On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, The Usos were drafted to SmackDown working on both the Battleground and SummerSlam pre-shows. Then, they entered an 8 tag team tournament to determine the inaugural holders of the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship. On the September 6 episode of "SmackDown", The Usos turned heel for the first time since 2011 when they attacked American Alpha after losing to them in 28 seconds in the semi-finals. At Backlash, The Usos defeated The Hype Bros before facing Heath Slater and Rhyno in the tournament finals, but were defeated. The Usos faced the new champions at No Mercy, where they were defeated again. As part of their heel turn, they began a street-like, thuggish gimmick. The Usos participated in a 5–on–5 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match at Survivor Series, where they lost to Cesaro and Sheamus of Team Raw. The Usos would reignite their feud with American Alpha following the Elimination Chamber after they attacked American Alpha.