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What's the story?
The latest episode of SmackDown may not have been the greatest of affairs but it was aeons better than last night's RAW. The show ended with Charlotte being crowned the new #1 contender for Natalya's SmackDown Women's Championship.
While most of the stars were featured on the show, Shinsuke Nakamura's absence was a major letdown. It seems he was present backstage and was part of a tag team match after the cameras stopped rolling.
In case you didn't know...
Apart from Charlotte's title match against Natalya being confirmed for Hell in a Cell, there were other worthy developments on the road to the next SmackDown-exclusive PPV.
AJ Styles seems like he would be putting the US title on the line against both Baron Corbin and Tye Dillinger in a triple threat match.
Rusev vs. Randy Orton was also pretty much confirmed after the Bulgarian Brute got the better of the Viper in a 5-second match courtesy of a distraction from Aiden English.
Other confirmed matches for the PPV include Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens and New Day vs. The Usos.
The heart of the matter
Shinsuke Nakamura teamed up with AJ Styles to take on the team of Baron Corbin and WWE Champion Jinder Mahal after 205 Live ended.
This was obviously done to force the fans in attendance to stick around for the Cruiserweight show. The babyfaces came out on top in what turned out to be a solid tag team match.
What's next?
Hell in a Cell will take place on Sunday, 8th October, at the Little Ceasars Arena in Detroit. The card will be main evented by the WWE title match between Jinder Mahal and Shinsuke Nakamura.
However, the main storyline heading into the PPV is inarguably the Shane O'Mac-KO rivalry.
Author's take
Why Shinsuke Nakamura wrestled after the SmackDown and was not on the show itself is beyond me. The same goes for Bobby Roode, who wrestled a dark match before the show went off the air.
While keeping the attending fans happy is fine, giving the fans back at home a snoozefest without top faces is a mistake that could cost the WWE.
And if the empty seats from SmackDown are anything to go by, the lacklustre booking had already started hurting WWE where it hurts the most.
