4 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE Smackdown (Jan 3)
Kicking off the new year with a title match!
Last week, Smackdown Live delivered one of its best offerings ever - an action-heavy show featuring three huge matches, with three of the brand's titles on the line. American Alpha won the Smackdown Tag Team Titles from The Wyatt Family, while Alexa Bliss defended the Smackdown Women's Title against Becky Lynch and AJ Styles retained the WWE Championship in a three-way match with Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler. Oh, and John Cena returned.
That show helped Smackdown beat Raw in the ratings for the first time since the brand split, and so the blue show was riding a wave of momentum into the first week of the new year. How would Smackdown follow up?
With another quality show, it turned out. It wasn't on the level of last week's episode, but a contract signing between Cena and Styles and an Intercontinental Championship match pitting The Miz against Dean Ambrose meant that it was another winner. Things are looking good in the lead-up to the Royal Rumble.
Here are 4 ups and 4 downs from January 3's Smackdown: