WWE SmackDown Smacks and Downs: Bayley vs. Charlotte furthers Sasha Banks feud

Smack: two good matches and a new roster member

After initially including AJ Styles in the tournament through the Brand to Brand Invitational, it was confirmed on last night’s show that Styles is officially back in “the house that AJ Styles built” in a trade for future considerations (the wrestling version of baseball’s player to be named later/PTBNL).

This is great for both Styles and SmackDown. Quickly on the latter, the show is lacking a bit of star power on both the face and heel side. Adding someone the caliber of Styles, one of the most respected and recognized wrestlers in the world and someone who’s shown he can play a face and heel well in WWE, immediately adds some oomph to the show.

For Styles, he was caught in a tough place after literally being “buried” by The Undertaker at WrestleMania. His position was only exacerbated due to the untimely releases of his The O.C. brethren in Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.

Even if they weren’t the top faction on RAW, they at least had a definitive role and potential angles. By himself on RAW, particularly since it wasn’t like he was going to be thrust into the WWE Championship scene soon, he was in a veritable no man’s land.

A switch to SmackDown may be exactly what Styles needs. He also has yet to win the Intercontinental Championship, so he has as much motivation as anyone in this tournament.

The dividends were evident immediately. Reviving their WWE Championship feud from a few years ago, Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura had a wonderful television match in their first round match in the Intercontinental Championship Tournament.

As mentioned earlier in my discussion of Bayley-Flair, their knowledge of each other (going back to New Japan) led to some nice, different counters than we saw in their previous matches.

It also looked like a fight at times. I’ve written before that it’s fine if things don’t always look so smooth and polished as long as it looks realistic, and the moment that exemplified this most was when Styles hit Nakamura with a modified Faith Brea- I mean Styles Clash.

He was countering Nakamura’s triangle choke by lifting him up and transitioning, but because of the position of his left arm being trapped by Nakamura’s legs, he had no choice but to hit a Styles Clash with only one hook.

It also made sense that Nakamura kicked out since it wasn’t a full-fledged Styles Clash.

In the end, Styles won with The Phenomenal Forearm and will face Elias next week in the semi-finals.

To the other match, it was the classic brutal heel dominating the match only to lose to a leverage pin from the face (the second leverage pin of the night). Sheamus, as he yelled to Michael Cole during the match, really does look to be in the best shape of his life.

He just decimated Jeff Hardy throughout the match, relishing in sadistic pleasure at toying with his opponent. Hardy, of course, is legendary for his ability to take a beating and make it look like he is absolutely being demolished.

Case in point: Sheamus lifting Hardy above his head and just throwing him onto the commentary table at ringside.

Hardy being the winner here makes sense in the macro-booking; why hype his return so much only for him to lose right away? In the micro-sense, it does lead to a face-face match between Daniel Bryan and Hardy next week, but the lack of a crowd has allowed WWE to pivot from their traditional booking to have more face-face and heel-heel matches (like with Styles-Nakamura earlier).

I picked Hardy to win based on his return videos and his own assertions that his time as a wrestler may be winding down. It’s an interesting match with Bryan, a man who only relinquished the very Intercontinental Championship they’re fighting for due to his forced retirement.

These two will also tell a great story in the ring, and having that backstory for Bryan and Hardy seeking to win a title he last held over a decade ago only adds more layers to the match.

I’m guessing we see a Hardy-Styles final. We’ll find out next week.