SmackDown Live Recap, Reactions, & Biggest Moments- The Road To The WWE World Cup

Raw was an extremely emotional affair this week following the announcement by Roman Reigns. That heartbreaking moment was naturally addressed on SmackDown Live too. As with Raw, and always with WWE, the show must go on, a sentiment that Reigns himself would undoubtedly echo if asked. Evolution this weekend and Crown Jewel five days later, there was plenty of building to do on this week's SmackDown Live.

One week removed from SmackDown 1000 and, unsurprisingly, The New Day wanted a little revenge. Big Show inexplicably came to the ring last week and helped The Bar defeat New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles. This week, one member of the former champs would go one-on-one with a member of The Bar to open SmackDown Live. What New Day didn't realize is that now includes Big Show. That resulted in Kofi Kingston having to take on Show, and it did not go well for the former. After Show made short work of his opponent, chaos ensued and he and The Bar finished off the rest of The New Day.

AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan are smart guys. Even though they will do battle for the WWE Title at Crown Jewel. both men know that the clash between them when they tagged at SmackDown 1000 was simply an accident. That's why it was water under the bridge this week as they teamed up again to take on The Usos. However, they once again ran into the same issue. A misplaced Pele Kick from Styles hit Bryan between the eyes and, once again, opened the door for The Usos to pick up the win.

Evolution, WWE's first ever all-female PPV, takes place this Sunday. The build hasn't been great, but one match that may very well steal the show is the one between Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. Before their last woman standing match, Flair paid the Performance Center a visit to give the WWE Superstars of tomorrow a little advice. Turns out Lynch was either waiting for or followed The Queen and as always with these two, things broke down quickly. The two of them brawled down at Full Sail and had to be dragged apart by trainers, all in front of the women they are supposed to be role models for.

It probably would have been fair to assume that the heated rivalry between Rusev and Aiden English would come to a head in a PPV match. Well, if you thought that, you thought wrong. The two of them faced off in a very short, unannounced match on this week's SmackDown Live. English infuriated Rusev further before the match by making some more lewd comments about Lana, and then the action began. An irate Rusev quickly decimated and defeated his former tag team partner, forcing him to tap to the Accolade.

One of the highlights of SmackDown 1000 was the return of Rey Mysterio. Last week we saw him in action, this week we got to hear from the legendary luchador on Miz TV. Since both men will be competing in WWE's World Cup at Crown Jewel, it didn't take long for The Miz to start claiming he is better than Mysterio and that he will progress further in the tournament. That resulted in an impromptu match and judging by how it went down, it'll be Mysterio who wrestles more matches at the World Cup than The Miz. It didn't take long at all for Mysterio to beat his opponent, connecting with a 619 and covering Miz for a three count.

The other two men participating at the World Cup on behalf of SmackDown Live competed in Tuesday night's main event. Bitter enemies Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy. The last time these two met one-on-one was in a brutal Hell In A Cell match. Orton even revisited some of the brutality from that meeting, once again trying to manipulate the gap in Hardy's ear where he wears a stretcher. Hardy might be older and wiser, but he still couldn't defeat The Viper. His attempt at a Twist of Fate was reversed into an RKO. It's one of the easiest moves in wrestling to hit, and once it again it earned Orton the victory.

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