In one of his biggest challenge on the blue brand, Andrade “Cien” Almas squared off with Rusev on SmackDown LIVE after the two had a tense exchange backstage earlier in the evening. Counteracting Zelina Vega being in Almas’ corner was Lana, but notable in his absence was Aiden English, who it appeared The Bulgarian Brute was still at odds with after his WWE Championship defeat at WWE Extreme Rules.
Squaring off for the first time ever, Rusev and Almas went tit-for-tat in an evenly matched contest that saw momentum swing several times. As the fight continued, Vega and Lana got into a heated altercation at ringside. Vega slapped Lana, and The Ravishing Russian tackled Vega, prompting The Mozart of Mayhem to hit the scene to separate the two. However, Vega jumped on his back, causing English to fall into Lana and sending all three to the ground. With The Super Athlete distracted by the ruckus at ringside, Andrade took advantage by dropping his opponent with the Hammerlock DDT for the win.
In the backstage area after the match, English and Lana were pointing fingers over who was to blame for the defeat before Rusev interjected to imply that maybe neither English or Lana was good for Rusev Day.