6 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Jan 24)
Bleed the freak.
As far as "go home" episodes of wrestling telly go, the latest SmackDown wasn't blistering, but it did do enough to whet the appetite for some Royal Rumble goodness to come. The Rumble matches sell themselves anyway, so it was far more important that WWE concentrated on other bouts padding out Sunday's card.
They bloody well did. Literally.
Bray Wyatt did enough to get a hearty, "You've Got Issues" chant from the live crowd, Roman Reigns and 'King' Corbin gave fans a short preview of their pay-per-view brawl to come, and there was enough to enjoy over SmackDown's solid two hours. WWE are in a groove with this show; they've settled down on FOX and seem to be comfortable with the range of characters available on Fridays.
On the down side, there are still some niggling annoyances when it comes to how some are presented week-by-week. Maybe WWE's writers need to learn that totally ignoring recent history and shoe-horning comedic aspects into the broadcast for the sake of it is wholly unnecessary.
Here are all the 'Ups' and 'Downs' from this week's show...