4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (July 1)
WWE finally repackages some undercard stars; MITB build is found wanting.
"Go home" shows should be an intoxicating blend of teases and hype for the upcoming pay-per-view. At their best, they leave fans desperate to see what's going to happen on the card in question. At their worst, they're phoned-in efforts riddled with spotty logic that do the supershow no favours.
This week's SmackDown, sadly, fell into the latter camp.
You'd struggle to find a more inessential episode than this one, and not only because head boy Roman Reigns was totally absent. That's not to say that everything was terrible either (very few things were outright awful), but the broadcast was definitely bland and felt more like a three-hour Raw than a two-hour SmackDown. That's pretty damning criticism right there.
On the plus side, WWE continued to get behind a breakout babyface star, and some newly-turned heels did show enough menace to make their segment worth checking out. Elsewhere, creative's repackage jobs deserve some benefit of the doubt and the chance to develop before people cut them down.
Here's all the good and bad from the final stop before Money In The Bank.