11 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Dec 4)

10. Hardy Vs. Orton, Redux

Although your writer loved the Jeff Hardy/Randy Orton, it was hard to get too excited about last night's rematch.

The duo's rivalry only concluded a few short months ago. It's still fresh in the memory, and nothing they could do on weekly television was ever going to top that awesome Hell In A Cell bout. On top of this, with guys like Andrade Almas and Tye Dillinger on the sidelines without a hope of making it to television, it smacks of lazy, uncreative booking. As good as SmackDown has become in 2018, the writers could do without reverting to old, recycled content so often.

That being said, the match worked. Orton and Hardy have chemistry. The idea that they could sleepwalk their way through a decent bout was proved last night, because that's exactly what they did, moving from one call-back spot to another with minimal fuss (and one notable botch, when 'The Viper' was ill-positioned for the Whisper in the Wind). Still, it was way too effective to be considered a Down.

Randy's victory came through f*ckery, as Samoa Joe appeared on the big screen. Chilling in a bar, Joe caught Jeff's attention, allowing Orton to nail him with the RKO for the 1-2-3. Momentum for Randy, heat for Joe, protection for Hardy. Job done.