7 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's SmackDown (Apr 10)
A shake-up before the Shake-Up.
SmackDown superstars had an inconsistent night at WrestleMania 34.
While AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was billed as a 'dream match,' the talented duo fell short of expectations, delivering a bout that was fundamentally sound but worked at a house show-esque pace. It was solid, but unspectacular, and while far from objectively bad, the WWE Title showdown wasn't close to what it should have been.
Elsewhere, Charlotte Flair and Asuka delivered a banger of a match in which the latter's lengthy undefeated streak came to a shocking end. Daniel Bryan impressed in his in-ring comeback, too, but the tag division were thrown in the death spot after Ronda Rousey's electric debut, and the United States Title bout was perfectly mediocre.
Last night, SD delivered an effective follow-up to the year's biggest show. Every major development was covered, and while not quite as eventful as Monday's Raw after 'Mania, it was a fun, content-packed two hours that delivered on several levels. The highs were very high, and the lows? Almost trivial.
With Bryan, Nakamura, Charlotte, and a cluster of new faces all making waves, let's unpack everything that went down on this transitional episode...