3 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Oct 29)
Halloween wrecks SmackDown; WWE's "new era" presses the repeat button; Shotzi turns heel.
WWE's holiday-themed episodes are rarely must-see wrestling telly. Add to that the fact that SmackDown was on FS1 (not FOX) this week and you had a recipe for disaster. This, to be blunt, was not a great night for the blue brand, and that's hardly forgivable considering all the new toys on the roster.
Those fresh faces were pushed aside in favour of the same old sh*t.
Speaking of which, WWE went one of the worst routes possible with Mustafa Ali. Post-tag with Mansoor, did anybody really need to see more of this race-inspired rubbish? The company has already tried that with the exact same wrestler - it didn't work then and it's not about to start working now.
Yeah, positives are thin on the ground here. The standard "spooky fun" that accompanies this time of year, along with the gross misuse of brand newcomers and "new" feuds that fans have seen countless times, did nothing for the program.
WWE's creative team took a week off. They don't get a pass for that, and their employer doesn't get one for awkwardly ambling towards more Raw vs. SmackDown monotony at Survivor Series.