WWE SmackDown video highlights: Season premiere

By Joseph Currier
Published: 14 Oct 2023, 04:05

Roman Reigns, John Cena, and Paul “Triple H” Levesque all made appearances on SmackDown’s season premiere episode last night.

A confrontation between Reigns and Cena opened the show, but it didn’t set up a future match between them. Cena acknowledged Reigns’ historic title reign as being the greatest accomplishment in WWE history. Cena said he wasn’t there to challenge Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship because he hasn’t earned that right. But Cena said he does know someone who has earned it: LA Knight.

Knight told Reigns things have changed during the two months that Reigns has been gone. This is LA Knight’s game now. Knight said Reigns is standing in his way. Jimmy Uso then attacked Knight, but Knight was able to turn the tables on Jimmy and throw him out of the ring.

With Cena helping to fend off interference by Jimmy, Knight defeated Solo Sikoa in last night’s main event. But Reigns laid out Knight with a spear after the match was over.

Levesque was on last night’s show to make an announcement. He stated that Raw and SmackDown will now have their own general managers. Levesque revealed the debuting Nick Aldis as the new SmackDown general manager. Adam Pearce will be the general manager of Raw.

In his first act as GM, Aldis announced that Kevin Owens is now a member of the SmackDown roster. Owens is the trade compensation that SmackDown received for Jey Uso going to Raw.

More coverage from last night —

WWE SmackDown video highlights —

Full segment: Roman Reigns-LA Knight confrontation