WWE SmackDown Results, Highlights, And Grades For September 4, 2018

Tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown Live will feature a huge opportunity for Rusev Day and more dramatic build towards Hell in a Cell, particularly for the SmackDown Women’s Championship and WWE Championship matches. Follow along live here at 8:00 p.m. ET when the show begins.

Last week, The Bar defeated The Colons and The Club in a tag team Triple Threat to come one step closer to facing The New Day in a WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship match. The Bar’s opponents will be Rusev Day, Sanity, or The Usos, depending on who wins tonight’s hyped up Triple Threat match.

Samoa Joe somehow keeps making his rivalry with AJ Styles more and more personal by the week, and it could get ugly this week. Joe has threatened to visit AJ’s wife, Wendy Styles, at their home, as he continues to terrorize their lives.

Styles and Joe’s match for Hell in a Cell has not been announced as a Hell in a Cell match, but many fans believe that this is a logical conclusion to arguably WWE’s most personal rivalry. If Joe does threaten Styles’s family face-to-face by crossing an ultimate line, then surely we’ll be in store for a Hell in a Cell match.

Speaking of wrestlers interested in settling their differences inside of Hell in a Cell, both Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair have made it crystal clear on Twitter that they want to fight inside of the structure. Flair has won a Hell in a Cell match before, while Lynch faced Alexa Bliss in a steel cage match on SmackDown Live many months ago.

Lynch and Flair haven’t had a singles match for the title yet, so some fans are wondering if it would be better for them to not have a match inside the cell, which is traditionally used to finish feuds. But honestly, I’m down for a Hell in a Cell match between these two elite athletes, so let’s see if that’s announced tonight. If it is, then they could have another stipulation at Evolution.

Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella were ambushed on last week’s episode of SmackDown Live by The Miz and Maryse, who helped Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega (their actual opponents) deliver a sickening beatdown of the duo.

Brie is coming off of a big tag team win over the Riott Squad with Nikki, but she and Bryan are in need of some revenge before Hell in a Cell. At the Pay Per View, Bryan and Miz will write the next chapter of their rivalry by squaring off in mixed tag action. Brie knows Maryse’s brilliant, evil ways too well, so I’m wondering if she will have the perfect response for the A-List couple. It’s more likely that Miz and Maryse will come on the winning end again, forcing Brie and Bryan to buckle down and find the winning formula against Hollywood’s (well, Austin, now) real power couple.

WWE SmackDown is consistently one of the best wrestling shows around, so tonight’s episode figures to be as brilliant as the rest of them. Hell in a Cell is poised to be one of the best Pay Per Views of the year, which means something since most WWE PPVs have been quite strong in 2018.

Check in here live at 8 p.m. ET for highlights, grades, and analysis of SmackDown Live, which airs on the USA Network.