5 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE Talking Smack (Jan 31)

As the final live WWE presentation from a blockbuster four-day weekend in Texas, Talking Smack returned to mop up the final overspills from an explosive Royal Rumble, and analyse an intriguing episode of Smackdown Live that moved the blue brand quickly on to Elimination Chamber.

The introduction of the February Pay-Per-View two weeks before the Royal Rumble slightly muddied the waters before the Alamodome, but the show got to bear the fruits of that labour this week, as all six Chamber competitors could be officially announced, and the sudden insertion of new WrestleMania Number One Contender Randy Orton brought additional flavour to the WWE Title picture.

With a host of permutations for the 'Show of Shows' still to be determined by the February show, the Smackdown Live roster find themselves jockeying for those valuable positions on the biggest stage in the industry, and the Tuesday night wrap-up show is often the perfect place to get those cruical last words in.

With so much to cover, here are 5 Ups and 2 Downs from this week's edition of Talking Smack.

Inescapable at the Pay-Per-View itself, it was left to returning co-host Daniel Bryan to address the elephant in the room regarding Smackdown Live's Royal Rumble neglect.

Despite the important acknowledgement of Randy Orton's eventual battle royal victory and AJ Styles and John Cena stealing match-of-the-night honours in their WWE Title classic, General Manager Bryan highlighted the disrespectful treatment the rest of 'his' roster received at Sunday's event.

Noting how none of the blue brand's undercard titles were on the line and the demotion of the six-women tag team match to the pre-show, Bryan nobly took ownership of the problem in kayfabe, presumably to highlight the very real inequality to any WWE management that may have been listening or watching at the time.

He'd also highlight the disappointing statistic that only eleven of the thirty men in the Royal Rumble were Smackdown Live stars, which called further attention to the shoddy manner in which the bulk of the talent were treated in the match, with obvious notable exceptions Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton.

Despite the good intentions of Bryan's delivery of the message, it sent a dangerous precedent in undermining the show and Smackdown Live as a brand, when just weeks previous the crew were trumpeting ratings success over Monday Night Raw.