With the majority of WWE superstars and crew stuck in Saudi Arabia following Crown Jewel, Vince McMahon needed a back-up plan to fill Friday Night SmackDown out.The superstars were supposed to fly back from Riyadh and straight into Buffalo, New York, but a problem with their chartered aeroplane meant most of them didn't leave until SmackDown was on the air in the States.A couple of stars who travelled via their own means and ones that hired a separate charter out following the issues ended up getting back to the States, but as of writing the rest of them are still in the air currently.The show had to go on though, with WWE promising some surprises - and what we ended up seeing was possibly one of the best shows of 2019 from any brand.That was because the back-up plan was an 'NXT invasion', which was fitting as WWE's Wednesday night brand will be a part of Survivor Series in three weeks times.

The first NXT star we saw was Women's Champion Shayna Baszler, who jumped Sasha Banks and Bayley after the latter defeated Nikki Cross to retain her SmackDown Title.

Following this, Sami Zayn was confronted backstage by Matt Riddle and Keith Lee, who chased the mouthpiece of Shinsuke Nakamura to the ring, and Zayn was laid out by the pair - Lee making the crowd bask in his glory with a ridiculously-impressive Moonsault from the second rope.

The surprises just kept coming, as Miz TV was interrupted by Tommaso Ciampa, who was challenged to a match by the A-lister.

Ciampa came out on top against the former WWE Champion, and it would be NXT domination in the ring all night.

Bianca Belair then showed up and attacked Dana Brooke and Carmella backstage before their tag team match against Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, leaving the path clear for Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox to face them instead - easily disposing of them.

And the best was saved until last, as for the first time ever the NXT Championship was defended on the main roster, with Adam Cole facing Daniel Bryan in a dream match.

Cole defeated Bryan clean as a whistle in a 25-minute classic, before Triple H delivered a war cry on behalf of NXT, firing the first shots on the road to Survivor Series.

If this leads to a SmackDown invasion of NXT coming up in the next couple of weeks, then WWE's future programming could be the best we have seen for a long time!