4 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Feb 25)
2. Hey, At Least IC Is Featured!
Is Johnny Knoxville wrestling for the Intercontinental belt at WrestleMania the best case scenario? No, but he and Sami Zayn have some chemistry together, and they proved that yet again on this week's show. The title was dead before Sami won it back last week too, so it's wise to take any featured spot at all as a small mercy.
That's true even if celebs are about to win it.
Fans in the arena popped big for Knoxville. He actually got one of the louder reactions of the entire night (behind Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and probably Ronda Rousey), and it's not exactly a new thing to see WWE rely on celebrities heading into 'Mania. Wrestling purists may have a conniption fit that the IC strap is involved though.
On the whole, this segment was fine. Sami got to drum up some cheap heat before JK even appeared, and then Zayn booted the Jackass star around the ring. There were no unrealistic, Shane McMahon-esque MMA beatdowns to be found here.