3 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE SmackDown (18 Apr - Results & Review)

4. Randy Orton Kills Even More Time

Look, it was pretty clear early on that WWE didn’t have a whole hell of a lot in terms of material for this week’s episode. It wasn’t so much just that WrestleMania’s build is pretty much done though - they could’ve given Randy Orton more to work with here, and he was far from the only one suffering that problem in the building on Friday evening.

WWE can't be blamed for the fact that serious neck injuries to Kevin Owens ruled him out of WrestleMania and left Randy without someone to work with. They'll be as bummed out by that as anyone else. However, Orton took the mic in hand and said pretty much said nothing other than what people already knew here. He’s getting a mystery opponent at ‘Mania due to KO’s injury derailing plans.

Next.

It could be Rusev, it could be Aleister Black, it could just be Solo Sikoa. Who knows? WWE has to realise that announcing the mystery opponent thing was enough. They absolutely did not need to send Orton out in front of the live crowd to repeat things he's already said or waste more time on a show that could ill-afford it. Incredibly, that's precisely what they did.

Randy discussed how much 'Mania means to him, and vowed to hit an RKO on some fool in Vegas. Cool, but why did this need to be repeated over and over again? Maybe Trips just wanted to give fans in attendance for SmackDown an excuse to see Orton at all.