The hype-ups around this week’s Smackdown was already quite high after a huge title match got confirmed for the show.
Considering that the Raw roster was present at the same building last night, chances of a Raw invasion were also quite high. Check out what went down on the show from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Smackdown kicked off with Shane McMahon in a huge pop from the crowd. He went on to cut a promo for the Survivor Series PPV where the blue brand will dismantle Raw. The New Day was also present on the show to discuss their actions from Raw where they turned out to be the reason for the tag team title change.
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens showed up to talk rubbish about not getting an opportunity at the PPV. It set up a match between Sami and Kofi Kingston as the opening contest. Owens tried to distract Kofi for the entire match but The New Day member picked up the win via connecting with the Trouble in Paradise kick.
Rusev and Randy Orton had yet another match with the stipulation that if the heel superstar wins, he will become the fifth member of Team Smackdown. Rusev connected with two big kicks but failed to get the pinfall. The built frustration allowed Orton to connect with an RKO and defeat Rusev, once again.
In the tag team championship bout, Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable squared off against The Usos for the titles. In the middle of the match, the challengers attacked the knees of Jey Uso to take him out of the ring. He never recovered from that, and hence Shelton and Gable picked up the win via disqualification.
Before the intergender match, James Ellsworth cut a promo at the backstage area with the women’s locker room being present. Carmella and Becky Lynch had a confrontation, as well.
Afterward, Becky and James squared off inside the ring in an interesting contest where all the other members of the female roster, Charlotte Flair, Lana, Tamina, and Naomi surrounded the ring. After some back and forth going, Becky locked in the dis-arm-her to make Ellsworth tap out. Following the matchup, Carmella kicked to the face of Ellsworth to leave him inside the ring.
Before the main event, both AJ Styles and Jinder Mahal cut a big time promos. The match turned out to be an interesting one, as the crowd went nuts. AJ recovered from a Khallas to setup the phenomenal fore-arm and executed it, perfectly. It earned him the pinfall win and become the new WWE Champion to close the show.