WWE SmackDown Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights from August 28

In a rare scheduling decision by WWE, this week's SmackDown served as both the blue brand's SummerSlam fallout episode and the go-home show before Payback on Sunday.

With only five matches announced during the week, SmackDown was responsible for filling up the rest of the card.

Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman met to sign the contract for their Universal Championship match on Friday. Were they able to keep things civil, or did it break down into violence like most contract signings?

The Miz also welcomed Big E to MizTV to talk about their recent argument on Talking Smack. How did the powerhouse of The New Day respond to the A-Lister?

Let's take a look at what happened on this week's SmackDown. 

WWE advertised these segments ahead of Friday's show.

• Reigns, Strowman and Wyatt sign their Payback contract.
• The Miz interviews Big E on MizTV. 

Adam Pearce was shown getting instructions from Vince McMahon in a backstage segment before Jeff Hardy came out to kick the show off inside the ring. 

He spoke about winning the intercontinental title last week before AJ Styles came out to call him a cheater for using his knee brace as a weapon. 

The Charismatic Enigma said he would offer an open challenge to anyone in the back except Styles. This led to the enraged former champion flipping out, but Hardy put him down with a right hand before he could attack. 

After a commercial break, Shinsuke Nakamura had accepted Hardy's challenge. The Charismatic Enigma and the current tag team champion started with a standard exchange of holds and counters. 

Nakamura focused a lot of his offense on Hardy's knee to take advantage of the damage done by Styles last week. The champion sent him over the announce table into Styles as the show went to another break. 

Hardy hurt his knee while hitting Whisper in the Wind, and it allowed Nakamura to recover and hit a sliding German suplex and a diving knee for a near fall. The Enigma rebounded and used a Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb to win and retain his title. 

Sami Zayn came out with his own IC title and claimed he was the rightful champion. He nailed Hardy with a Helluva Kick while Styles watched with a smile.       

Grade: B-

Analysis

Something about the combination of Hardy and Nakamura just works. They don't exactly have similar styles, but there is enough in common for them to always put on good matches.

Styles was more angry than usual on commentary, and it was a little distracting at times. Other than that, he did a good job playing the antagonist, especially when he was reading Hardy the riot act.

It was a little odd that Cesaro wasn't there to support his tag team partner Nakamura, but WWE might be quietly breaking them up if there are plans for either of them in the singles division. 

This was a good first half-hour to SmackDown, especially with the return of Sami Zayn. It will be fun to see the eventual title vs. title match. 

Matt Riddle came out and challenged Baron Corbin to fight him. The King showed up, but it was Chad Gable who ended up facing The Bro.

King Corbin watched as his new ally took it to the MMA fighter with a beautiful tiger suplex for a two-count. A few moments later, Riddle hit Bro Derek for the pin.

Corbin tried to get in a sneak attack, but Riddle saw him coming. He sent the King out of the ring to end the segment. 

Grade: D

Analysis

Riddle's promo was as bland as it gets. He called Corbin out and used the word "bro" way more times than he needed to. It didn't sound natural at all.

The match that followed was quick and pointless. We have already seen Riddle get the best of Gable. We didn't need to see it again in a squash.

WWE needs to just put Riddle and Corbin in the ring together so they can end this feud once and for all. 

During a backstage interaction with Big E and Heavy Machinery, Bayley made a joke about some people being unable to handle anything other than a tag team title. It clearly got under Sasha Banks' skin.

The Golden Role Models came to the ring, and Bayley inadvertently made Banks feel bad about losing her Raw Women's Championship. Bayley said it was her fault for letting Banks face Asuka in the first place. She even brought up how Banks has always lost the Raw title in her first defense.

The Boss took the high road and said Bayley was still her best friend and promised they would win on Sunday. This was when Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax appeared on the big screen to taunt them. 

Jax and Baszler reminded everyone how much they hate each other before saying they would still win the belts. 

Grade: B-

Analysis

The signs have been there for months: Banks and Bayley are going to break up. If Jax and Baszler win on Sunday, Payback might be the last time we see The Golden Role Models. 

Their chemistry as partners is great, but they have always been better opponents. If they lose on Sunday, expect Banks to be the next challenger for Bayley's SmackDown women's title.

This segment did a decent job pushing their title bout at Payback considering they are building a feud on a week's notice. 

After Gulak tried to get revenge against Braun Strowman with a steel chair, The Monster Among Men demanded a match with him. Pearce granted his request in order to get him to sign his Payback contract. 

