9 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown

2. Andrade & Apollo Settle Their Beef

Andrade Apollo Crews
WWE.com

The cool thing about SmackDown's King of the Ring bracket is that every match feeds into a potential storyline.

Kevin Owens vs. Elias had the Shane McMahon hook, Ali vs. Buddy Murphy harks back to their awesome 205 Live rivalry, Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin used to be tag partners, while Andrade and Apollo Crews are currently locking horns in an undercard programme and turned in a quality scrap last night.

This may have been Match of the Night on any other evening, but Murphy vs. Daniel Bryan happened. Nonetheless, Crews vs. Andrade III was comfortably their best bout to date. Yes, Apollo ate defeat, but got most of his coolest sh*t in throughout a comfortable 10-minute runtime that allowed both men plenty of shine, with 'El Idolo' eventually scoring the win with the Hammerlock DDT off a Zelina Vega distraction.

Andrade has considerably more upside, so him progressing was the right move. A potential banger with the Gable/Benjamin winner now awaits.

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for six years and is currently WhatCulture's Senior Wrestling Reporter. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.