5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (26 Dec - Results & Review)

Downs...

3. Why Were They Here?

Scrap the brand split.

WWE had to stop, think for a second and realise that their own booking threatened to lessen the impact of a "free agent" segment later in the show. So, Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY just happened to attend SmackDown for no real reason despite being tied to Raw? They approached Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, which led to Nick Aldis setting up an 8-woman tag-team match for next week 3 hour episode.

This is literally the most uninspiring and clumsy way they could’ve gone about things, but OK. Look, the match will probably be fine in execution, but WWE needs to scrap the roster pretence. They never honour it anyway, but then announcers occasionally talk about the Draft/brand split like it’s some super-important set of rules that GMs have to adhere to. It's total nonsense, and everyone knows it.

Ripley and SKY had no business being on this week's SmackDown. The aforementioned 8-woman tag could've been set without them in the house, and that would've made some Trick Williams-related business later in the episode feel a little stronger. The NXT star deserved that spotlight. No, this skit didn't murder his spot on the show by any means, but it did feel unnecessary.

In future, if WWE wants to book cross-pollination, then give workers from one show a reason to be hanging around backstage for the other. What? Did Rhea and IYO just hear that SmackDown had better catering than Raw, or something like that? Flimsy stuff like this must be called out until Hunter sorts it.