5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Nov 18)

Downs...

4. The Pointless Opening Segment

Drew McIntyre Brawling Brutes Sheamus Butch Ridge Holland
WWE.com

Boring.

That's the right word to sum up SmackDown's opening segment. This promo train was supposed to tease the Kevin Owens reveal later on, but it did a really poor job of that. Nobody said anything of value, and some of the jokes ("brutey") fell flatter than WWE's would've liked.

Sami Zayn was the best thing here, but even he couldn't save the skit from fizzling out. Perhaps the worst thing about it was that Sheamus offered Drew McIntyre a spot alongside The Brawling Brutes at WarGames despite the fact that Drew had already been shown in a graphic for the match.

That, as well as some lukewarm build for Sami vs. Butch, meant this was easily skippable. Remember those old formulaic promo trains that used to open Raw every damn week? Yeah, this was an unwanted throwback to those days.

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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.