5 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Dec 26)
3. Trouble At The Top
Though hardly the most subtle performer to ever grace his father's stage, Shane McMahon's acting was sensational as SmackDown Live! went off the air for the final time this year.
His intervention had again backfired to the tune of a victory for his fiercest foes. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens got one over on 'The Money' yet again in sneaking bpast AJ Styles just as they did Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura in the Clash Of Champions match orchestrated by the Commissioner to oust them from the company altogether.
Less enraged at their glory, McMahon bore the expression of a boss frustrated that things in general weren't going his way. Exactly as he had done in a sh*t-itchingly awkward chinwag with General Manager Daniel Bryan earlier in the night.
The pair simply can't agree on anything anymore, so it seems. And yet, through a desperate attempt to save a clearly doomed relationship, the pair continue to compromise. Bryan was right to question McMahon's tunnel-vision approach to man management, but 'Shane-O-Mac's exasperated middle distance stare suggested contrition was no longer part of his own manifesto.