The Brawling Brutes took the fight to The Bloodline (Picture: WWE)

WWE star Sheamus returned on SmackDown as the Brawling Brutes got backup from Drew McIntyre in their fight against The Bloodline.

Roman Reigns and his family – sadly without Sami Zayn due to personal reasons – were all over SmackDown this week, kicking things off with The Usos in action and culminating in a wild brawl at the end of the night.

The opening bout saw Jimmy and Jey Uso take another step closer to immortality as they defeated The New Day to retain the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles, meaning they’re all but certain to break the latter’s 483-day record run with the gold.

Not surprisingly, the match was worthy of the high stakes and their rich history together, even with the fans breaking into chants for Sami, which were handled well by the champs.

At the end of the night, The Bloodline – including Paul Heyman and Solo Sikoa – came out to celebrate their successes, after The Usos earlier victory and Reigns’ win over Logan Paul at Crown Jewel.

However, Ridge Holland and Butch came out to confront them, soon joined by newlywed Sheamus as they took the fight to the group, even if the numbers game became a bit much.

Thankfully, they had backup in the form of Drew McIntyre, with the Scottish Warrior joining his fellow Brits in battle as SmackDown went off the air in a chaotic and thrilling way.

The brawl was also a perfect preview for the men’s WarGames match at the rebranded Survivor Series later this month, while leaving room to add another member to each team.

Bray Wyatt attacks LA Knight, Sarah Logan returns and the SmackDown World Cup gets underway

On a night featuring plenty of in-ring action, the second match saw Santos Escobar get a win over Shinsuke Nakamura in the first match of the SmackDown World Cup.

He got some help from his Legado del Fantasma teammates, who caused a distraction and helped him beat the former Intercontinental Champion in an entertaining clash.

After Bray Wyatt ended up headbutting LA Knight backstage following a brief exchange, it was time to find out Ronda Rousey’s challenger for the SmackDown Women’s Title at Survivor Series.

Shotzi will face Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series: WarGames (Picture: WWE)

Shotzi won the wild but messy match, outlasting Lacey Evans, Xia Li, Liv Morgan, Sonya Deville and Raquel Rodriguez.

There was an awkward and painful looking moment with a table, and the SmackDown division as a whole needs some fine tuning, but Shotzi is a good choice to take on Rousey next.

Backstage, she got confronted by the champ and her ally Shayna Baszler, who choked out the new number one contender.

Braun Strowman is advancing in the SmackDown World Cup (Picture: WWE)

In another first round match in the SmackDown World Cup – with the eventual prize being an Intercontinental Title match against GUNTHER – Jinder Mahal made a rare TV appearance against Braun Strowman.

It didn’t last long, with the Monster of All Monsters hitting the, er, Monsterbomb to earn a dominating win.

Zelina Vega and B-Fab never got to have their match, with Sarah Logan bringing out the Viking Raiders to lay waste to Hit Row and Legado del Fantasma.

This was a fantastic and violent way to reintroduce the trio, with the SmackDown tag division simmering away from The Bloodline.

The show as a whole did a good job of starting the build for Survivor Series, laying some groundwork while other feuds started and stars built momentum with the beginning of the World Cup.

WWE SmackDown airs Friday nights at 1am on BT Sport 1.

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An entertaining, match-heavy night for the blue brand.