Shortly after John Cena made fairly easy work of R-Truth at Saturday Night's Main Event, Truth was informed his WWE contract would not be renewed and he would be released from the promotion. Fan and locker room backlash to WWE's decision was so strong that WWE reversed course and gave Truth a new deal.

John Cena started "WWE SmackDown" with a promo interrupted by Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and LA Knight before being attacked by Ron Killings.

Ron Killings made a shocking appearance on WWE SmackDown at the end of the opening segment and launched a vicious attack, with security forcibly having to remove him from the arena.