5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (23 Oct - Results & Review)

Downs...

4. This Was A Waste Of Time

Kevin Owens and CM Punk were right when they said that their backstage sit-down with Nick Aldis was a waste of everyone's time. Another match between the pair has been signed for 2 weeks on SmackDown, but we didn’t need this pre-amble. If anything, these guys shouldn’t be able to sit in the same room together at this point.

Their dialogue was fine enough, admittedly, but the segment reeked of just trying to squeeze both onto the show by any means necessary. Surely there was a better way to go about things than this? Putting Punk or KO in the ring for a hard fought match would've been one idea - they didn't say anything in the sit-down that pushed things forwards anyway.

We get it: Owens doesn't like Punk because of things that were said in an ROH locker room 20 years ago. Then, they've been getting involved in one another's matches since Kev returned to the roster, and both cost one another the chance to win at Money In The Bank. Repeating that over and over and over and over again isn't doing anybody any favours.

The sooner this match hits the ring, the better.

Aldis often talks about keeping his biggest bouts wrapped in cotton wool so nothing jeopardises them. Cool, so why did he put a duo who clearly can't stand one another on opposite sides of the world's smallest table? That made no logical sense, especially considering how antsy Nick got about the thought of Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton throwing hands on the same show.