Best & Worst of WWE SmackDown: Returning star dethrones Sami Zayn, Cody Rhodes goes insane

Much like Monday Night RAW, this week's episode of Friday Night SmackDown also featured a major pivot due to a real-life injury, this time to Jacob Fatu.

Meanwhile, in hindsight, this week ends with a drastic change in guard in WWE, with rising young talent — particularly, two former NXT Champions in Bron Breakker and a returning Ilja Dragunov taking over RAW and SmackDown, respectively.

In this article, we shall discuss the best and worst from this week's episode of Friday Night SmackDown on the USA Network.

Best: Ilja Dragunov returns, pulls off a shocker

Last night's episode of SmackDown featured Ilja Dragunov making a stunning return after The Miz answered Sami Zayn's United States Championship Open Challenge, only for Carmelo Hayes to take him out and create a vacancy for the spot of the challenger.

Dragunov's first match in over a year saw him shock Sami to win the United States Championship after Solo Sikoa distracted him by coming out to the stage. The match itself was just as brilliant as Zayn's recent title defenses, although perhaps more hard-hitting and brutal.

With Ilja the new champion, drastic evolution is apparent in WWE; we have already seen Bron Breakker stunningly turn on Seth Rollins this week, and NXT call-ups are expected on SmackDown imminently. Despite the massive stars WWE has, it is clear that they are now finally in the process of building new ones, and that means taking some risks.

Worst: Sami Zayn's Open Challenges come to an end

An obvious direct by-product of Ilja Dragunov's title win is Sami Zayn's United States Championship Open Challenges coming to an end in his seventh defense in just as many weeks. Zayn's run will go down as one of the great title reigns of this decade, and that may seem to be a bit of an overstatement, but looking at it closely, it did a lot for the SmackDown brand.

Zayn won the title at a time when SmackDown's quality was at its lowest, and the Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes, was gone. His arrival infused star power; the defenses he had (which followed a great match with Solo Sikoa), beginning with John Cena, were all brilliant matches with a dedicated 20-30 minutes of quality professional wrestling guaranteed on an otherwise mediocre show.

However, in the segments right before, during, or right after his matches, each of his title defenses contributed to other storylines in the mid-card or upper mid-card on the show, with Zayn defending his title each week in phenomenal matches and yet somehow remaining understatedly at the core of so many other stories on SmackDown.

He helped advance conflicts between John Cena & Brock Lesnar, Damian Priest & Aleister Black, The Miz & Carmelo Hayes, The Wyatt Sicks & MFTs, while also being the perfect man to reintroduce or introduce talent like Je'Von Evans, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Ilja Dragunov. Speaking of Dragunov, he now has some massive shoes to fill. Zayn has been the MVP of WWE these past two months.

Best/Worst: Cody Rhodes shows an edge; his booking continues to underwhelm

Amid rumors of a legitimate injury to Jacob Fatu, Nick Aldis announced at the beginning of SmackDown that Fatu and Drew McIntyre's scheduled match last night would be a No. 1 Contendership Match for Cody Rhodes' Undisputed WWE Championship. Fatu was assaulted backstage right before the match, and a smug McIntyre demanded he be declared the No. 1 Contender right after.

Nick Aldis was having none of it before Cody Rhodes came out, irate and stated that the crowd wasn't going home without seeing a fight. Rhodes then challenged McIntyre to an impromptu match, albeit one that turned out to be a non-title match, even though it remained unclear for its duration. Cody wrestled all suited up, and the match ended in DQ after Cody used his title belt to smash it into McIntyre's face.

He tried to Cross-Rhodes the former WWE Champion through the announce desk before officials came out to separate them, but Cody did end up putting an exclamation point with a dive off the top rope. The entire segment was all over the place, and not in a good way, either, because of how confusing it all was. The fact that Fatu's attacker remains undisclosed and we may see another "mystery attacker" storyline to cover up a legitimate injury is repetitive and tired booking, too.

Meanwhile, Drew McIntyre's character seems damaged beyond repair, at least beyond the capabilities of this creative team on SmackDown. At the same time, Cody Rhodes continues to be booked and presented in a way the company's QB1 never should be. Yes, Fayu's sudden injury was beyond anyone's control, but that does not excuse an overall lazy product.

Meanwhile, the Randy Orton-Cody Rhodes feud that fans actually want to see continues to be nowhere in sight. Cody's change in persona is the only thing that salvages this entire fiasco — and hopefully, this is going somewhere.

Worst: The state of the SmackDown Women's Division

It is a recurring point of discourse, but the fact that WWE has been unable to fix essentially a bum division over the course of several months is ludicrous, especially with how strong the RAW Women's Division is and how WWE has been able to revitalize the SmackDown product as a whole as well over the past few weeks.

This week featured one women's match: Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss vs Sol Ruca and Zaria. Bliss and Flair won after a distraction from Mariah May, but it is indeed a shame that while the match featured two veterans and two NXT superstars, the talent that is supposed to be spearheading the brand simply doesn't exist.

At some point, WWE needs to reorganise the division such that one show isn't overly stacked while the other barely has any superstars. And with Charlotte and Alexa's story not really going anywhere and their act no longer a novelty, having the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships on them and by extension on SmackDown makes no sense, especially with a burgeoning women's tag team division on RAW.