Otis and Apollo Crews went through a change in their characters on tonight’s SmackDown as both of them embraced their negative sides.
A match was set between Shinsuke Nakamura and Apollo Crews during SmackDown, with Intercontinental Champion Big E joining commentary for the match.
While the match was underway, Big E derided Apollo Crews and told him that it was time to move on and fight someone like Nakamura instead. This only made things worse as Crews lost to Nakamura and resorted to causing chaos and uncalled-for violence.
After being rolled up for a successful pinfall by Nakamura, Crews attacked him from behind while he was celebrating and threw him out of the ring. Crews launched Nakamura to the barricade and went to mouth off to Big E. Crews then grabbed the steel steps, but Big E got in the way and told him to put it down and walk away.
Crews complied and put them down, with Big E going to check on Nakamura – only for Crews to pick them up again and slam them in Big E’s back, effectively knocking him down. He then threw the steps and Big E inside the ring, but a referee interfered in time, allowing E to roll out of harm’s way.
The referee asked Crews to throw the steps down – which he did – but they landed on Big E. He was then stretchered out of the ThunderDome.
Apollo Crews’ full heel turn was definitely around the corner, and now it has finally arrived. It’d be interesting to see if Crews could join hands with Roman Reigns now that he’s on the “other” side.
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Apollo Crews is not the only heel turn of the night though, as Otis surprised everyone by knocking out Rey Mysterio during a tag team match.
During the match between Otis and Chad Gable vs Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio, Alpha Academy, however, wanted to unfold chaos in the ring. For some reason, Gable argued and ordered Otis to deliver a splash from the top turnbuckle on Rey Mysterio, who was already down.
The referee then called for the bell, as Otis apparently didn’t pay any heed to the official’s count of five. Gable instructed Otis to hit another splash on Rey, after which Otis proceeded to pose in the ring. Dominik helped Rey backstage as he was knocked out and wasn’t moving.
