2 Ups & 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Dec 5)
4. United States Title Trash
SmackDown's writers phoned it in last night, particularly when it came to the midcard, with the three-way United States Title feud between Baron Corbin, Bobby Roode, and Dolph Ziggler 'developing' in the most mechanically repetitive way imaginable.
Corbin and Roode met backstage. The champ claimed 'The Show-Off' didn't belong in their Clash of Champions bout, and in stepped Ziggler himself, claiming his past successes justified his opportunity. It was a listless backstage segment that sucked heat away rather than piled it on, and it was followed by a predictable continuation minutes later.
With Bobby and Baron contesting a non-title bout, Ziggler sat at the commentary table, peeling off mundane trash talk lines with the enthusiasm of a man who stopped giving a f*** several years ago. His foes worked for just over three minutes, going through the motions en route to the inevitable interference. It eventually came, with Dolph laying both Corbin and Roode out, standing tall at the segment's conclusion.
It was cripplingly dull. WWE took one of their stalest booking formulas and applied it to three of the least interesting guys on the roster, and completely failed to build intrigue for their upcoming clash, which, on current form, is on course to be a total snoozer.