5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Aug 5)

2. Silence During The Gauntlet

Fans in Greenville just didn't really care about most of that 'Gauntlet' bout to establish a brand new number one contender for Liv Morgan's title. It's a shame, but long-winded matches like this make some crowds sit around waiting for the finish, and it's hard for workers to build drama when the ending is one million miles away.

Worse, some parts of the match were a real struggle to watch. Raquel Rodriguez and Sonya Deville botched their way through some sequences, and Shotzi's sloppy moments came to the fore yet again. Hmm. Things are not looking good on that front, because Shotzi is making a habit of this sort of thing.

The result was cool (more on that later), but WWE found out first hand that sticking loads of names in the hat and expecting fans to care isn't the way to go. It's damning-but-true - WWE's booking has made most of these women look like afterthoughts for the longest time.

Everyone worked hard, at least. The bulk of it was a miss though.