7 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (May 1)
Avengers Assemble.
The past few weeks of WWE programming have been relentless. First, there was WrestleMania, which should've been a hard reset, but the company jumped headfirst into another Superstar Shake-Up immediately after. Then came the Greatest Royal Rumble, and now, with the dust still settling from all of the above, we have Backlash to contend with this week.
Much has changed, but these events have prevented Raw and SmackDown from going all-in on new stories and feuds. This has worked for SD, with the blue brand delivering consistently strong television since WrestleMania, but it'll be great to see things settle into a tighter rhythm after Sunday's big pay-per-view.
Last night was strong. A cut above the Network era's usual go-home fodder, it was heavy on segments, but low on matches, with just three bouts spread across its two hours. Regardless, almost everything on the show worked, barring one particularly notable exception.
The Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles story continued, as did Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass, even if the latter wasn't in the building. Elsewhere, the women's division came together for a big six-person tag, Jeff Hardy's would-be United States Title challengers assembled early on, and a couple of alliances drifted apart...