4 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Apr 16)

1. Another Good Tag Team Main Event

The main event went about eight minutes, which is shorter than most Smackdown main events. Part of the reason for that is that WWE wanted to protect Daniel Bryan. He got sent home on Wednesday (the day after this taping) due to a concussion while there are also fears that he might have another neck injury. Due to Bryan's status, the story of the match was all about the heels working over Cena for about five minutes. It's the standard tag match formula where one of the faces gets worked over and then tags in his partner, who was Bryan. We're pretty sure that the Bella Twins were marking out for this one. For the finish, Bryan was able to dominate Kidd. Natalya jumped on the apron to distract, Cesaro actually caught her when Kidd accidentally knocked her off the apron and Bryan went for the Yes Lock on Kidd. Cesaro tossed Natalya to the mat, then when Cesaro got in the ring he was met with an Attitude Adjustment by Cena and Kidd tapped out to the Yes Lock. It doesn't look like an angle where they are pushing an issue with Kidd and Cesaro, but that could happen down the road. There was something about this match that is upsetting: another non-title loss for the tag champs. They lost a handicap match to Randy Orton too, so it makes them look weak. Kidd and Cesaro should be fine because it's not like it happens often. WWE has to make sure it's a rare thing because if it's too common then it will be damaging. Hopefully Daniel Bryan can work through whatever his physical problems are. He looked fine this week, but it's the long term health that we're worried about. Bryan really didn't take many bumps in the match. It was all basic stuff with him on offense. This week's show was pretty good because of all the focus on in-ring action. There were some story development things that really didn't come off. As a wrestling show, Smackdown was a success this week.