9 Ups & 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Apr 30)
Kofi Kingston and Kevin Owens collide as SmackDown succumbs to mediocrity.
A textbook case of a show that promised much but delivered little, last night's SmackDown was as lightweight as modern WWE programming gets, with even the night's biggest highlights struggling to generate anything more than slight ripples of excitement.
The pre-show hype revolved around a "first time ever" clash between SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch and Bayley, Kofi Kingston confronting Kevin Owens' betrayal from the week before, and The Hardy Boyz' addressing Jeff's injury and, crucially, their status as Tag Team Champions. This led many (your writer included) to expect an eventful show, but alas.
Bayley vs. Becky went down in the first hour, with Charlotte Flair making her presence felt. A teary-eyed segment saw Matt and Jeff relinquish their titles before a pair of uninvited guests showed up. Kofi and Kevin bookended the show, first starring in a textbook opener, then brawling as the night came to a close. Elsewhere, we got a Kairi Sane/Asuka squash, full Money In The Bank ladder match lineups, and a continuation of last week's Roman Reigns/Vince McMahon explosion, with Shane jumping to his father's defence.
While too many objectively effective things went down to call this show "bad," let's hope for improvement as we head towards MITB.