2 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE SmackDown (May 8)
Excited for Money In The Bank yet? SmackDown's writers aren't...
If last week's SmackDown was a well-focused episode that smartly put emphasis on Otis' revenge, Sonya Deville's menace, Daniel Bryan's technical ability and passion, Bray Wyatt's Joker-esque delivery and more, then this week's was a tepid go home episode.
WWE failed to really build much last-minute excitement for this weekend's Money In The Bank.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly why, when the SmackDown writing crew has been so solid lately, they lazily leaned on overused tropes. Yours truly is screaming for WWE to once (just once) look back to how they ran into the last MITB pay-per-view, take a note of how the TV show immediately before it ended and do something a bit different.
As sad as it is to report, there wasn't a lot to like here. Whilst the actual in-ring wrestling itself was typically solid, the character work left a lot to be desired and creative stayed within their comfort zone rather than bursting out and raising many questions heading into Sunday.
Here are all the 'Ups' and 'Downs' from a rather disappointing, stock show that did more harm than good...