The Monster immediately took control by crushing Gulak in the corner. The former cruiserweight champion didn't get in a single offensive maneuver before Strowman finished him off with a powerslam.             

Grade: D

Analysis

What was the point of this? We know Strowman is a monster, so seeing him destroy somebody like Gulak doesn't do anything for him. All it does is hurt Gulak.

At least Pearce got another signature before the end of the night. On a side note, Strowman looked like he was cosplaying as Michael Hayes from back when he managed The Hardy Boyz. 

Kalisto told Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik to watch the match from backstage so they could see how it's done. He walked away before Cesaro and Nakamura attacked Dorado and Metalik from behind.

The Swiss Cyborg came out with Nakamura by his side, which makes his absence during Nak's match earlier in the show that much more questionable. 

Cesaro immediately grabbed Kalisto for a body slam as soon as the ref called for the bell. The high-flyer recovered and sent him out of the ring for an awesome hurricanrana from the ropes.

The tag team champion caught him for a backbreaker, but Kalisto came back a moment later with a DDT. Dorado and Metalik ran down to attack Nakamura, and the distraction allowed Cesaro to roll Kalisto up for the win. Lucha House Party got into another argument, but it ended with Kalisto hugging them. 

Grade: B

Analysis

Kalisto and Cesaro are not capable of putting on a bad match. They were able to put on a fun encounter with just a few minutes in the ring.

Both of these men are elite performers, and that is why they always look great, even if they make a couple of mistakes along the way. 

The growing dissension in Lucha House Party is clearly leading to a breakup. Kalisto will likely go his own way while Dorado and Metalik remain a tag team. 

We were supposed to get an episode of MizTV, but Big E refused to appear on the show, so we got this match instead. 

Morrison and Otis started for their team. The Dozer took control and brought in both of his partners for a triple-team in the corner. Tucky hit a nice crossbody from the middle rope for a near fall. 

Interference from Sheamus allowed The Miz and Morrison to get the upper hand. We returned from a break to see Tucker still taking a lot of punishment.

After some confusion over a tag, Sheamus ditched his team for the rest of the match. This allowed Tucker to make the hot tag to Big E. He came in at the same time as The Miz, and Big E started throwing him around with belly to belly suplexes. Big E picked up the win with the Big Ending. 

Grade: B

Analysis

This was your usual six-man tag match. Both teams got enough time for everybody to look good for a couple of minutes, but nobody really stood out. 

The hot tag to Big E led to an entertaining rampage for a few seconds, but Sheamus leaving is what led to The Miz and Morrison's downfall. 

It's great to see WWE committing to E's push and giving him a series of wins. If he keeps going like this, he will be competing for the universal title by the end of the year. 

After Zayn gave a brief interview backstage with Kayla Braxton, Wyatt put on another episode of The Firefly Fun House. 

He celebrated regaining the universal title and said it was good to see Reigns back in WWE. The doorbell rang, and Pearce arrived dressed like a postal worker. He looked confused and asked Wyatt to sign the contract. 

Wyatt acted like it was weird for Postman Pearce to be asking him instead of The Fiend, but Wyatt still signed the contract. 

Later in the show, Pearce was shown failing to get Reigns to answer his door to sign the contract. Even later, Drew Gulak hit Braun Strowman with a chair and then tossed it to Pearce. Luckily for Scrap Daddy, Strowman knew it was Gulak and said he would sign the contract if he got a match with his attacker tonight.

Pearce successfully forced him to sign the contract, but McMahon was unhappy when he returned without Reigns' signature. He told Pearce to knock his door down if he had to.

He eventually found The Big Dog, and Reigns said he would need to read it before signing. When we checked back in with him later, he signed it before revealing he had Paul Heyman by his side.

Grade: B+

Analysis

Seeing Pearce being used more as an authority figure lately has been awesome. He is somebody a lot of fans don't know, but he is a legend among fans of indie wrestling.

Seeing him as the postman during Wyatt's segment brought back memories of Pee Wee's Playhouse. The real meat of this journey happened during the last few moments.

The reveal of Reigns and Heyman being aligned was shocking. These are two men who have been at each other's throats during The Big Dog's feuds with Brock Lesnar, so seeing him with Reigns is a big twist.

Time will tell if this is a permanent union or if Heyman will ditch him as soon as Lesnar returns. Until then, it will be interesting seeing Reigns have a manager.