4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (6 Feb - Results & Review)

3. Yeah, Don’t Bother Giving Context Or Anything!

There’s been a few weeks of backstage staredowns between Tama Tonga and Shinsuka Nakamura. That's it, that's all that's happened between them. Throughout, Nakamura spoke Japanese to Tama as fans on social media tried to translate and decipher what was being said. Meanwhile, WWE couldn't even be bothered to explore that side of things themselves.

The promotion hasn’t properly explained their New Japan history to fans, so the pair's match on this week's SmackDown fell flat and didn’t get much of a reaction as a result. Obviously, this could all change if the writers follow up on something with Tama (it was nice to see him get a rare singles opportunity), but you just know they probably won’t.

This mini-story will be forgotten about as quickly as it started.

If booked properly, Tonga could be a nice United States Title challenger for Carmelo Hayes. That's the frustrating thing. There is an end goal in sight if the writing team wants to grab it and go off in that direction. They don't have to scrap the thing after one match. Meh, maybe they won't, but it remains to be seen coming out of Friday night's offering.

A lot of this could admittedly be bitching for the sake of bitching, because WWE TV is a never-ending string of moments and things definitely deserve time to develop. It's just rather annoying to see the simplest plot points ignored as everyone behind the scenes likely wonders why select undercard matches/acts aren't clicking. Give people a reason to care, please. It isn't much to ask.