The WWE Universe has turned on a former AEW star on SmackDown.
Tonight’s episode of SmackDown saw the WWE Universe turn on a fan-favorite. The superstar in question is former AEW star Aleister Black. This happened after The Harbinger of Fury laid out a former world champion.
In light of what went down last week, former World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest walked into tonight’s episode in San Antonio looking for Black. After all, the 40-year-old blindsided him on last Friday’s episode and left him in a heap backstage.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t find Black but ran into Carmelo Hayes. Words were exchanged, and as usual, Hayes couldn’t keep his mouth shut, leading to a match. The match itself could have gone either way, but things took a turn for the worse after Priest gained some momentum.
Why? Well, that was when Aleister Black interfered and attacked Priest, effectively ending the match.
YIKES!@Aleister_Blxck just took out @ArcherOfInfamy 😱 pic.twitter.com/t4WoU2UWSQ
— WWE (@WWE) July 19, 2025
What followed was a string of jeers and boos from the fans in attendance on SmackDown. It’s safe to say that Black is well and truly the heel in this storyline, and from the looks of it, that doesn’t bother him whatsoever.
WWE SmackDown kicked off with a car accident
Speaking of tonight’s episode of SmackDown, things began with a major car accident. Prior to the events of the night, stand-in general manager Adam Pearce was seen outside the arena surveying the scene of said accident.
Solo Sikoa and his MFTs were the ones involved and were busy talking to law enforcement about what happened. Fortunately, this was all a part of Sikoa’s ongoing storyline with Jacob Fatu, and the whole incident was cleared up later on in the episode.