5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (April 8)
Downs...
4. Wasted Opportunity/Flat Finish
Small package and roll-up finishes are so overdone in WWE.
Two matches out of four ended via "surprise" pins. The problem? Such moments are hardly surprisingly when they happen every single week. All of that could've been offset had Butch and Xavier Woods been cut loose to have a banger and put on a show, but they were let down by some poor formatting.
The commercial break killed all the momentum they'd been building up before it. Worse, that time could've been saved had Woods and Kofi Kingston not been delivering some uncharacteristically guff material during their pre-match promo. "Records have been reset" and "rabies infested ass" didn't click.
If New Day are free to claim that their loss to Ridge Holland and Sheamus didn't count, then why even bother having the match? Every WrestleMania bout should feel important, if not to fans then at least to the workers involved.