5 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE Talking Smack (Jan 31)
2. Up - Forward Thinking
With the WWE Title match placed in the Elimination Chamber two weeks before the enormous John Cena/AJ Styles Royal Rumble match, it seemed terse to book anything else and theoretically discredit the importance of the January classic to the blue brand.
That did however leave Smackdown Live in a tough spot, as it was left with less than two weeks to assemble a card for the final stop on the roster's road to WrestleMania.
Again utilising Talking Smack as the ideal platform, Daniel Bryan was able to announce huge title matches in both the Women's and Tag Division, with competitors even present for the huge announcements.
It created a positive sense of urgency around the upcoming event, and provided much-needed focus to a crop of superstars that were largely let down by events at the Royal Rumble.
Best of all, it removed the need to fill next week's go-home episode with a series of hastily booked matches, having now established motivation for enough of the main players to simply build themselves up in time for the pay-per-view itself.