I thought this was one of the best episodes of “SmackDown” in quite some time, and I was trying to look at this main event angle through the eyes of someone who hadn’t seen the news that poor Jacob Fatu is injured and who didn’t see the spoiler about tonight ahead of time. However, it’s pretty difficult for me to even try to imagine that. Even if I weren’t writing wrestling news, I’m certain I would have seen it on social media, so it’s impossible to look at things any differently.

That being said, I thought General Manager Nick Aldis was going to announce Fatu wasn’t cleared to compete at the beginning of the show. I guess WWE was trying to play at some kind of swerve, because Aldis just announced it was a number one contender’s match. And with that, it was pretty obvious that Fatu was somehow getting taken out before that match, presumably by McIntyre, though I guess we aren’t exactly sure about that.

The way Fatu was taken out backstage was kind of silly, too. It looked like some kind of light fixture fell on him, rather than just a straight-up beat down by another star with a chair or kendo stick, and they went as far as putting fake teeth in the fake blood by his mouth. Gore doesn’t bother me, especially stuff that looks pretty cheesy, but that just felt really goofy.

The spoiler earlier in the day revealed that the main event would then be changed to Cody Rhodes versus McIntyre, but it wasn’t initially clear if it would be for the championship. And it still wasn’t clear even after the bell rang for the match, which didn’t happen until well after their initial brawl throughout the crowd during a commercial break. Commentary didn’t have any clue either because Rhodes mentioned McIntyre could have his title match right then, but Aldis didn’t say anything, which didn’t help and only added to the chaos.

While it’s unclear what the plan was before Fatu’s injury, I’m not looking forward to seeing Rhodes and McIntyre for the title at yet another premium live event. It’s getting sad to see McIntyre keep losing every title match he gets. And Rhodes’ motivations for snapping at the end of tonight’s segment are very unclear. Is he that furious at McIntyre for taking out Fatu? I highly doubt it, so we’re bound to get some half-baked story about Rhodes losing his mind after losing the Crown Jewel Championship.

Written by Daisy Ruth