4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (March 29 - Results & Review)
WWE treads some water; Jade Cargill's WrestleMania match set; SmackDown focuses on 'B' stories.
It'd be easy to bash WWE for producing a show without top names like The Rock, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre and more this close to WrestleMania XL. However, a show like Friday's episode of SmackDown was always going to happen on the road to Philly. Triple H's task here was focusing on a few 'B' stories and tidying other issues up.
Also, Jade Cargill.
The former AEW star was SmackDown's undoubted centrepiece. She put pen to paper on that blue brand deal with GM Nick Aldis, then got involved later in the night to set up a sure-to-be memorable in-ring debut at 'Mania. Jade even got to point at the big ol' neon sign, because...well, everyone else does, so why not?
A trio of skippable tag-team bouts and an underwhelming main event didn't do much to sell SmackDown as a wrestling purist's dream, but there was enough going on generally to keep things zipping along. WWE did well to ready key undercard bouts with more spirited brawling too.
Here's all the good and bad from Smackers' penultimate edition pre-XL.