5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (10 July - Results & Review)
Downs...
4. “Whatever This Is, It’s Not Working”
It's always fairly awkward when wrestlers point out WWE's flaws on camera.
That's what CM Punk did during a quick fire backstage skit with Candice LeRae and Johnny Gargano. At first, Candice made a good point about now-former WWE Champ Sami Zayn representing the misfits and underutilised workers on the roster. She was hoping his title reign would go on a while longer. Then, Punk shot holes in her argument by drawing attention to the obvious.
He said: "Whatever this is, it's not working" about Gargano's comatose gimmick. He’s right there, but it exposes a glaring weakness in Triple H’s booking on SmackDown. Some characters have nothing going on of note, and they simply repeat the same stuff over and over again without change, tweaks or progression. 'Johnny Wrestling' has been laying around looking scunnered (there's a Scottish word for you!) for far too long now. It's literally all he does.
Punk's comments might've been a sly message to the creative team. 'Change this or I'll keep criticising it live on air'. It's never a good look when your brand's main champion tut tuts at some of the other characters around him. Worse, LeRae was actually in full flow about Sami's 9-day title reign before CM cut her off to take a pop at those wielding the mighty pen.
The best thing for all concerned would be moving away from Gargano's gimmick. It's going nowhere. Again, literally. There's gonna need to be some movement eventually. They even fly the dude out internationally to spread out on top of production crates backstage!