3 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Mar 28)

3. Another Throwaway Match

SmackDown 10 Man Tag
WWE.com

Last night's show was full of throwaway matches, and the Andre the Giant Battle Royal preview was the worst offender. Tag team champions American Alpha teamed with Heath Slater, Rhyno, and Mojo Rawley to face The Usos, Dolph Ziggler, and Breezango, and while the contest built to a decent finish, it was another nothing affair.

The ATG Battle Royal has little stakes, and has already been relegated to the WrestleMania Kickoff Show. The victor never receives a significant push, and the only reward for winning is the right to carry a comically oversized trophy around for a couple of weeks. Thus, there's little incentive for the viewer to care about the match, which makes WWE's decision to dedicate such a big chunk of SmackDown to it this week confusing.

The babyfaces eventually won, but none of it mattered. As a bout, it was entirely inconsequential, and dragged SmackDown back to mediocrity following the excellent John Cena/The Miz segment. It was just a bunch of guys with nothing else to do throwing meaningless exchanges together, and a couple of fun moments towards the end didn't make up for 10 boring minutes, sadly.

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.