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This week's episode of WWE SmackDown featured just four matches. One of those matches, The Street Profits vs Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, ended in no-disqualification. Apart from that, the main event saw a historical title match booked for the show in which Roman Reigns successfully defended his WWE Universal Championship.
We saw Triple H and Stephanie McMahon kickstart the show by introducing the new SmackDown roster. Soon after that, a brawl broke out between all the Superstars. Later in the night, we saw the return of Daniel Bryan who was then confronted by Seth Rollins. This segment eventually led to a brief altercation between the Superstars before the Mysterios and Buddy Murphy made their presence known.
WWE SmackDown had also scheduled a contract signing between Bayley and Sasha Banks, but the Women's Champion refused to put pen to paper.
In this article, we will take a look at five WWE Superstars who impressed on SmackDown tonight. So, without further ado, let's begin.
#1 Impressed on SmackDown: Roman Reigns
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns feature in a historic match on SmackDown this week. For the first time in the history of the Blue brand, the Universal Championship was on the line and the title was successfully defended. This match saw Reigns absolutely annihilating Strowman inside the squared circle.
Reigns was quick to take control of the match soon after the bell rang. He went on to attack Strowman while the latter struggled to gain the upper hand for a long time. The closing moments of their title match on SmackDown saw Reigns once again relying on a low blow.
Unfortunately for him, Strowman still managed to kick out of the pinfall which left Reigns in complete shock. As a result, the champion resorted to using a submission move in order to ensure a victory for himself and retain his title on SmackDown.
But that was not the end. Reigns went on to brutalize Braun Strowman even after the match. He hit the Monster Among Men with multiple chair shots while the former Universal Champion was down on the mat.
Reigns' heel turn has grabbed everyone's attention and the treatment that he handed out to Strowman on SmackDown tonight established him as the biggest villain in the business at the moment.
Reigns is at his best in WWE right now and every bit of build-up for his Hell in a Cell match against Jey Uso is looking incredible. We hope to see more of The Big Dog in this current persona and it will be interesting to see what the creative team has in store for SmackDown's go-home episode before the Hell In A Cell PPV.
#2 Impressed on SmackDown: The New Day
This week's episode of SmackDown saw an epic six-year run for The New Day came to an emotional end. During the WWE Draft 2020, the faction was forced to split after Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were drafted to RAW while Big E remained on SmackDown. The trio featured in their last match together as a unit (at least for now) to take on Sheamus, Cesaro, and Shinsuke Nakamura.
Since it was a six-man Tag Team Match, The New Day did what they do best. They relied heavily on the chemistry that they share and managed to overcome the hard-hitting, reunited team of Sheamus and Cesaro as well as the ever persisting threat from Nakamura.
Finally, the three Superstars managed to get together one last time and conquer their opponents in what would turn out to be one of the best WWE matches from this week.
There were rumors about a possible heel turn by Big E as many speculated that he would end up attacking his New Day brothers. However, WWE clearly didn't want to take that risk. Instead, they want to book Big E as a huge babyface. He is even expected to enter the Intercontinental Championship picture soon, but it will be interesting to see how the creative will go about with his booking going forward.
#3 Impressed on SmackDown: Braun Strowman
On any other day, a similar performance from Braun Strowman would have had him included in the list of WWE Superstars who flopped. But not tonight. Even though WWE chose to sacrifice Strowman to make Roman Reigns look strong, The Monster Among Men held his ground in tonight's gruesome encounter on SmackDown.
For the majority of the match, Strowman was manhandled by The Tribal Chief. But there was not a single moment throughout his match with Reigns on SmackDown in which he made his opponent look weak. There were no mistakes, and his dedication towards delivering a good story via this match is worthy of more recognition from the fans.
For a brief period during this match, Braun Strowman managed to look like the stronger man. But he contributed more by selflessly taking a brutal beatdown from the hands of Roman Reigns and helped in establishing The Tribal Chief as a ruthless heel on SmackDown. The transformation that we have seen in Strowman in the last few weeks was evident once again and we hope that he will recover from tonight's events in time for his match against Keith Lee on RAW.
#4 Impressed on SmackDown: Jey Uso
Jey Uso is the only Superstar in today's list of names of those who impressed on SmackDown without actually competing in a match. He walked out after the main event and stood beside the ring while Roman Reigns took a chair and started hitting Braun Strowman. The Tribal Chief then encouraged Jey Uso to do the same.
However, the former Tag Team Champion held his ground and refused to brutalize Braun Strowman for no reason. A whimpering Monster AMong Men rolled out of the ring while Jey Uso directly attacked Reigns. After teasing a momentary alliance with the WWE Universal Champion, Jey Uso reverted to being the most promising challenger to Roman Reigns' current gimmick on WWE SmackDown.
Both Jey Uso and Roman Reigns are set to lock horns in an 'I Quit' Hell In A Cell Match at the HIAC PPV later this month. The WWE Universe has high expectations from this extremely personal rivalry and the fans are looking forward to seeing this exciting title feud from SmackDown possibly come to an end at the upcoming PPV.
#5 Impressed on SmackDown: Lars Sullivan
Tonight on SmackDown, WWE Superstar Lars Sullivan featured in the opening match in which he took on Jeff Hardy. Early on in the match, Sullivan made the best use of Jeff Hardy's injured knee. The Charismatic Engima had been facing issues with his knee since his feud with AJ Styles. Sullivan started to target that part and used it frequently to gain momentum during the match.
One of the spots during the match saw Lars Sullivan fall flat on his face from the top rope. However, he immediately got back up and took everyone by surprise. The closing moments of the match saw Jeff Hardy hit The Freak with a Twist of Fate. He wanted to follow that with a Swanton Bomb from the top of the rope, but Sullivan recovered from Hardy's signature move quickly and put away the former WWE Champion with the Freak Accident on SmackDown.
As Michael Cole repeatedly reminded us, Lars Sullivan is now being pushed as 'The Freak' in WWE. He has been running through the WWE roster ever since his return to WWE.
It appears that WWE have put a lot of faith in Sullivan and are now booking him as an unstoppable monster on SmackDown. It will be interesting to see how long they will continue with that approach to The Freak's on-screen character.
