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Over the past few months, the creatives at SmackDown have learned how to please the fans and send them happier than they usually are after a long episode of Raw. While last week’s episode was a bit bland, this week brought things back to normal as the creatives delivered a good show.
Not only was the action in the ring pretty good, but the creatives managed to stretch the storylines forward extremely well. Bayley returned to SmackDown with a different character than she had last week, while Randy Orton and Kofi Kingston went down the same path they have for weeks and still didn’t bore the fans.
In this article, we will look at the 4 things the company got right on this week’s SmackDown and how it has impacted the superstars involved.
#1 Gave us some unexpected results
Unexpected bookings and results turn out to be the best for the fans and the Superstars more often than not. This week’s Raw gave us a pleasant surprise as a draw between Samoa Joe and Ricochet will now allow us a huge semi-final match between Joe, Ricochet, and Baron Corbin.
Similarly, fans tuned in to SmackDown Live this week expecting Andrade and Ali to progress to the semifinals after their matches this week. Andrade is the clear biggest superstar as compared to Chad Gable on the main roster, while Ali was expected to get the push which fans have been expecting for months.
Instead, fans were surprised as Gable picked up his second roll-up victory in the tournament to progress to the semifinals, while Ali’s injury proved to be too much for him as he drifted away against Elias.
This wasn’t all, as even the women’s tag team match had an unexpected result where the champions lost to Fire and Desire in what could prove to be the beginning of a big championship match at Clash of Champions.
See WWE Smackdown Results, Highlights of the event, & more on WWE Smackdown Results page.
#2 Gave some top Superstars more screen time
There are many Superstars in WWE who are so over with the fans even without winning too many championships that they pay especially to watch them perform.
However, it’s always unfortunate to see those Superstars go to waste week after week and not get enough screen time to entertain the fans. This week on SmackDown, WWE tried to tweak a bit of that and bring some of those Superstars to the middle.
Aleister Black, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn, Andrade and Chad Gable are a handful of those men who managed to get some time on the WWE Network this week on SmackDown. Even if their matches weren't too long or up to the mark, they were just enough to remind the fans that they exist and are the future of the company who can become the top stars of tomorrow.
WWE needs to carry this trend forward and give such stars some more meaningful bouts in the future to juggle the talent they have at hand while keeping the fans happy.
#3 Showed Kofi as a real underdog without his brothers
Kofi Kingston showed up as the underdog at the beginning of the year and left WrestleMania 35 as a truly deserving first-time WWE Champion. Since then, Kofi has managed to defend his title against the biggest threats in WWE, with a little help from his New Day brothers, of course.
Randy Orton has now emerged as Kofi’s biggest threat to date, and with the Revival, has managed to stack up the odds against Kofi for the first time in his reign by taking out his brothers Big E and Xavier Woods.
This story seems to be a great one as WWE is taking everything away from Kofi once again and building him as a huge underdog very convincing even at this point in his career. Not only is the build-up helping the story between Orton and Kofi, but also do wonders for the story between Big E & Woods and The Revival even without their actual interference in the matter since the past couple of weeks.
All we can hope for now is that the creatives will have a great ending for this story in store.
#4 Established Erick Rowan as a real threat
Rowan has played the role of a side-kick or a tag team partner for most of his run on the main roster. Even though the mountain of a man could have been introduced like men such as Lars Sullivan, Braun Strowman, or Kane, he was always second to Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Daniel Bryan.
Rowan is a decent wrestler who is as good as any other man his size, and WWE now seems to be getting his true potential, possibly due to his alliance with Daniel Bryan who has always managed to bring the best out of other superstars.
This week, not only did Rowan manhandle Roman Reigns, but he also managed to shock the WWE Universe with a good promo followed by a vicious attack on his partner Daniel Bryan.
If the point of this entire angle involving the mystery attacker was to get Rowan over with the crowds and push him as a single’s competitor, then we can safely say that the creatives did a very good job.
Now Rowan’s real test will come at Clash of Champions where he will take on Roman Reigns in a single’s match.
