5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Feb 28)
There's nothing like a spot of good old-fashioned arson on a Tuesday night.
Another week, another successful SmackDown. While this week's show lacked knock-down match the calibre of last week's Battle Royal or the Post-Elimination Chamber WWE Championship Triple Threat, it more than delivered in terms of storyline advancement. Even the flawed segments served a purpose, and SmackDown's closing sequence produced what should become one of 2017's most talked-about angles.
Randy Orton betrayed Bray Wyatt in spectacular fashion. In burning the Wyatt Family Compound to the ground and completely desecrating Sister Abigail's burial ground, he floored his former master in the most devastating way imaginable. The WWE Champion was reduced to tears by the end of it, but with WrestleMania 33 still four weeks away, there's plenty of time for him to gain a measure of revenge.
Orton's arson overshadowed everything else, but it wasn't SmackDown's only talking point. The Miz and John Cena kicked things off with an excellent episode of MizTV, the wheels started turning for Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles, and Luke Harper looked incredible for the fourth show running.
A big show for everyone involved, but what hit the mark, and what fell flat? Let's have a look...
Downs...
3. Stuck In Second Gear... Again
Becky Lynch wrestled Mickie James one-on-one for the third time in just over two weeks last night, and as with their other two matches, it was a bland, unmemorable affair. Becky took the Best of Three Falls match 2:1, and while she benefits from finally scoring a clean submission win over James, these matches haven't delivered, particularly when you consider who's involved.
Lynch is the ace of SmackDown's women's division, and the cleanest technical wrestler of NXT's celebrated Four Horsewomen. James, meanwhile, is one of the all-time greats, and her recent NXT TakeOver match with Asuka proves she's still among the best around. Unfortunately, the duo have great difficulty summoning any kind of chemistry in the ring, and the matches have suffered as a result.
The actual wrestling is fine and you'd struggle to find a single technical screw-up in any of them. The problem is that Becky and Mickie aren't telling a story, and at the heart of what is supposed to be a heated rivalry, they're wrestling like these are random house show matches. There has been no sense of anger or hatred in either woman's work, and while they almost certainly have a classic match in them, it's best they both move onto new opponents for a while.