6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Mar 27)
3. The Women’s Promo Train
Surely promo trains only really word when there's a live crowd?
The empty arena dynamic forced upon WWE was their chance to move away from formulaic stuff and start trying different things. Some workers have done that with their promos, but not SmackDown's female division. As New Day might say, "Ooooooooh no". They're still pretending fans are camped out around ringside.
Contrast the stilted, clearly-rehearsed dialogue from this opening segment on Smackers with some of the realistic verbiage on NXT between guys like Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. It's really night and day, and WWE need to wake up and realise that ye olde interruption segment doesn't work in this setting.
On the plus side, there was a hint at things to come after 'Mania between Bayley and Sasha Banks; the 'Legit Boss' hesitated when her pal said they were on the same page heading into next weekend. That's a glimmer of hope for this dying division.