5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (1 Nov - Results & Review)

1. Main Event Tag Surprisingly Sags

Now this was a shocker.

Maybe it's the Crown Jewel title stuff strangling everything nearby, but Cody Rhodes teaming with Randy Orton to take on Imperium duo GUNTHER and Ludwig Kaiser just didn't have much to it. Somewhere, ex-Imperium man Giovanni Vinci was probs looking on with a single tear rolling down his cheek. He's gone from featuring to being repackaged post-Draft and then ignored.

For those keeping score at home, that makes three sagging tag-team matches on the same two-hour episode of TV. Boy, Triple H wasn't booking tonight on that front! This was as phoned in an effort as you'll ever see from top workers and the writing staff alike. House show-style main event tags can be fine here or there, but something was off this time. The match just wasn't very interesting, and it lacked the fire you'd expect to see from guys like Cody, GUNTHER or Orton.

Fans did politely pop whenever Rhodes and Randy encouraged them, but there wasn't much else to shout about as the babyfaces beat down on Kaiser whilst GUNTHER had the easiest shift of his life. Let's just say the World Champ will be tasked a little harder vs. Cody at Crown Jewel. Fingers crossed they can make something of the otherwise-dire champion vs. champion scenario.

So, yeah, not much more to say about this headliner really. It lacked the oomph some better TV main events have had this year, and had more in common with Dominik Mysterio vs. Damian Priest from Raw than anyone would care to admit.