6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Jan 3)
A night of returns...
Is this 2020 or 2010?
Sheamus has his old, spiky-haired look back, John Morrison and The Miz are about to reunite, Miz is battling Kofi Kingston again and even Daniel Bryan looks like he's about to bound onto the debut season of NXT. It's like WWE has turned the clock back a decade instead of rampaging into a new one.
The first SmackDown of the new year had more good than bad on it, and it was a nice follow-up to last week's positive atmosphere. Like the final episode of 2019, the first of 2020 had a stirring conclusion that promises more, but (also like last week's escapades) it did have some down points. It's very much a case of new year, same old WWE in some respects.
There wasn't exactly a ton of Royal Rumble build either. That's not included in the 'Downs' though, because WWE do have time on their side there before the 26 January pay-per-view. They've got another three episodes of Raw and SmackDown apiece to work with before the road to WrestleMania really starts.
All this positivity is intoxicating...