Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn have been a thorn in the side of SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon for weeks and Tuesday was no different as they once again found a way around the rules to ruin the main event.

As SmackDown came from the Rupp Arena in Louisville, it was one loophole that allowed the best friends to get the edge on their boss once again.

Shane opened the show with some more dissension between himself and General Manager Daniel Bryan, whom he called out to the ring. He was upset that Bryan had not allowed him to fire Sami and Kevin the week before. Daniel then explained that he didn’t want to give Raw more talented superstars, which Shane understood.

McMahon would not let the two best friends get away from this situation without some form of punishment. He proceeded to change Kevin’s match for later in the night with Randy Orton to a no disqualification match, with Sami Zayn banned from ringside.

This match showed the true savagery of each man. They both beat each other constantly with chairs, steel steps and a lot of kendo sticks. The fight even spilled out into the crowd and onto the stage.

This is where Sami, who was not technically at ringside but on the stage, would make his move. He attacked Orton’s leg viciously with a steel chair. This injury would then allow Kevin Owens to drop Orton with a Superkick and hit his top-rope Frog Splash for the win.

After a shocking debut last week, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan, collectively known as The Riott Squad, came out to make a name for themselves against three of SmackDown’s best in Natalya, Naomi and SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair.

Early on, the advantage went to the Riott Squad as Natalya, who had absorbed a small amount of offense, decided to ditch her teammates. Then the squad decided to take out Naomi. As Riott held down the champion, Logan and Morgan brutally assaulted Naomi with the steel steps, leading to her being taken away on a stretcher.

From here, the 3-on-1 assault became too much for The Queen to handle. After mounting a slight comeback, a knee from the outside by Logan set her up for Riott to land her signature pele kick for her team’s dominant victory.

With their championship match at Clash of Champions looming in the distance, Jinder Mahal wanted to weaken his opponent AJ Styles by having him face The Singh Brothers in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match. Before the bell could even ring though, The Modern Day Maharaja decided to give his boys an extra edge by attacking The WWE Champion.

Despite this brutal attack, The Singh Brothers just could not handle The Phenomenal One. With all of Jinder’s outside interference thwarted, Styles was able to counter a topr-rope hurricanrana into a Styles Clash from the middle rope onto the other Singh who was prone below, picking up a decisive victory.

Jinder then tried to attack Styles again after the match, but was unsuccessful as AJ quickly escaped. Utterly furious, the former champion took his anger out on his cohorts by dropping both Singh Brothers with his Khallas finishing move.

The tag-team division took center stage the rest of the night with two very prominent matches. The first of these was between the former champions, The New Day, and the former number one contenders, Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable. Both teams were at the absolute top of their game as everyone is shooting for a potential title match.

The New Day was represented by their speed mode of Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston as Big E watched from ringside. This just made the match even more fast-paced than expected, with both teams coming withing seconds of victory multiple times. The match came to a close when a kick from Kofi allowed himself and Woods to hit their UpUpDownDown finisher for the win.

The Hype Bros were looking for redemption against The Bludgeon Brothers for their loss the previous week in the imposing duos debut match with their new gimmick. While Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley showed a lot of heart, Harper and Rowan were just too dominant. After a few quick power moves and one massive double-team slam, The Bludgeon Brothers were able to make quick work of their opponents.

After the match, Zack was speaking in an interview saying how he felt that their team could build themselves back up from this. Then, Mojo Rawley shocked the entire WWE Universe by turning heel and attacking his tag team partner, raining down on him with vicious strikes that left his former bro writhing in agony as he departed.

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