Friday Night SmackDown on July 16th took place in front of fans for the first time in 70 weeks. The show was held in Houston, TX, a city that is no stranger to historic WWE moments. The crowd was hot from the jump, and kept the energy high throughout the entire show. The WWE superstars were able to feed off of that energy, not having done so since WrestleMania, and the emotion from the superstars both on the mic and in the ring was clear.

As hard as it is to perform in an empty arena with pumped-in crowd noise, performing live in front of crowds again is no easy task either. There’s been questions of whether superstars would receive the reactions from fans that WWE was hoping for. They can push whoever they want without feedback, but what superstars are really over with the WWE Universe? One man definitely is…

Edge, the Rated R Superstar, the Ultimate Opportunist, the 2021 Royal Rumble winner and WWE Hall of Famer received the crowd pop of the night. Obviously Edge is over and is still a big deal, but surely few realized just how over or how big of a deal. The roof nearly blew off the Toyota Center at the sound of the 47-year-old’s theme music, and the support never wavered throughout the six-man tag match. Every participant in the match, which had Roman Reigns and the Usos taking on Edge with Rey and Dominic Mysterio, was able to put on a great performance and the crowd even seemed to show an outpour of support for Dominic, who wrestled for the first time in front of fans. 

Another highlight for the fans in Houston and around the world was the main roster return of Finn Bálor. Bálor, who has been a member of NXT since late 2019, returned to interrupt and attack Sami Zayn. Finn Bálor’s return to the main roster has been highly anticipated ever since he lost the NXT Championship to Karrion Kross. Bálor was the first ever Universal Champion back in 2016, but had to relinquish the belt the next night due to injury. Now that he has been placed on the blue brand with current champion Roman Reigns, fans may be treated to a feud between the two. 

Bianca Belair was able to compete in front of fans for the first time as SmackDown Women’s Champion as she retained her title against Carmella. The two put on a fantastic match where Bianca would use her hair as a whip as she did against Sasha Banks to win the title at WrestleMania. She received the support from the crowd that she deserves, and will likely hold the championship for the foreseeable future. 

It’s no secret that Kevin Owens is one of the most over, entertaining superstars on the roster, and he proved it once again as he stunned Baron Corbin to the roar of the crowd. He stole the show in the fatal 4-way main event by putting Shinsuke Nakamura through the announce table by way of an elbow drop from the top of a ladder. He’s a fantastic heel but can clearly work as a top babyface. He came up short though as Seth Rollins was able to come away with the victory in the main event. 

While the energy was high and the show felt huge, some superstars had a surprisingly disappointing showing and received a lackluster reaction from the audience. In particular, Cesaro has been one of the hottest and fastest rising stars, competing against Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship two months ago at WrestleMania Backlash. His pop from the Houston crowd was small and the short segment with Chad Gable and Otis halted some of the show’s momentum. Going from a hellacious back and forth with the world champion to a beat down from Otis in 60 days can not have been the trajectory the Swiss Superman was hoping for. 

This marks the return of the live touring schedule for WWE as shows have already been confirmed around the country through September. While most fans won’t necessarily miss the ThunderDome era, it was an opportunity for certain talent on the roster to turn themselves into stars. With things back to normal, we’ll see if these stars can continue to deliver.