4 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (March 7)
No shack-burnings this week, but plenty of exciting action.
One week removed from Randy Orton's act of arson at the Wyatt Family Compound, last night's SmackDown attempted to find the true number one contender to Bray Wyatt's WWE Championship. Orton vs. Wyatt has been in the works for a while, but The Viper would have to jump through one final hoop to secure his shot, and if nothing else, his match with AJ Styles at least guaranteed a quality main event.
The match delivered, and SmackDown's biggest WrestleMania 33 match is finally set. It wasn't the night's only major development, however, and with a SmackDown's Women's Title match announced and the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal's first participants unveiled, SD's preparations for April 2nd are well underway.
It was a lopsided episode that started slowly, but starting picking-up as soon as The Miz hit the screen. Though blighted by a handful of poor segments, there was still enough good to outweigh the bad, and last night's show kept SmackDown's momentum rolling ahead of the year's biggest show.
An eventful night for most of SmackDown's major players, but whose contributions hit the mark, and whose fell short? Let's take a look.
Downs...
3. Tell Us Something We Don't Know
Part of what has made Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan so palatable since the 2016 Draft has been the restraint of their appearances. While Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley often dominate Raw, Shane and Bryan tend to operate on the periphery, and only step-in when absolutely necessary. They don't tend to hog a lot of airtime, and they don't get in the wrestlers' way very often.
This wasn't the case last night, however. SmackDown's Commissioner and General Manager opened the show with a completely needless in-ring segment that served no purpose other than filling airtime. The duo spent a good ten minutes discussing the WWE Championship situation, "confirming" the AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton number one contender's match (a contest that was booked last week), and established that Shane supports AJ's title claims, while Bryan supports Orton's.
It was exactly the kind of filler you'd expect from Raw, and it did nothing to enhance the show itself or the stories being told. Unfortunately, this trend is only likely to continue over the coming weeks, particularly with the Styles vs. McMahon rivalry heating-up on Talking Smack.