5 Ups And 1 Down From Last Night's WWE Talking Smack (Jan 24)
5. Up - Brand Bickering
If Shane is for keeps on Talking Smack (as Renee implied but McMahon denied), a mantle he's comfortably picked up from Daniel Bryan is the constant degradation of Monday Night Raw in the name of the Brand Extension.
But much like Bryan, there seems a tiny air of legitimacy in the cadence of Shane's delivery, which suits the worked shoot nature of Talking Smack and supports the internal competition WWE tries to perpetuate with the split brands.
This week, Shane took aim at Raw's impossibly big closing segment which saw monolithic megastars The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg face off.
Without demeaning the talents, McMahon cooly inferred to Renee that 'I don't watch Raw. I'll check WWE.com for the news, but that's it', when pressed for his thoughts.
Furthermore, when asked how the huge pre-Rumble events on the Red Brand had gone down in McMahon family conversation, Shane again closed the borders in defence of Smackdown Live, simply replying how he 'didn't talk to Stephanie' outside of occasional texts.
And as when Bryan makes similar digs, a small moment within the body of show such as this can actually lay groundwork for much bigger things if and when WWE choose to revisit Red vs Blue.