5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (May 8)

Ups...

5. A Low-Key Continuation

It's time for the heel version of Shinsuke Nakamura to develop new layers. At the moment, he's a sentient d***-punch looking for a target. The low blows are as strong a hook as the "no speak English" shtick, but if the company keep treading this path without giving the character a wider range of material to work with, Nakamura will become one dimensional.

That said, Shinsuke's presentation was solid last night. Renee Young tried to coax an interview out of 'The King Of Strong Style,' stating that she knew he spoke English, but Nakamura was only willing to chat on his terms. His message was simple: AJ is crazy, but so is he, and they're far from finished.

Short and snappy, his dialogue was exactly what it needed to be, and Styles kept the heat simmering with a brief promo of his own later on. Neither will live long in the memory, but they were effective filler pieces, and after a month of intense focus, that's what was required this week.

Let's just hope things start picking up between the ropes...