5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (26 June - Results & Review)

SmackDown's final 3-hour broadcast of the year (it'll return to a more traditional, and probably palatable, 2-hour format next week) was dead set on delivering sufficient build towards Night Of Champions and telling the story of a hot race for the WWE Championship. Indeed, a "main event segment" involving Cody Rhodes, Sami Zayn, Gunther, Jey Uso and Oba Femi ticked a lot of boxes.

Kevin Owens even got a mention, but Cody's verbiage about him made next to no sense. At least they tried.

Other goodness came in the form of a AAA Cruiserweight Title effort, and Danhausen continuing his hijinks. Blake Monroe also landed on the main roster with her second in-person SmackDown debut, so hopefully she and Giulia get some spotlight on the show over the coming months. It'd be a disaster if this was another nearly moment for Blake, it really would.

Sadly, the ongoing MFTs split and all of this interminable Bloodline business involving Solo Sikoa and LA Knight isn't as interesting as WWE's writers might like it to be. The biggest story beats are missing their mark because...well, The MFTs have had nWo B-squad levels of aura for the longest time, so it's tough to give a toss about anything Solo and pals get up to right now.

Going back to the 2-hour scheduling should help snip the fat from SmackDown, but major surgery is needed for some of the midcard storytelling and how Triple H generally goes about developing (or not developing) some of his cast of characters.

Here's all the good and bad!