5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (2 May - Results & Review)

1. Randy Orton’s Fired Up, But…

...WWE is getting a wee bit too comfortable with these well-delivered but ultimately meaningless solo promo segments to build towards top matches.

Randy tried his best here, but he had no new ground to cover and was really just killing time. Granted, that can be fine every now and then, but yeah - WWE leans on this sort of thing too much at the moment. It defo hurt WrestleMania 41’s build, and that’s now bleeding over into Backlash. They need to be mindful of conditioning the audience to expect empty promos.

Personally, this WWE lifer can’t wait for the actual match between Randy and John Cena, because they had to run that one more time before JC's retirement. The issue is that Orton spat venom into the void on Friday night. His speech conjured up images of Cody doing the same in John's direction whilst Cena sat at home or was out on the road fulfilling media duties before bagging the WWE Title.

Look, everybody knew that John wouldn't be there at every single show during this send off run, but it's vital he feels like a part of things one week out from his biggest matches. One final Cena vs. Orton clash deserves more than obvious skits like this that make it painfully clear John's schedule is lighter than some would like.

He'll be on SmackDown next week as advertised, but would it have killed WWE to coax him into view here for a surprise revenge attack on the ranting Randy? That would've been a neat twist that toyed with fan expectations, but it wasn't meant to be. Good fire from Orton on the mic though. That's worth saying.