In many ways, Smackdown has improved. In others, well, let’s just say it’s lacking the punch that Raw has found. The main difference is the storytelling style. While Raw is more action packed, Smackdown relies more on a steady pace, and that can lead to good and bad.
Without further ado, let’s get to the list
In no particular order:
- Shane McMahon putting himself into the King of the Ring tournament against Chad Gable. Add in how he continued to use the $100 k fine to coax Kevin Owens into refereeing and to do “The right thing” before attacking, then “firing” Owens. This storyline just. Won’t. Die.
- Ember Moon’s push. While it’s great to see one of the WWE’s more talented superstars be seen regularly, it’d be nice to see her in a match of fifteen to twenty minutes to see what she can really do. So far, we’ve seen glimpses, but her matches rarely last past the five minute mark. It’s like a cruel and anti-climactic tease.
- Squash matches. Heavy machinery is a fun, awesome young tag team, but they don’t need squash matches. Those should be saved for unknowns receiving a push, but established teams that have competed for the tag titles and have fan support. Just saying.
- The teased Fiend/Undertaker confrontation didn’t happen. While it may have been a red herring when Wyatt “fixed” the clock to read 11:19 (the Undertaker debuted November 19, 1990), it’ll most likely happen at a later date. Either way, it still feels like a wasted opportunity just to put Sami Zayn on when he could’ve commentated with Shinsuke Nakamura during the Miz/Andrade match.
- Why do a majority of Nikki Cross’ singles match wins come by unexpected of surprise? It feels like the other talent or creative team never wants to give her a clean win. Maybe it’s because of that that the fans missed a great moment when she banged Mandy Rose’s head into the turnbuckle seven times after blocking Rose’s attempt to do the same to her. It was a classic move the audience used to count along to, but they remained silent. There’s a disjointed feeling there somewhere. Hopefully, they’ll figure it out.
- Nonsensical miscues. Like mentioned above, Sami Zayn coming out and interrupting the Undertaker, while in character, made no sense storywise. It’s the same kind of clunky storytelling we’ve been begging for the WWE to stop, but someone in creative is being stubborn.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the show was enjoyable, but felt clunky and forced at times, like they wanted to pay tribute while shoehorning current arcs into it.
