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

Downs...

5. That First Round Of Picks

You'd think WWE might come bursting out of the starting blocks with something major to crow about during the Draft's first round, right? Nope. Triple H came out to announce picks, enlisted Cody Rhodes to help, then revealed that three of the opening four draftees were...staying put on brands they're already with.

How exciting.

Carmelo Hayes coming to SmackDown was the stand out here (more on that later), but why was Bianca Belair remaining blue the best choice to kick things off? Jimmy Uso and Seth Rollins still batting for team red was similarly puzzling. WWE didn't need to switch those guys, but at least omit them from the announcements if they're not actually going anywhere.

The opening round was WWE's chance to portray the 2024 Draft as something seismic. Instead, it came out looking bland, routine and all a little pointless. Even Cody was staring at the big screen behind him like, 'Well so much for that, eh?'.