3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Jan 15)
WWE delivered a 'KO' to Roman Reigns and set up a weird obstacle course on SmackDown.
Well, he was a red herring after all.
SmackDown's sort-of GM Adam Pearce won't challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Title at the 2021 Royal Rumble. Instead, returning hero Kevin Owens will go toe-to-toe with the champ in a 'Last Man Standing' match on 31 January. That, after all the whinging and disbelieving glances last week, is a bit of a relief.
This week's effort wasn't the greatest show though. It feels like SmackDown has fallen off a bit of a cliff since calendars turned to 2021, and it's hard to understand why. Reigns is still a domineering overseer for the brand, they crowned new Tag-Team Champions last Friday, and everything should be heading in the right direction now it's (almost) officially WrestleMania season.
It's just a pity that everything feels so...bland right now. Hopefully that'll be rectified over the next few weeks, because the Rumble deserves way more than tepid build - that's what fans are getting, for varying reasons, on both Raw and SmackDown at the moment.
Regardless, it's never all bad. Here are all this week's 'Ups' and 'Downs'...