10 Things You Might Have Missed On The WWE SmackDown Live! Superstar Shake-Up (April 17)
2. Reality Check
April 17th would have been Rowdy Roddy Piper's birthday, but a laboured supposition during the blue brand's main event brought to mind his latter-day WCW realist persona's view on a rapidly changing industry. And now, like then, it wasn't for the better.
WWE had delivered quite the astonishing affair with Tuesday's episode. Front-loading when most presumed a shoring up job would do, the television topliner again featured AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan as they brushed past their pedestrian push-and-shove last week with a unified effort against Rusev and Aiden English.
It's easy to spot the obvious problem - namely, what in the f**k are they doing with Rusev - but an uneasy feeling of bland normality underpinned Bryan's appearances on the show. He's been reduced to rank-and-file in almost record time, running in at the start before going through the motions at the end.
These are the earliest of early days of course, but the blue brand has underscored how bad booking defeats great wrestlers multiple times over the past 12 months. Bryan was no more special than Styles was the best wrestler in the world in another moribund television affair. If anything, the sheer absurdity of Big Cass redubuting at the top was actually something of a refresher.