6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (9 Jan - Results & Review)
Drew McIntyre wins WWE Title; Jacob Fatu returns; Cody Rhodes = stupid babyface?
Jacob Fatu's return, Jordynne Grace's debut, Trick Williams interrupting another major star whilst looking like one himself, another United States Title banger and a huge WWE Title change. Those are the biggest bullet points SmackDown had to shout about on a memorable night over in Berlin, Germany. This, for the second week in a row, proved that there could be something to this 3-hour thing.
It won't be the case every week, but Triple H loaded Friday's show with some big time bouts. A few of them (Carmelo Hayes defending his US Title and the main event '3 Stages Of Hell' showdown) would've been at home on PLE, which really says it all. Even the crummy Wyatt Sicks vs. MFTs feud managed to take a bow by delivering something way better than those squads have been since becoming rivals.
It's nice to be positive, eh?!
The haters shouldn't worry though, because there are some negatives to report from the European tour. Not many, but some. Sadly, a match that looked sweet on paper didn't quite live up to the hype. In the headliner, an uninspired first fall threatened to bring everything down on top of Cody and Drew, and some bizarre character work from Rhodes either wonkily implied a heel turn or just shouldn't have happened at all.
On the whole, this was a cracking night for the blue brand. WWE managed to shake things up early on the road to WrestleMania (doing so before Royal Rumble!), and that'll keep things interesting. Here's all the good and bad from this week's SmackDown.