5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Apr 24)
Welcome to 'The Roast Of Triple H'...
'You're gonna' see some matches and then both Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon will rip the living p*ss out of Triple H'.
That's how WWE could've marketed the latest episode of SmackDown. Toilet humour, for once, gave way to the glory of dad jokes as the program went off the air, and it was clear that the company felt sprinkling some fun nostalgia on proceedings was the best way to make the program a hit with fans sitting at home.
The problem is that WWE no longer have the magic of WrestleMania hype to fall back on, and the honeymoon grace period that came along with filming these empty arena shows has faded. Now, people are waiting to see what's next - the sad fact is that WWE will struggle to keep fans invested if they keep pushing throwaway celebrations and desperately uninteresting title matches onto TV instead of meaningful storyline development.
On the bright side, SmackDown was fun for what it was, and WWE aren't exactly pretending that they have some grand plan to see out lockdown. They're rolling wth the punches, taking things week-by-week and trying to make the best of things.
Is it enough? Only time will tell...