On April 17, 2018, R-Truth was moved to SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. During the summer, R-Truth involved himself in angles with then SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella, claiming that he would have got a chance against United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura by pinning Carmella (since Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair had both got a chance against Carmella's title by defeating her in non–title matches); R-Truth was eventually granted a match against Nakamura, but lost. On the September 4 episode of "SmackDown Live", Carmella finally agreed to manage R-Truth in his match against The Miz to avoid his wife Maryse's interference. R-Truth eventually won the match thanks to a distraction from Miz and Maryse's enemies Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella, which was also his first televised singles win since May 2016. Shortly after, Carmella started managing R-Truth and the two participated in season two of Mixed Match Challenge. Despite losing three matches before defeating Rusev and Lana to qualify into the playoffs, R-Truth and Carmella went on to defeat Jeff Hardy and Charlotte Flair in the quarter–finals and The Miz and Asuka in the semi–finals. In the finals of the Mixed Match Challenge, that took place on December 16 at , R-Truth and Carmella defeated Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox, earning both the number 30 spots for their respective Royal Rumble matches at the Royal Rumble. On the January 8, 2019 episode of "SmackDown", R-Truth faced WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in a non-title match in a losing effort.