8 Ups & 1 Down From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (May 22)
Hardy vs. Bryan highlights a near-flawless Tuesday night.
With Raw drowning in its own mundanity (and the horrors of that Bobby Lashley segment), outdoing the red brand wasn't exactly a tough task for SmackDown this week, but Team Blue killed it. If this were a wrestling match, it'd be a squash. Nothing on last night's show was entirely bad. Everything sat somewhere between "decent" and "excellent," and while your mileage may vary on some of the content, even the segments likeliest to provoke debate worked for the live crowd.
There were several questions heading into last night's show. Which stipulation would Shinsuke Nakamura pick for his next match with AJ Styles? Which New Day member would compete at Money In The Bank? Speaking of the 17 June pay-per-view, which women would advance from the night's two qualifiers?
The answers? Varied, but with one notable exception, each was delivered in a satisfying manner.
On top of this, fans were served a second Andrade Almas bulldozing, a cracking Daniel Bryan vs. Jeff Hardy main event, and new Tag Title contenders were named as The Usos fought Gallows and Anderson, completing another strong week for the ascendant blue brand.
Let's dive into it.