WWE SmackDown Will Return to Relevancy on Thursday Nights

More from SmackDown

• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline
• Potential Challengers for Roman Reigns before WrestleMania
• WWE SmackDown Predictions: AJ Styles Will Help Randy Orton
• WWE SmackDown Predictions: Street Profits Will Dethrone Judgment Day
• SmackDown reminded us of how pointless the brand split is

Last night, for the first time in nearly nine years, WWE SmackDown returned to Thursday nights. It was refreshing and the show actually turned out to be pretty good. While it wasn’t what we see on Raw, it was a pretty good alternative.

Throughout the night, the focus was the return of Daniel Bryan. It was announced on Raw three days earlier that he would be facing Kane, who put him out of action last April, in his return to wrestling. Bryan would end up defeating Kane via disqualification. Later on in the night, he would defeat the Director of Operations in the six-man tag match to close the show that was full of star power.

What really caught my eye was when Triple H came out at the end of SmackDown and said that Bryan would be facing Kane in a rematch next week to determine if he’ll keep his spot in the Royal Rumble or not. However, it would not take place on Monday Night Raw – it was announced for Thursday Night SmackDown.

If you didn’t notice either, the brief Bad News Barrett-Sin Cara feud was a SmackDown-only one too. It ended tonight with Barrett retaining his Intercontinental Championship over Cara.

If this is the direction that WWE is going to go in with SmackDown, it will do wonders for the show. Why? Well, if they’re going to have show-specific storylines, it’s going to make the blue brand relevant.

Ever since the end of the brand-split in 2012, SmackDown lost any relevancy that it used to have since its debut in 1999. Every show would have decent matches, but none of it mattered. All of the focus was put on Raw for storyline progression and top matches. This made most fans not care if they missed SmackDown or not and just stuck to watching Raw.

This could easily just be WWE looking to garner steady interest in SmackDown, then pull the rug out from underneath it and go back to meaningless matches. However, while the Thursday night show is in its infancy, I think the show-specific storylines are here to stay.

Another reason why SmackDown will stay relevant was from the promo we saw between Paul Heyman and Seth Rollins. It was the first non-wrestling segment that I’ve seen on the show that could actually lead to something in a very long time. To sum it up: Heyman teased possibly working with Rollins after Royal Rumble. It was one heck of a back and forth, though and the former ECW owner showed why he is the best on the microphone in WWE.

More from Daily DDT

• It’s time for Adam Cole and MJF to drop the ROH tag team titles
• Tom Lawlor talks MLW return, AEW opportunity, CM Punk’s WWE return and more
• Eddie Kingston stands to gain the most from the AEW Continental Classic
• Trish Stratus on WWE NXT would help elevate that women’s division
• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline

While we did have some segments in the past that teased Heyman working with Rollins, this one stood out among them all because of how it left Mr. Money in the Bank standing at the end of it. He made facial expressions that made you think he had to consider everything that Heyman had just said and take it into account for the future.

All of this has set up Thursday night SmackDown to be somewhat of what it used to be from 1999-2005. Let’s just hope WWE’s plan is to stay on this course.

Leave your thoughts below on what you think the future holds for SmackDown on Thursday nights.

Make sure you “like” Daily DDT on Facebook and “follow” us on Twitter.