5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Nov 20)

2. Short But Sweet Promos

Some would say that the art of the wrestling promo has been lost. Those critics dislike the formulaic backstage speeches that offer little, and they think WWE must come up with new ways to tell their stories. Their arguments are valid, but not on this week's SmackDown.

Some of the mic work was beautiful.

Firstly, Daniel Bryan and Jey Uso traded backstage promos that did a stellar job of building towards their main event match. Both were short enough that they didn't drag, but explosive enough to sell the thought that the match would be worth seeing. That should be the basic purpose of any wrestling interview.

Then, Seth Rollins took the floor and cut a goodie himself. He's really taken to his 'Messiah' character, and it has led to some of the best promos of his WWE career. See? "Formulaic" needn't be useless if workers put some oomph into things.