WWE SmackDown Winners, Grades and Reaction From July 10

SmackDown has its third champion in as many weeks as CM Punk returned to the blue brand as the new WWE champion after beating Sami Zayn for the title on Monday.

Zayn's short reign ended after just nine days, so it's going to be interesting to see how WWE handles him moving forward.

Friday's show also featured Carmelo Hayes taking on Trick Williams in a non-title match, and Finn Balor took on one of the men who attacked him last week, Tama Tonga.

Let's take a look at what went down on Friday's show.

Returning to SmackDown as the Champion

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After a video recap from Raw, Nick Aldis welcomed us to SmackDown. He talked about what happened with Gunther at Night of Champions and his subsequent suspension before welcoming CM Punk to the ring to celebrate being the new WWE champion.

Punk said he missed the crowd before saying anyone is welcome to try to take the title from him because he is a fighting champion. He also said he would give Sami Zayn a rematch if he wanted one.

He named some people like Gunther, Finn Balor, Royce Keys, Damian Priest and Trick Williams before he was interrupted by Cody Rhodes, who was obviously upset about what happened on Monday when he was attacked and unable to have his scheduled title match against Zayn.

They had a respectful exchange for the most part, and it led to Rhodes laying out a challenge for SummerSlam, which Punk immediately accepted. Aldis made it official on the spot.

Punk's solo part of this segment was relatively tame. He did the same thing every babyface who wins a belt does and said he would be a fighting champion. He didn't say anything controversial or unpredictable.

Rhodes being his first challenger isn't surprising, and their exchange was a little on the uneventful side, so it's going to be interesting to see how WWE fills time with this feud between now and SummerSlam.

Punk and Rhodes are both good on the mic, but this segment didn't do either of them any favors. It wasn't bad, but nobody is going to be talking about it tomorrow.

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Joe Tessitore mispronounced the name of Lou Malnati's in Chicago. Giordano's and Rosati's are better anyway.
• Aldis standing in the corner for the whole promo made it obvious something was going to happen.
• The juxtaposition of Rhodes in his fancy clothes and Punk in jeans and a shirt with the sleeves cut off is exactly the kind of image WWE loves.

Finn Bálor vs. Tama Tonga

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Last time in action: Bálor lost to Jey Uso (SD, June 12), The MFTs lost to Priest and Truth (SD, June 19)

Following the attack from Talla and Tama Tonga last week, Bálor got a chance to get some retribution when he and Tama had a singles match on Friday.

Not only did they waste no time getting right to the action, but they turned this into a fast-paced fight immediately.

You could see their years of experience working together on full display. They had great chemistry and knew how to make each other look good, so they had no problems making this a fun contest.

Talla's interference almost gave Tama the win, but Finn was able to get the victory in the end. Tama is trying to put his past behind him, but that doesn't appear to be as easy as he had hoped.

Result: Bálor defeated Tonga

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• While it's nice that WWE is acknowledging the history between these men from before WWE, it would be even better if they worked with NJPW to license some footage so fans could be filled in on everything.
• Tama and Talla can be a decent tag team if WWE books them right, but they have been so involved with the MFTs story for so long that some fans may have no interest in them holding the titles again.
• It felt like the announcers didn't know the commercial break was coming.