SMACKDOWN LIVE has delivered another night of exciting night, with winning performances from new additions to the roster and the return of an old tag team.
Here are five important things we learnt from the show last night.
The New American Alpha are already on a roll
Last week SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan announced that he giving Chad Gable a brand new tag partner – old school fan favourite Shelton Benjamin.
On last night’s show the new duo got their first win in a match against The Ascension.
Benjamin still looks good between the ropes – and remains one of the most criminally overlooked talents in WWE history.
Swapping Jason Jordan for Benjamin does feel slightly dodgy – a bit like when WWE replaced D-Von Dudley with R-Truth at the 2015 Royal Rumble.
But as American Alpha were essentially an upgrade of Benjamin’s World’s Greatest Tag Team from the early 2000s, the styles of Benjamin and Gable are a good fit.
Tye Dillinger was a perfect zero against AJ Styles
AJ Styles’ US title open challenge continued, this week answered by Tye Dillinger.
But Baron Corbin caused a distraction before the match began and clubbed Dillinger from behind.
Dillinger managed to fend off Corbin to get the match started, then tapped out within seconds when Styles caught him in the Calf Crusher.
The real story of course is that WWE is setting up a Styles v Corbin feud (yawn).
But WWE’s inability to capitalise on a potentially red-hot babyface – as Dillinger could have been after being called up from NXT – never fails to boggle the mind.
WWE is taking its glorious time with Bobby Roode
One talent that WWE is capitalising on is Bobby Roode, who made his main roster debut last week against Aiden English.
Last night Roode got a second win over Mike Kanellis.
(WWE clearly has little love for its resident romantic Kanellis, who’s been relegated to jobber just two months after debuting).
It’s interesting that WWE hasn’t rushed former NXT Champion Roode into a top-line feud.
Roode holds two clean wins over current number one contender Shinsuke Nakamura, a fact WWE could have used to insert him in the WWE Championship picture.
Instead, he’s getting some wins under his belt and working his way up.
Also interesting is that despite being a natural heel, his glorious gimmick has pretty much turned him babyface – the fans are gloriously behind him all the way.
Kevin Owens makes a great referee
Owens hit the ring to complain about Shane McMahon screwing him out of the US title twice – both times while Shane was acting as special referee in KO’s matches.
Then, during a Sami Zayn v Aiden English match, Owens invaded the ring and took over the ref duties (even hilariously pulling on an ill-fitting ref’s shirt).
To prove a point to Shane O’Mac, the uninvited guest referee hit his old pal Zayn with a pop-up powerbomb and did a fast count to help English win.
It was the highlight of the show – thanks to KO’s always brilliant delivery – and we’re looking forward to what happens in this Owens v Shane feud.
Jinder and Rusev are back together
Remember the comedy duo tag team of Jinder Mahal and Rusev from last year?
Well, last night they reformed – except now, Jinder’s the WWE Champion, as ludicrous as that might seem.
The pair took on Shinsuke Nakamura and Randy Orton, with Nakamura hitting the Kinshasha knee strike on Rusev to get the victory.
But the real excitement came post-match, when Orton hit his partner with an RKO outta nowhere.
It didn’t look like a full heel turn, but could mean that Orton’s not done chasing the WWE Championship.
Could we see a Mahal v Nakamura v Orton triple-threat at the next SmackDown PPV, Hell I a Cell?
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