4 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (12 Sept - Results & Review)

Downs...

3. "Ron Cena" Stuff Doesn’t Land

Everyone watching understood the assignment here: Fans get that WWE were going for more delusional comedy with R-Truth, but the dialogue between he and Brock Lesnar was sorely stilted. The pair kept interrupting one another to effectively repeat the same stuff before Brock hit Truth with an F5. Honestly? Not sure how we got here with Truth after his hot comeback over the summer.

There was some promise in a split personality thing, but all of that went out the window on Friday. It was a frankly awkward segment to kick off the night, sadly. As the intro stated, Brock shouldn’t be getting involved in half-baked comedy ahead of the match with John Cena at Wrestlepalooza. It should really be presented as 100% serious.

WWE could've found ways around that by having Lesnar just rip through "Ron Cena" like he wasn't even something to sweat, but that didn't happen. Brock entertained having a polite chat with Truth before things turned sour. It was odd to see a couple of veterans who should know better continually step on the other man's toes - at times, this was like bad improv comedy.

You'd think they'd been put on the spot behind the curtain last minute due to a power outage in the building, or something like that. 'Go out there and do whatever you can, lads!'. That wasn't the case. This was scripted, but it came across as clumsy, and there's diminishing value in the idea that Ron is some Cena superfan who still lives in a fantasy land; especially if this is all the writers have for him.

Not good.