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WWE

What appeared to be your standard SmackDown six-man tag team match to kick off Tuesday night's episode of SmackDown Live turned into the setup for the incredible main event we're set for on the SmackDown on FOX debut episode. That immediate jolt added to Tuesday night's show was the night's high point as the rest didn't feel as though it moved things forward towards the upcoming Hell in a Cell pay-per-view much at all, outside of a strong show-closing beatdown of Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan at the hands of Erick Rowan and Luke Harper.

Let's now take a closer look at what went down on this week's edition of SmackDown Live in Atlanta on Tuesday night.

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'The Beast' set to meet Kofi Kingston on FOX

The New Day def. Randy Orton & The Revival via pinfall after Kingston hit Trouble in Paradise on Scott Dawson. The match played off the last few weeks of action between the groups, with Orton and his Revival buddies targeting the knee of Xavier Woods and playing dirty only to fall short. Still, The Revival walk away with the tag straps at Clash of Champions.

It was after the match when things took a drastic turn. 

As New Day celebrated in the ring, Brock Lesnar's music hit before "The Beast" and Paul Heyman made their way to the ring. Kingston, standing tall as WWE champ, told his teammates to leave and stood firmly in the center of the ring as Lesnar stepped through the ropes. "It's a bad day for The New Day, yes it is," Heyman said before extending a challenge to Kingston for a title match on the Oct. 4 debut episode of SmackDon on FOX.

"When I won, this WWE title at WrestleMania, I made a promise to the entire WWE Universe that I would be a fighting champion," Kingston responded. "So, as far as your challenge is concerned? I accept."

Lesnar smiled and extended for a handshake only to grab the champ and leave him laying after an F-5.

If there were any doubts WWE would go all out for the FOX debut, you can throw them out right now. This is a big, big match for TV. In fact, it will be Lesnar's first match on SmackDown in more than 15 years when he scored a March 2004 win over Hardcore Holly. What I really enjoyed about the entire segment was Kingston sending New Day away and not showing fear in the face of WWE's biggest force. Lesnar's best matches these days are undoubtedly against plucky, smaller underdogs, and Kofi may fill that role better than anyone right now. The segment got me hyped and provides punch to one of the biggest moments in recent WWE history. Grade: A

Luke Harper & Erick Rowan on the warpath

Rowan had a sit-down interview with Michael Cole early in the show where he refused to discuss Harper's involvement in his no disqualification match victory over Roman Reigns at Clash of Champions. Rowan claimed he carried out attacks on Reigns to simply cause fear in "The Big Dog." He also claimed he is not a follower and is, in fact, a leader who will no longer be overlooked. For good measure, Rowan also said he is Daniel Bryan's intellectual and physical superior.

Later in the show, Harper and Rowan looked to prove that point when they attacked Bryan as he was in the ring addressing Rowan's actions over the past few weeks. Reigns tried to make the save as Harper and Rowan laid out Bryan but ended up on the receiving end of his own beatdown which included a powerbomb into the ringpost. The duo then put Bryan through the announce table as the show went off the air.

SmackDown lost a lot of steam as the show went on. It felt less important than Raw the night before, but the opening and closing sections were powerful bookends. Harper and Rowan felt like a dangerous force working together, and it seemed the crowd was buying into the situation. The journey to get to this point has been less than great, but a tag match between these men and wherever things go afterwards is suddenly interesting again. Grade: B+

What else happened on WWE SmackDown?

  • Charlotte Flair def. Sasha Banks via disqualification when Bayley attacked Flair as she had Banks in the Figure-Eight. Earlier in the show, Banks and Bayley cut a backstage promo only lightly touching on the controversy between Bayley and Flair at Clash of Champions. After Bayley's attack, Carmella made the save.
  • Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura laid out Ali ahead of their scheduled match. As they walked to the ring, Zayn talked about Ali's "upset" win over Nakamura a few weeks back. Sensing what was coming, Ali attempted to get the jump on them by attacking Nakamura. In the end, the numbers game was too much and Ali was taken out by a Kinshasa.
  • Kevin Owens arrived and took a seat in the crowd moments before Shane McMahon was served with legal paperwork. McMahon made his way to the ring and talked about Owens filing a wrongful termination suit before calling Owens to the ring. Owens made it clear he has a valid case based on McMahon's actions and hypocrisy before leaving the ring. Hoe vowed to fire McMahon himself after he's victorious in the suit. 
  • During Baron Corbin's coronation as the 2019 King of the Ring, he called Chad Gable to the ring. After a string of short jokes from Corbin, Gable tackled the king through the throne and hit him with the scepter. After Corbin left the ring, Gable tore the robe before stomping on the crown, leaving every shred of Corbin's royal belongings destroyed.
  • Heavy Machinery def. The B-Team via pinfall after the Compactor. Heavy Machinery graduate from squashing local talent to squashing locker room talent.