*OFFICIAL* SmackDown Discussion Thread: 13th September 2016

[Awesome]

Heath Slater’s wife, Beulah, and their seven kids were surely rocking in the single-wide this past Sunday when Slater & Rhyno defeated The Usos to become the first SmackDown Tag Team Champions. The victory not only positioned the odd couple as the duo to beat on Team Blue, but also finally secured Slater a SmackDown LIVE contract — a contract The One Man Band will sign tonight … at least we hope so!

Yes, while the contract announcement has been made, there is no denying that Slater has been in that position before, only to lose his opportunity at the last second.

Will this time be different for The One Man Band? Will Rhyno & Slater be in full celebration mode, and will the whole Slater gang be there to join in? Find out tonight on SmackDown LIVE, and be sure to tune in to SmackDown on all of WWE’s digital platforms!

Following the controversial actions that led to AJ Styles capturing the WWE World Championship at Backlash on Sunday — low-blowing Dean Ambrose while the referee was down and out — The Phenomenal One now officially comes to SmackDown LIVE as “The Face That Runs the Place.” However, there is little doubt that the new titleholder will have more than a few hurdles to hop over now that he boasts the hardware.

Case in point, it can all but guaranteed that The Lunatic Fringe will have retribution on his mind after losing Team Blue’s most prestigious prize in such a contentious manner. Moreover, with SmackDown LIVE on an upswing, it is likely Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Daniel Bryan will have something to say about Styles’ decision to go low and the effect that action could have on everything they are trying to build. Find out what happens tonight.

Since day one, Becky Lynch has dreamed of becoming a champion and having her sacrifices validated for both her and her fans. Well, The Irish Lass Kicker finally checked that one off the list at Backlash, winning the Six-Pack Elimination Challenge to become the first SmackDown Women’s Champion in epic fashion.

Oh, and that sound you hear? Yeah, that’s the rest of the Superstars in the Women’s division salivating to now make her their new prime target. Which competitor (if not all of them) will step to Lynch in an attempt to get the first solo title opportunity?

Another thing that did not go unnoticed Sunday was just how intense the ongoing conflict is between Carmella and Nikki Bella. At the height of their collision during the free-for-all, The Princess of Staten Island ultimately eliminated Nikki, although it wasn’t without a tremendous amount of blowback from the Fearless Superstar. Will the beef between the two interfere with Becky’s inauguration?

Intercontinental Champion The Miz has been on a quest for respect on SmackDown LIVE over the past several weeks. It will be interesting to see if his and Maryse’s Backlash actions will help or hurt that cause.

Though The A-Lister retained his Intercontinental Championship on Sunday in a hard-fought match against Dolph Ziggler, the win was tainted by Maryse spraying an unidentified substance into Ziggler’s eyes, which led to the Skull-Crushing Finale and her husband’s victory.

Will there be repercussions for the couple’s shady behavior at the SmackDown LIVE-exclusive event? And although This Miz won the match, will the likes of The Showoff and others continue to lean more toward “coward” than “respected” when describing  the champion? Find out on tonight!

Backlash proved to be a wild ride for Bray Wyatt, including two different pit stops in Viperville and a full on detour with a demon.

Following his blindside locker-room attack of Randy Orton earlier in the night, Wyatt was declared the winner of his contest against Orton via forfeit, but he was met with a huge surprise when it was announced that he would immediately have to face Kane in a No Holds Barred Match. The two supernatural Superstars battled intensely, but it was ultimately a surprise return and RKO from Orton that helped seal Wyatt’s fate in the barbaric affair, losing to Kane via Chokeslam.

What will the self-proclaimed god do to rebound on SmackDown LIVE, and will Orton, or for that matter, Kane, pop up again to attempt to thwart his maniacal plans?

[Awesome]

Now that was a very interesting way to kick off SmackDown, and I loved the back and forth comments between John Cena and Dean Ambrose.

Jack Swagger being switched to SmackDown is interesting, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out.

The SmackDown Women's Championship #1 Contender's match was very interesting, especially the outcome of Alexa Bliss winning it. I look forward to seeing how things will go between her and Becky Lynch.

I was half wondering if Heath Slater would find some way to mess up a contract signing once again, but this time he actually got to sign it to officially become part of the SmackDown roster. The match that followed against The Ascension for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships gained the first successful defence for him and Rhyno too.

AJ Styles being assigned James Ellsworth (who usually wrestles as Jimmy Dream in US independent promotions such as Big Time Wrestling [not to be confused with another independent promotion of the same name] according to Wrestlingdata) as his partner was certainly surprising, especially as we last saw that same particular wrestler being squashed by Braun Strowman on Monday Night Raw back at the end of July.

Okay, The Miz taking out Ellsworth and becoming AJ Styles' tag team partner instead makes much more sense. A win for Cena and Ambrose made sense given their previous losses against Styles at SummerSlam and Backlash respectively, as did Ambrose hitting Cena with Dirty Deeds afterwards ahead of the Triple Threat match for the WWE World Championship at No Mercy.