3 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Dec 20)

Award-winning child actors, all the Christmas shenanigans and more ham.

by Jamie Kennedy
Daniel Bryan The Miz
WWE.com

A heel turn for The Miz is incoming, right?

It'll only hurt his standing as a babyface if WWE keep pushing the fact he dislikes a wildly popular figure like Daniel Bryan, and SmackDown could do with another strong heel to back up 'King' Corbin anyway. Plus, Bray Wyatt is skirting a fine line between outright heel and weirdly-likeable tweener who plays by his own rules, so the brand could do with more outright baddies.

A quick look at the title reveals this wasn't a banner episode for the blue brand. WWE are in time-killing mode during this festive season, and they're blatantly spinning their wheels before the Royal Rumble hype starts in earnest this January. That left Brooklyn with a show that was house show fare with cameras.

There was some good in there too (thank f*ck for The Revival's dedication to their own gimmick), but this was a rough night for a creative team who use Christmas as an annual excuse to phone it in. Here are all the 'Ups & Downs' from the penultimate SmackDown of 2019...

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Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.