5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Dec 9)

1. Slow-Burning Goodness

Naturally, the opening tag would've been better with Drew McIntyre there as Sheamus' partner. WWE couldn't do anything about that though, and they picked the right replacement in retrospect - Butch did an admirable job of stepping in and stepping up for this Brawling Brutes title tilt.

The match started slow, but that was a positive. It was very-much a slow-burning epic, and doubled as both a top wrestling match and as a great excuse to push Sami Zayn's importance to The Bloodline cause again. No arguments here for that. It was the right way to go about things.

Now, Sami can look forward to "a big night" on next week's show.

If you're going to book filler bouts/segments, then at least make them entertaining to watch. Sheamus and Butch vs. Jimmy and Jey was definitely that. It was house show-esque without coming across as totally pointless (again, the Zayn interference has to take some kudos for that), and the 20-minute length raced past.

What did you think of this week's WWE SmackDown? For more content like this, check out ROH Final Battle 2022: 10 Things That Must Happen and 10 WWE Wrestlers Triple H SAVED In 2022!