5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (3 May - Results & Review)

1. The Brawl Before Going Dark

Randy Orton Kevin Owens R-KO Solo Sikoa Tama Tonga The Bloodline
WWE

SmackDown went off the air with tag rivals beating the sh*te out of one another.

Cameras cut from that so-so segment between AJ Styles and Cody Rhodes to Bloodline brutes Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga tangling with R-KO backstage. This sort of visual usually works as a cliffhanger for any pro wrestling show going dark, and things were defo no different on this occasion. It was chaos.

Credit to Corey Graves and Wade Barrett for putting a last-minute bow on the Backlash hype as WWE's copyright watermark popped up on-screen. Sometimes, announcers tend to rush through too much in a short space of time, but they said what needed to be said then laid out to let the action speak for itself.

WWE has the chance to do something funny by opening Backlash with these squads still brawling. Only joking. That'd be silly, but it'd get a pop out of this fan. In all seriousness, the tag match needed to keep pounding that violence button before the PLE, and these fellas did.

What did you think of this week's WWE SmackDown? For more wrestling, check out WWE Backlash 2024: 10 Nightmares That Could Come True and 10 New Directions For WWE After The 2024 Draft!

Advertisement
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.