WWE SmackDown Highlights, Grades, and Analysis For Apr. 24, 2018

The Club vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev Day

At the beginning of the show, AJ Styles stated that he had two partners lined up to face Shinsuke Nakamura, Rusev, and Aiden English. His partners? None other than Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, who both moved from Raw to SmackDown Live during the Superstar Shakeup. The trio shared a “Too Sweet” before the commercial break, leaving the fans salivating at tonight’s main event match.

Before the match, Renee Young caught up with Daniel Bryan after he was attacked, and Bryan stated that he’d be OK to compete in the Greatest Royal Rumble match. Bryan said that he was attacked by Big Cass from behind, and after talking to Paige, he will receive a one-on-one match with Big Cass at Backlash. His parting shot was that everyone is the same height when they are tapping out.

I’m betting The Miz will cost Bryan by helping Cass at Backlash, but we shall see.

Shinsuke Nakamura came out to a new, remixed version of his theme song that drew polarizing reactions from the WWE Universe. I loved it, and the logic behind is that it now that his song has lyrics, the WWE Universe cannot sing along to it. So it’s a way of solidifying him as a heel.

Watching The Club work together was sensational, oh, and Luke Gallows has my favorite Big Boot in the biz.

Gallows made the hot tag after Styles was in trouble, and he seemed to be cleaning house. But he didn’t see it when Nakamura tagged in, and Nakamura hit Gallows with a Kinsasha to the back of the head to pull out the victory.

Styles was angered by Nakamura’s antics,so he went after The King of Strong Style, who once again hit AJ with a low blow. He then went for the Kinsasha on Styles, but Karl Anderson saved his brother by getting hit with Nakmaura’s finisher instead.

Nakamura wasn’t done. He taunted AJ, begging Styles to stop him from hitting Anderson with a second Kinsasha. He couldn’t get there in time, and Anderson was sent sprawling.

Grade: A+, great main event, and the mindgames from Nakamura after the match were incredible.