4 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Dec 8 - Results & Review)
1. A Rather Pointless Brand Crossover
Right, we need to have a chat about brand crossover.
WWE ignores their own Draft shortly after hyping it every single time. People are used to that, so it usually gets a pass. However, the creative team still needs to make sure that any appearances on "the other show" by Raw or SmackDown workers means something. Cody Rhodes flying in on Friday meant sod all.
He was brought in to gush about 'Tribute To The Troops' and line up some more military stuff. That was pretty much it. Sure, Cody had a face to face with CM Punk backstage later, but it wasn't enough to justify why he was even on SmackDown this week in the first place. Why would Adam Pearce slap a green light on this?
Rhodes is an excellent talker. There's no doubting that, but his troops material was paper-thin and meant him showing up turned out to be a waste of everybody's time. That definitely isn't something that should ever be the case for a top name like Rhodes.
Baffling.