2 things that went right on the May 27 episode of SmackDown

Similar to the feeling most people have when they watch WWE SmackDown out of obligation (like yours truly), these episodes of WWE’s Friday night show feel like they’ve become a chore for the promotion to produce.

The astonishing lack of roster depth and star power — especially when Roman Reigns doesn’t appear on the show — have become deep, artery-severing wounds for the brand, and while WWE has tried to suture that affliction by bringing over wrestlers from Raw, that has been a mere Band-Aid solution.

But let’s not pretend the entire show wasn’t worth watching. As is the case with even the worst WWE shows, there were a few positives.

These are two things that went right on the May 27 episode of SmackDown.

Sami Zayn on The Kevin Owens Show

As part of that need to paper over the depth deficiencies (not unlike how WWE sometimes papers over seats in arenas), Raw star Kevin Owens returned to the blue brand to host his eponymous talk show.

The former Universal Champion teased that his guest would be “a member of The Bloodline”, but with Roman Reigns clearly absent from the show and The Usos already appearing in front of the Little Rock, Ark. crowd, everyone knew where this was going.

The guest was…Sami Zayn, who has spent the last few weeks attempting to join forces with Reigns and The Usos.

Seeing the on-again, off-again friends compliment each other in the most over-the-top way possible and indulge each other’s respective delusions over Ezekiel and The Bloodline. We even saw Owens — the self-appointed One Sane Man in his crusade against Elias’ brother — hug Zayn after SmackDown’s “locker room leader” agreed that Ezekiel is scamming everyone.

Of course, the good times didn’t last forever, and things started to dissolve when Zayn refused to help Owens expose Ezekiel on Raw and called Owens “Uce” in a manner that was nonchalant but noticeable enough to make you raise an eyebrow. From there, Owens told Zayn that he wasn’t in The Bloodline, Zayn told Owens that Elias and Ezekiel were two different people, they argued and Zayn stormed off.

Aside from the genuine laughs this generated, this exchange also deftly recontextualized Zayn’s desire to join The Bloodline into a more sympathetic quest. Instead of Zayn coming across as a weasel attempting to infiltrate Reigns group, he came across as someone attempting to find some sense of camaraderie, which especially came through when The Usos made him an “honorary Uce” and Zayn said he’d do anything for them and assumed they’d reciprocate.

This feels like the first steps toward a Zayn babyface turn, but we’ll see how this plays out.

The Usos’ opening promo

Speaking of The Usos’, the new unified WWE Tag Team Champions opened this week’s SmackDown celebrating their triumph over RK-Bro. While these show-opening promos from WWE are well past the point of overuse, it was nice to hear Jimmy and Jey cut a promo outside the confines of the Bloodline/Roman Reigns formula.

Here, we saw the twins brag about their big win before reflecting on the dozen years they have spent in WWE and all the struggles they’ve been through to get to this point. They then got introspective about essentially growing up in front of the fans, and their thoughtful delivery added that necessary touch of authenticity.

You could see the swerve coming from 50,000 miles away, and The Usos indeed turned on the crowd before they brawled with Riddle and Shinsuke Nakamura. A bit predictable, but on a show that featured Shotzi getting locked in a locker room, this was an obvious highlight.