4 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE Smackdown (Apr 23)

1. Outstanding Main Event Tag Match With A Hot Crowd

This week's main event was one of the best WWE TV matches of the year as Dean Ambrose tagged up with his old Shield buddy Roman Reigns against former Shield member Seth Rollins, who teamed with Luke Harper. There was a backstage segment prior to the match with Seth trying to talk to Luke, but it was clear Luke was off in his own world. Any time a match gets a full half hour to run (including the intros) that's a positive because it allows the wrestlers more time in the ring. With that said, if they took about five minutes off this one to give Cesaro/Kingston more time earlier that would have helped that match tremendously. The old "they worked the tag team formula" comment belongs here as well. Ambrose was worked on for much of the match, Reigns tagged in and looked like he was going to win, but then Rollins tagged in and things broke down. That's why it was such a fun match. It was more than just the hot tag and the finish. They had a lot of exciting nearfalls where all four guys got a chance to look great. Reigns got the win for his team. It came after Rollins was outside the ring, then Kane rolled him back in because he was the legal man (Kane was at ringside watching) and allowed Reigns to get the win. The crowd loved the match too. They were chanting "this is awesome" towards the end of it. It was legit noise, not the piped in stuff you sometimes get on Smackdown. Any time you get a match of that quality for 15 minutes the people are going to be into it. Rollins getting pinned was definitely a bit of a surprise because Harper seemed like a better candidate, but they want to push the story that Kane was the one that tossed him back in the ring and that's why Rollins lost. It pushes the idea that maybe Kane really isn't on Seth's side going into Sunday. Most likely Kane will help Rollins win, though. There's very little chance that Rollins will lose at Extreme Rules. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT4DRHbrJNk Check out the two tag matches on Smackdown this week. Both were very good and representative of what makes a good episode of a WWE television show.