New Day Splits, Draft Underwhelms and More WWE SmackDown Fallout

Night one of the WWE Draft did not bring with it much in the way of change for the majority of the company's top Superstars, but it did spell the end for one of the most decorated trios in wrestling history.

In the most controversial pick of Friday's broadcast, The New Day's Big E remained with the blue brand while new SmackDown tag team champions Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods found themselves shipped to Raw, leaving the most unexpectedly successful groups in WWE history heartbroken in the center of the ring.

That questionable booking decision headlined a show that also saw the arrival of Seth Rollins to Fox, the return of Lars Sullivan (yes, he still exists) and the latest in the rivalry between Sasha Banks and Bayley.

Dive deeper into those topics with this recap of the October 9 broadcast.

It was destined to happen one day, regardless of how successful the faction had been. The New Day would be split up in some misguided attempt to push one (or all) as singles stars, bringing an end to something truly special that Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods worked endlessly to get over.

That time came Friday night as Kingston and Woods won the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and were immediately drafted to Raw. Big E remained on SmackDown, continuing his recent singles push.

It makes no sense that WWE would think it has to disassociate Big E from his New Day brethren when Kingston was WWE champion for a majority of 2019 and was still able to retain that bond with his teammates.

Unless the plan was to spread the star power across both shows and, eventually, make the reunion a bigger deal, this was a move that made no sense and only served to break the collective heart of an audience that grew to love the trio and its exploits following a rough start way back in 2014.

There is a soundbite that accompanies every draft special WWE has produced for the last decade in which Vince McMahon exclaims, "It's time to shake things up again!"

That is all good and well when that actually happens. Friday night, though, was not one of those times.

Seth Rollins was the biggest acquisition of night one, heading to SmackDown. While that should have been a huge coup for the blue brand and a major opportunity for the Messiah to freshen things up after six years spent on the flagship, it was undone later in the night when Rey and Dominik Mysterio were drafted to Friday nights.

They have spent the last four months feuding and working with Rollins every week on Raw, making for repetitive and tired television. And now they are almost certain to work with each other on the grander stage that network television presents.

It is disappointing, too, because the draft is one of the most eagerly anticipated elements of WWE television every year and could have helped create a spark in a product that has largely been stagnant in 2020.

When a Superstar goes away for an extended period of time and the fans aren't clamoring for his return, it is probably a good indication they don't much care for said Superstar. Perhaps that is why Lars Sullivan's return Friday night was met with general apathy across social media.

The big man made an unsolicited return to television Friday night, attacking Jeff Hardy, Matt Riddle, The Miz and John Morrison and immediately re-establishing himself a destructive force in WWE. On-screen, not off. He has no problem doing that on his own time.

Sullivan is a hulking presence with unbridled ferocity. He looks like a beast, works like a beast but has the on-screen personality of drying paint. He is devoid of character development and gets over with management almost exclusively because of his size and physique.

Vinnie Mac has never met an angry heel with big biceps that he did not instantly want to push to moon. 

Still, that does not make up for the fact that Sullivan returned for the first time in nearly a year to relative indifference, making his long-term prospects much cloudier than management hoped for.

The timing of the Sasha Banks-Bayley breakup immediately had fans eyeing Hell in a Cell for the potential blow-off to their feud. The event, and its namesake match, felt like the perfect opportunity for the history-making duo to add to their legacies, waging war inside the unforgiving steel structure in what may prove to be the best match of an already stacked card.

Friday night on SmackDown, the SmackDown women's champion and her intense rival moved one step closer to making those expectations a reality as Bayley intentionally got herself disqualified, thus saving her title reign.

From there, Banks punished her with a barrage of steel chair shots before issuing a formal challenge for a match inside Hell in a Cell. While we have yet to hear from Bayley as to whether or not she will accept, the anticipation for the match suggests fans will be champing at the bit to watch the former friends turned bitter enemies write the latest chapter of their rivalry on October 25.

And for good reason.

Bayley and Banks have incredible in-ring chemistry. They made history in NXT in 2015 with their rivalry, sparked a revolution that made women's wrestling a must-see element of WWE and created this opportunity to headline a pay-per-view event.

Their match will not disappoint, and the red-hot story leading into it all but ensures it.