10 Things We Learned From The Payback Go-Home WWE SmackDown Live! (April 25)
Prince Of Thieves.
In the vast shadow cast by WrestleMania 33, Sunday's Payback pay-per-view is a calendrical curiosity featuring a bulk of Raw undercard matches and two feature contests for titles housed firmly on Tuesday nights.
Either confidence from the titleholders or malaise from an overworked creative team has lead both shows to look beyond Sunday's Network Special. WWE Champion Randy Orton and United States Champion Kevin Owen are card-carrying SmackDown Live! roster members, and have already set themselves up with post-Payback programmes with Jinder Mahal and AJ Styles respectively.
But watching Monday Night Raw's response to the inter-brand matches was almost as if somebody in the company remembered they had a card to run this weekend. Bray Wyatt closed Raw looking remarkably efficient for a change, and Chris Jericho made half-baked assurances about defeating Kevin Owens and migrating to SmackDown Live! despite the common knowledge that he's already gone one foot out of the door attempting to step onto a Fozzy tourbus.
Ultimately, there is still work to be done to get the company to Sunday and beyond, and for one more week, the blue brand will have to contribute to the mix. Marking the very last stop before Payback, here are 10 things we learned from the April 25 edition of SmackDown Live!
10. The Main Event
Charlotte's first crack at Naomi's SmackDown Women's Title was refreshingly unheralded as the main event, as the blue brand continues to do a better job with the female league by consistently underplaying their hand.
Ever since the 2016 Draft, SmackDown Live! has usually fostered more than one feud between the women, which has brought the level of equality WWE trumpet in documentaries but often fail to deliver upon when it really counts.
Like Alexa Bliss before her, Naomi has quickly adapted to life atop the Tuesday night show, with her the quality of her matches trending upwards and a brand new connection with the audience fostered from her time on the shelf and heartbreaking pre-WrestleMania sacrifice of the title.
For Charlotte, the match was another opportunity to prove why she was the biggest steal for SmackDown Live! in the 'Superstar Shake-up', and she did so with typical aplomb.
As polished and complete a women's wrestler as WWE has ever had, Flair oozes a confidence that parlays into her crisp in-ring style. The ten minute show-closer always felt as though it would serve to progress the big angle rather than deliver a clean finish, but both women created outstanding tension before the inevitable schmoz.