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The first episode of SmackDown after the WWE Draft took off with a big match between the Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and former Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
The show went on to establish more challengers for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and the SmackDown Women’s Championship in a great way, which made the proceedings much more believable and built bigger storylines to work upon.
Also, some overlooked Superstars, who have missed out on some quality time on TV appeared on the show, which opened up more possibilities for interesting clashes in the future.
SmackDown also reminded fans that there are still some top-level men on the roster who could have good feuds with Roman Reigns in the months to come, apart from Brock Lesnar.
In this episode, we will look at the 5 things that the company did right on this week’s episode of SmackDown.
#5 Introduced Bayley’s new character to the WWE Universe
The Miz hosted SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley on this week’s episode of Miz TV, and the Champion was accompanied by her best friend who recently moved to the SmackDown roster, Sasha Banks.
Banks did a great job of reminding the fans of Bayley’s accomplishments at a time when fans have been arguing that the top female talent has moved to the RAW brand. From there onwards, a video played to further build on Bayley’s character, before she took the mic.
Bayley shed light on why she turned on her fans and revealed how they should have seen the change in the character coming after the events of Hell in a Cell.
This was arguably the best promo we’ve seen Bayley cut in a long time, and the entire segment did well to build up the Champion and the current face of the SmackDown women’s roster.
The interruptions by Nikki Cross and Dana Brooke did a good enough job to establish some connection between the Champion and the rest of the locker room, and reminded fans that there were still some women who could challenge Bayley for her belt.
#4 Named Roman Reigns the captain of Team Hogan
Team Hogan faced a huge set back when their captain Seth Rollins was forced to pull out of the team as he’s scheduled to defend his Universal Championship at Crown Jewel. Rollins is set to face “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt at Crown Jewel in a Falls Count Anywhere match which could drain the Champion of all the energy he has.
While there were many possible replacements available for Rollins in the loaded WWE roster, it made sense to pick someone who has a huge following but doesn’t have a title or a match at the moment for the big event.
Therefore, the company turned their eyes towards Roman Reigns, who was included in Team Hogan this week as the captain of the team.
Reigns has a huge international following and is one of the most famous Superstars. Since he isn’t involved in any major rivalry at the moment, it makes sense to give him a big position, given the magnitude of the match at Saudi Arabia.
Even though the company should have added Reigns as the captain of Team Hogan in the first place, it was good to watch them go back and do the right thing when handed the second opportunity.
#3 Booked an energetic Eight-Man Tag Team Match
WWE has booked a huge Nine-team Tag Team Turmoil Match for Crown Jewel 2019, and we’ve recently seen many tag teams jump brands thanks to the latest WWE Draft.
While RAW has been overlooking its tag team division for some time now, SmackDown hasn’t lost focus thanks to the existence of teams like The New Day and Heavy Machinery. On this week’s show, the company did the right thing by booking a huge Eight-Man Tag Team match between four of the biggest teams on the brand.
Heavy Machinery's Tucker and Otis teamed with The New Day's Xavier Woods and Big E to battle The Revival's Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode in a match that showcased the fun and energetic side of the blue brand.
After a great match which saw some fun moments from Big E and Otis, the crowd was thrilled to see the babyface New Day and Heavy Machinery take the win after Big E and Woods put Dawson away with the Midnight Hour.
The match was entertaining, and this could prove to provide a great new direction for all teams, especially The Revival.
#2 Gave six women a huge opportunity to shine
One of the biggest complains some fans have had for a while is that Charlotte Flair has been taking up most of the top spot on the SmackDown roster. Now that Charlotte has moved to the RAW roster and Bayley and Sasha Banks seem to be the new top women of the Blue Brand, a lot of new opportunities have opened up for the other women.
With Sasha and Bayley on the same page at the moment, the company booked a Six-Pack Challenge Match to determine the No.1 contender to the SmackDown Women's Title.
Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Dana Brooke, Nikki Cross, Carmella, and Lacey Evans were the contenders in the match, and some of them were competing for a chance to have their first shot at the Championship.
Throughout the match, Dana Brooke earned some spotlight while Sonya Deville was also given a chance to shine that seemed to suggest that company wanting to build on each individual character. At the end of the bout, we saw Nikki Cross take the win which was the right decision to make. Cross had been battling in Alexa Bliss’ shadow for some time, and this could prove to be her big solo opportunity.
#1 Did not allow the Intercontinental Championship to change hands
Before the show, the company had announced a big Intercontinental Championship match between the Champion, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Roman Reigns.
Nakamura entered the arena alongside Sami Zayn, and the match seemed to be heading towards a strong finish until Baron Corbin interrupted the match out of nowhere to draw a disqualification.
The heels were able to take down Reigns until Daniel Bryan appeared to help Reigns out, but the latter was soon outnumbered. The match ending in a disqualification helped protect Reigns and also allowed Nakamura to retain his Championship. This was the right call to make at the time, as these two men put on a great match which could be the beginning of a great rivalry.
The teams of Bryan and Reigns took on Corbin and Nakamura in the main event of the night, and Bryan scored the pinfall victory over Nakamura. This could prove to be the swerve that could allow Bryan to get in the Intercontinental Championship picture and turn heel afterward, in order to square off against Roman Reigns.
