Raw/Smackdown Throwdown - 9/17/18 and 9/18/18

Hello all, I apologize in advance as I have been attempting to come up with one solid structure for my articles. For this week, it will basically be a Raw/Smackdown Takeaways article.

The weekly programming following Hell In A Cell has had quite a bit of action, and quite a few announcements. Let's go through and talk about the top five takeaways from this week of WWE television.

Well, it finally happened. I didn't want to see it, but Rusev Day is officially in the past. Rusev nearly put away Shinsuke Nakamura for the US title, but once Aiden English stood on the apron and shouted "Rusev crush!" (it confused the challenger for whatever reason), Nakamura rolled him up for the win.

Afterwards, English assaulted the Bulgarian Brute with the microphone, officially abandoning his partner. I loved Rusev Day, and I'm not too happy with the decision to split the group up. However, having English attack Rusev rather than vise versa adds enough of a twist to English's character, and makes him an interesting watch.

Responding to Triple H's promo from last week, The Undertaker returned and announced his answer for Shawn Michaels being in The Game's corner: his brother Kane in his.

This will be quite the sight, as the four men are also two of the most legendary duos in WWE history. This makes a ton of sense from a business perspective as well, as more big names on the card draw more attention to the event, thus selling more tickets. Being a hardcore Undertaker fan, I am stoked whenever I get the chance to see him in the ring, considering his career is very close to the end.

Two of my favorite Smackdown performers going head to head? Nothing bad can come out of this (although an Almas victory would be nice), as the two are extraordinary in the ring. Despite Almas being 0-2 against Styles, I'm still happy that he gets booked to face off with the WWE champion.

While he may not get the victory, the simple fact that Almas gets to face Styles multiple times is a boost to his stock, as he could easily have been lost in the shuffle. Hopefully he will have a title opportunity in the near future, but until then I'm content with his current matches.

After what happened at Hell In A Cell (see my Takeaways article for details), Reigns addressed the Brock Lesnar to start out Raw. It eventually led to both him and Braun Strowman wanting to fight the returning Beast Incarnate. Constable Corbi- sorry, Acting General Manager Baron Corbin announced a triple threat for the Universal title at the Crown Jewel (STUPID name in my opinion) event in Saudi Arabia.

I am pretty excited for this match, but I'm afraid they're going to try to make this match look like the biggest title match that has ever taken place in WWE. Sure, it's a big match and yes, there is plenty of potential destruction ready to happen. However, just a year ago at Summerslam 2017, we saw the same match, with Samoa Joe making it a fatal four way. It's going to be fun, but just don't make it out to be something it's not.

The closing segment on Smackdown saw new SD Women's champion Becky Lynch celebrating her win, and rubbing it in Charlotte Flair's face. Flair wanted to congratulate Lynch and show her respect, but the new champ got under her skin (with quotes like "call me Queen... bitch!") to the point where Charlotte attacked her. The champion turned it around and left Flair lying in the middle of the ring.

I know I was skeptical about Becky's heel turn, but I really like it now. Lynch is unpredictable and doesn't take crap from anybody. The fact that this rivalry is between these two stars specifically makes me even more excited to see where the story goes from here.

Thanks for reading! Again, I'm not sure how these articles will be structured in the future, I guess we'll just have to wing it for the time being. If you agree or disagree with anything I've said, please be sure to let me know! I would also greatly appreciate it if you shared this article with all of your wrestling fan friends! Thank you all.