10 Live Observations From Attending WWE SmackDown Live In Manchester
7. The Crowd Went Nuts For Imperium
While the recent happenings on Raw, SmackDown, and NXT had fans going into Friday night's SmackDown and Raw taping with high hopes of seeing some NXT names turning up to shake things up on the blue brand, the arrival of some NXT UK talent was a major surprise.
That NXT talent, of course, was WALTER and his Imperium stable, and they'd make their presence felt by laying out The New Day just moments after Big E and Kofi Kingston had defeated The Revival to become the new SmackDown Tag Team Champions.
The watching audience lapped up the arrival of Imperium, and just the simple fact of seeing current NXT United Kingdom Champion WALTER in the Manchester Arena was one way to get the fans on-side with SmackDown.
A logical school of thought seems to suggest that Imperium may end up battling The New Day and Heavy Machinery at Survivor Series, but that's merely guess work after Imperium were only to be seen during that one segment on SmackDown.
As for those expecting a slew of NXT stars running roughshod, Shayna Baszler was great, yet the fact that she was the only NXT name on SmackDown was a bit of a letdown for those in attendance.