3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (21 Aug - Results & Review)
3. Tag Title Match Never Gathers Pace
On paper, giving the MFTs a tag title defence to follow up on their win last time out wasn’t the worst idea, but this match against ex-champs Damian Priest and R-Truth wasn’t too exciting. There's an obvious breakup coming with Priest turning heel on Truth, which is fine enough when they need to get away from one another after a title run that looked promising but ultimately failed. However, yeah, the actual match itself was a bit of a struggle to sit through and didn't merit all of the time it got on this week's show.
Hopefully, there’s better to come from Talla and Tama Tonga as champions. No, this wasn’t an outright bad match by any means, but just slightly disappointing and it went too long for what it was. Plus, serious questions need to be asked about how little WWE bosses handed the odd couple dynamic of Truth and Priest. What, if anything, did they achieve in the championship hot seat? Both went backwards as characters, which sucks.
The War Raiders looked on backstage (they've been largely ineffective since returning from AAA to mainline television), and Shinsuke Nakamura introduced Kyoki as his brand new partner in a pre-tape. That's really all there is to say about the doubles division. It's been dead since WWE plundered the likes of the Motor City Machine Guns, Los Garza, Fraxiom and more. This has been quite the slide since the first time Solo Sikoa's MFTs warred with The Wyatt Sicks, put it that way.
Things don't look promising for Haku and his boys, unfortunately. Fingers crossed things change, and fast.