4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (24 Jan - Results & Review)

Downs...

5. Inoffensive But Lacked A Little Energy

Normally, Cody Rhodes could talk about breakfast cereal and find a way to make it interesting or tie things into what he's doing on WWE TV. Here though, queuing the champ up for some interview time with Joe Tessitore was a strange move. Sure, fans there live want to see Rhodes, but he had nothing new to say and clearly had to keep some stuff back for SNME’s face to face with Kevin Owens.

Ultimately, whilst both Cody and Joe did well on the mic, this was a lower energy start than expected to kick off SmackDown. Arguably, it's better this way than some routine video package recapping the story with KO, but there was nothing you haven’t heard before in Cody's words. On the plus side, it did give Kev another reason to moan, but that’s not enough to justify the time this segment got.

If it looks like filler, smells like filler, tastes like filler...it's filler.

WWE likely should've started the night with a fun tag bout pitting Motor City Machine Guns vs. Pretty Deadly instead. That had some oomph to it that Cody's promo lacked. Again, this was far, far, far from awful, but it was a time killer that felt slightly unnecessary due to SNME's close proximity. Honestly, what could Rhodes really say before he walks into the contract signing with Owens and NXT boss Shawn Michaels?

Fans picked up on the nothingness straight away. They could tell this was little more than an excuse to get Rhodes in front of the people. Fair enough, but mere star power won't stop it from earning a 'Down'.