5 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jan 30)
Mediocrity reigns in Philly.
Last night's SmackDown came with much promise. The show has been solid throughout 2018, and with Shinsuke Nakamura winning the Royal Rumble and the Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn tandem legitimately screwed out of the WWE Championship, an eventful follow-up seemed all but guaranteed.
This didn't materialise. There was one major development in Zayn and Owens' relationship, but most of the key players remained locked in-place. It was the kind of filler episode that plagued the blue brand in 2017, and while there were plenty of successes throughout, most were minor.
Midcarders battled for the right to challenge for Bobby Roode's United States Title, The Usos' latest contenders emerged, and Tye Dillinger worked only his second televised bout in four months. Elsewhere, Charlotte Flair addressed the women's division following their historic first Rumble, while Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin looked to rebound from their crushing PPV loss.
Not a bad show by any means, but certainly a skippable one, and with six weeks to go until Fastlane, there's a real danger of SmackDown falling into a familiar holding pattern of mailed-in episodes. We hope that doesn't happen, but last night wasn't an encouraging start.
Let's break it down...