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It all came down to this. WWE's premier show on FOX needed to be memorable, to say the least. With All Elite Wrestling literally stealing the show on Wednesday, Vince McMahon's juggernaut wanted to take back the conversation.
SmackDown managed to be a memorable show, but was it for the right reasons? How does the landscape look going forward on FOX? Who got the most and least out of the premier on the bigger network?
Winner: Becky Lynch
For the first time in three years, The Rock returned to a live WWE show, joining a segment with Becky Lynch. The two got the party started at Baron Corbin's expense.
One could point out the usual trope here of a full time star looking like an idiot and a geek against a returning legend, with WWE signaling just how inferior the current generation is to the past. That's true, but Becky Lynch gained much more than Baron Corbin lost.
Becky got to share a segment with one of the biggest stars the industry has ever seen and get his endorsement. If she is to lose her title on Sunday so that she can come to SmackDown, it will be a padded loss, because she'll have this endorsement behind her and be one of the focal points of the blue brand.
Loser: Bayley
As good as the opening segment was, this one was pedestrian. We've seen this before and despite the talent involved, the match didn't get above second gear.
Charlotte Flair tapping Bayley out probably means she'll get a title shot at Hell in a Cell, or shortly after that. The standard 50/50 booking fare might come into play here, but either way, it just makes the champion look bad.
WWE needs to find other ways of building feuds than having champions lose cleanly on TV.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Once again, Bray Wyatt stole the show. After an entertaining Firefly Funhouse segment, The Fiend appeared and got the better of Seth Rollins once again, to the delight of the crowd.
Bray Wyatt needs to win the Universal Championship tomorrow night. That's out of the question.
It is interesting though, that both Wyatt and Rollins were advertised on the intro to SmackDown, suggesting they could both be blue brand stars soon enough. Perhaps it was a one night thing, perhaps not. We'll have to see.
But this is a crossroads for Wyatt. If he doesn't win, all of his heat will vanish.
Winner: Kevin Owens and SmackDown
Finally, FINALLY, Shane McMahon is gone. Kevin Owens defeated and "fired" him last night in a fun ladder match.
No one expects this "firing" to be permanent, but it gives the blue brand a much-needed reprieve from an overbearing Shane McMahon who has been a drag on the show for almost a year.
And it gives Kevin Owens the chance to move on and face better opponents. It's two months too late, but better late than never in this case.
Loser: SmackDown
Everyone expected Brock Lesnar to win here, but Kofi Kingston getting squashed after a six-month title reign does nobody any favors. It makes him and everyone else he's beaten since February (believe it or not, that was the last time he was pinned clean), look like chumps. This kind of booking is one of the reasons why WWE doesn't create stars on its own anymore.
In that vein, Cain Velasquez, Lesnar's old UFC tormenter, debuted, and it was a nice segment, but what does this mean in the long term? Rumors are swirling they'll go at it at Crown Jewel, but even if they don't, this means that the WWE title is stuck in the same place that the Universal title was for over two years.
And no one was or is overly enthusiastic about Cain Velasquez. It feels like a UFC rerun from many years ago. The crowd apparently chanted for AEW after the segment.
Regardless of the glitz, a lot of people were disappointed with this show, and the landscape for SmackDown over the long term doesn't look promising with yet another part time title reign.
