10 Things We Learned From The Post-Backlash WWE SmackDown (May 23)
1. Injustice
Breezango's title shot against The Usos at Backlash was moderately disappointing, with a strong leaning on archetypal WWE comedy in place of the genuine momentum the babyface characters had built up over a series of vignettes and increasingly robust in-ring efforts.
The closing moments highlighted what a missed opportunity it had all been, with Fandango and Breeze hitting a series of dives and strikes that gave Jimmy and Jey a scare before ultimately rallying enough to sneak past the game challengers.
As if to permanently diffuse the 'Fashion Police' once and for all, the company booked a bewilderingly destructive segment between the quartet that was a bigger visual atrocity than any aesthetic faux pas the babyfaces had highlighted during their encouraging push.
Over a period of approximately four minutes of television time, Tyler pinned Jey, Fandango pinned Jimmy, then The Usos retained the tag titles in a insta-booked rematch.
It was appropriately criminal mistreatment of all four, especially the babyfaces. Now decisive failures, their argument for a future title shot is dead. The titleholders have had their credibility shot to ribbons by damaging individual defeats. Maybe the M.I.A American Alpha aren't the biggest losers in this whole mess after all.