6 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Sept 11)
2. English Clears The Bar
To the surprise of absolutely no one, SmackDown's tag teams once again produced the best match on the show, with The Bar and Rusev Day contesting the finals of the brand's contendership tournament.
The division's reliability is comforting. Every week, the tag teams come out and wrestle a fun, fluid, and fast-flowing bout with straightforward booking and little in the way of shenanigans. It doesn't matter who's involved: they're all equally capable of delivering something good-to-great with each other, and deserve props for it.
Once again, the story revolved around Aiden English's ongoing quest to prove himself to Rusev. 'The Shakespeare Of Song' was largely responsible for the victory, having thrown himself in front of Sheamus' Brogue Kick for his partner, allowing 'The Bulgarian Brute' to nail the Machka for the victory and contendership. On the eve of Hell In A Cell, their relationship looks stronger than ever.
Though the likeliest outcome is still a full Rusev Day split, this story is being handled extremely well, and coming away with the PPV victory will guarantee their popular union survives another few months.