THE JUDGMENT DAY REPLACED AT WWE SMACKDOWN FOLLOWING DELAYS - REPORTS

The Judgement Day members were replaced at WWE Smackdown on June 28, following several flight delays for the wrestlers. The faction is one of the most dominating factions in the promotion right now, and are involved in multiple storylines.

Of all the members of the faction, WWE Champion Damian Priest was supposed to go up against Jey Uso in a title defense match on Smackdown after the show went off air. JD McDonaugh and his tag-team partner Finn Balor were supposed to challenge Awesome Truth for the World Tag-Team title belts.

WWE makes emergency match change following The Judgement Day’s travel delays

However, due to flight delays, both Priest and McDonaugh couldn’t make it to the show on time, forcing WWE to make some last moment changes to the event card. As a part of these changes, Balor faced Jey Uso in a Street Fight whereas Awesome Truth and Pretty Deadly went head-to-head with each other.

Awesome Truth defeated Pretty Deadly in a match that was well fought and had some nice spots. Finn Balor was stopped in his tracks by Jey Uso and lost the match after being put through a table.

The night concluded with Cody Rhoades coming back to the ring and addressing the brawl that transpired during the telecast. That said, it’s worth noting that the Judgement Day are a faction that’s commonly seen during Monday Night RAW, but them being present on Smackdown could be an interesting way to shake things up and create smaller storylines.

Considering that the faction itself is currently showing cracks, it would be a nice way to implement smaller storylines within the ongoing narrative to make matters even more interesting.

As of now, Rhea Ripley’s absence on the show is being felt heavily, because it looks like Damian Priest isn't able to handle the stable all by himself. That aside, Liv Morgan is also acting as a catalyst to the problems at hand.

Priest will defend his title against Seth Rollins at the Money in the Bank PPV on July 7 and according to the agreement he had with the challenger, he would quit The Judgement Day if he lost to Rollins.

While raising the stakes, the WWE Champion mentioned that he didn’t need The Judgement Day as much as they needed him. This just might cause the stable to turn against him during the title match at the PPV, causing him to lose his championship and start a feud with the stable.

With Rhea Ripley’s return currently unclear, it’s difficult to say which direction the group will go in, but the cracks are apparent and the group is bound to implode very soon. It will be interesting to see how WWE decides to build on this storyline moving forward.