8 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (June 5)

Downs...

2. No Surprises

Brock Lesnar title matches, show-opening talking segments, the general use of authority figures: each is formulaic, but none more so than WWE contract signings.

It's a daft concept. Every match presumably requires a written agreement, so in kayfabe terms, why would any authority figure even think about staging one for the cameras when he or she knows the vast majority descend into chaos? Last night's didn't, but it wasn't particularly interesting either.

Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles sat backstage, their meeting mediated by Paige, who explained their Last Man Standing bout's rules. Lukewarm trash talk followed. AJ told Nak that he can't defeat him straight up, and that he'd retain at Money In The Bank, before 'The King Of Strong Style' farted around with a "broken" pen. This prompted road agent Dean Malenko to jump in, applying one of his 1,000 holds to keep them separated. Styles got a slap in regardless, Nakamura produced his own pen, and the segment was over.

It wasn't awful, but it was pure filler, and did little to advance the feud. Let's hope they have something more exciting planned for next week's go-home.