5 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE Talking Smack (Jan 31)
6. Down - Talking CrApp
As the hidden gem of WWE's live output, one of the great charms of Talking Smack was how it felt on an island in comparison to the main television shows, Network specials, and even the brand it was designed to support.
With Renee Young and Daniel Bryan's largely unscripted dialogue and the interesting character tidbits the performers often bring to their interview segments, it's upheld a reputation as one of the more dependable shows in the wrestling week.
Unfortunately, very little is held sacred in modern-day WWE, and as Network specials and even Pay-Per-Views have shown, virtually no company production is immune to the curse of the mid-show sales pitch.
Talking Smack would finally succumb to the curse this week, as Renee was required to awkwardly halt proceedings for a lousy hype job on WWE's newest (heavily promoted) app.
It upset the back-and-forth between the two hosts and the usually smooth transitions between guests and post-show analysis.
Hope springs that this sort of intrusion is merely short-term, but in an organisation where more is always more, it's probably best to get used to the commercial break.