. Edge went on to claim that The Undertaker is the greatest of all time.
The WWE Superstars paid tribute to the legend on SmackDown
This was a good way to fill in time on an episode that had been hit by some problems and also pay tribute to the legend at the right time. While we are not sure whether WWE would have shown this match had several of its employees not tested positive for COVID-19, it was good to see them have a backup that worked perfectly on such a night.
The Boneyard Match was praised for the way it had been booked and filmed earlier too, and no one would have complained while watching it again. This segment fits into this week’s SmackDown perfectly as fans would always love to watch any major match involving The Undertaker.
#4 The fun eight-man tag team match
While WWE is under the radar after several of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19, it was interesting to see WWE book so many men to compete in a match at the same time rather than breaking it up into two matches to cover some time on SmackDown.
Anyway, The Miz and John Morrison teamed up with Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura to compete against The New Day and The Lucha House Party.
Miz and Big E started off the match and the two had some good moments in the ring as Big E tried to overpower The A-Lister. From there on, Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik took center stage to display their skills to the WWE Universe before Nakamura gained back control for his team.
WWE has always delivered in multi-man matches on SmackDown
After we saw a few brawls break out at ringside, Lucha House Party and Miz and Morrison were left to compete in the ring as the babyfaces were able to put the heels away to pick up the victory for their team.
This was a good, fun match that allowed SmackDown to have a good time and try and forget about what was going on around them for some time. While The Lucha House Party scored the win for their team, it will likely be Cesaro and Nakamura who come after the title next.
#3 Nikki Cross's big victory
Extreme Rules is just a couple of weeks away and the creatives of WWE SmackDown decided to dig deep and find a new No. 1 Contender for the SmackDown Women’s Championship for the event.
A Fatal 4-Way match was set to determine who’d head to Extreme Rules as Bayley’s opponent as Alexa Bliss, Nikki Cross, Lacey Evans, and Dana Brooke took the ring while Bayley and Sasha Banks joined the commentary team.
Bestfriends Bliss and Cross worked together initially but soon realized that it was every woman for herself and decided to let each other compete freely. All four women continued to get the offense in but the spotlight was on Bliss and Cross as they seemed like the most prominent contenders in the ring.
Nikki is going from SmackDown to WWE Extreme Rules!
Lacey Evans kicked The Goddess to the outside of the ring and later hit Dana Brooke with The Women’s Right to try and score the victory. However, Cross rolled up The Sassy Southern Belle for the three count and booked her ticket for Extreme Rules.
This was a decent match that allowed all four women to shine before Nikki Cross picked up the victory. Cross is a great performer in the ring, and we will likely get a very good match between her and Bayley at the event.
#2 Jeff Hardy takes out King Corbin
Baron Corbin did not waste much time on WWE SmackDown after coming out to disrespect The Undertaker. WWE has always relied on him to disrespect legends such as Kurt Angle, and he did not disappoint once again.
Jeff Hardy was not too happy with Corbin’s words and took out Corbin to set up a match for the night. Even though Hardy had the upper hand early in the match, he was overpowered by his larger opponent who was looking to teach him a lesson.
Jeff Hardy is the biggest babyface on WWE SmackDown
The fight spilled out of the ring and that proved to be advantageous for The Charismatic Enigma who sent Corbin into the announce table to weaken him. Back in the ring, The King gained back the control but Hardy was able to hit some of his signature moves before hitting the Swanton Bomb for the win.
This was a good fun match that allowed a heel to disrespect a legend before someone stood up and taught the heel a lesson. Even though picking Strowman to do the job could have helped build The Monster Among Men’s character, Hardy did a good job of telling the story.
#1 The babyfaces of SmackDown show some respect
After the match between King Corbin and Jeff Hardy was over, the heel was unhappy with the outcome and decided to attack The Charismatic Enigma to end WWE SmackDown. However, The New Day’s Big E got to the ring to save Hardy and hit Corbin with The Big Ending.
This led to Braun Strowman, Kofi Kingston, and even Matt Riddle joining the party and each one of them inflicted pain on The King with their own moves and made a big statement. While Hardy was the only man who stood up for The Undertaker earlier, SmackDown showed the amount of respect The Phenom has backstage by bringing out as many babyfaces as possible to the floor so that the statement was clear.
WWE SmackDown ended with a fun segment
While Corbin is a good wrestler with a decent gimmick, WWE has always relied on him to play the most disrespectful heel and do the most despicable things on screen. By now he has a bulletproof image as we know that he will walk out to trash talk night after night and will lose 4 out of 5 matches but his value will remain the same and he will continue to do his thing.
This was a good segment to show some respect to The Deadman in a fun way without going overboard with things.
