7 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jan 23)
A resounding "yep."
While Raw's 25th anniversary show quickly devolved into the worst kind of bloated WWE nostalgia trip, last night's SmackDown couldn't have been any different. It was light on Royal Rumble hype, but the blue brand delivered another rock-solid two hours, highlighted by their biggest, boldest personalities, and a fine collection of TV matches.
WWE Champion AJ Styles was full of swagger as he confronted Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn inside the ring and out. Their storyline has been inconsistent, but they were given every chance to succeed last night, with Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon playing only peripheral roles. Did they deliver? Mostly, but with one notable exception.
Elsewhere, we got Liv Morgan vs. Naomi from a women's division in which none of the competitors are on the same page ahead of the Rumble. Shinsuke Nakamura met Baron Corbin on the midcard, PPV opponents Chad Gable and Jey Uso contested a singles bout, and The New Day found a new ally in Bobby Roode. A solid line-up, and one resulting in a thoroughly enjoyable episode of SmackDown, suggesting that maybe, just maybe, the brand is back in the ascendancy.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though: this show was far from perfect...