5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Nov 20)
Someone should've told New Day to go home on WWE's final stop before Survivor Series...
WWE had one more chance to shoot their shot and make Survivor Series look must-see on this week's SmackDown.
Did they achieve that goal? The jury's out, but maybe that has more to do with this time of year generally than anything else. It's been said before (and it'll be said again, probably in 2021), but Survivors is a lame-duck pay-per-view these days. Not only that - the show also needlessly spits on recent roster changes.
SmackDown's writers did the best they could with dodgy formatting then. They deserve credit for that, and both Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre need a pat on the back for injecting some much-needed life into their 'Champion vs. Champion' bout too. Actually, throw Paul Heyman into that as well. His facial expressions are world class.
Whilst there's a definite sense that WWE creative can't wait to motor past Sunday, they did pen some good stuff on SmackDown. Of course, they also suffered because of the boring Raw vs. SmackDown tropes that have strangled November for too long.
Here are all the 'Ups' and 'Downs' from WWE's go home episode...