5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE Smackdown

Did Kane really need to lay out The New Day or The Dudley Boyz?

As almost every regular viewer of WWE programming knows, Smackdown is often treated as an afterthought by the creative team. Mental burn out must take effect following each epic 3-hour Monday Night Raw broadcast, so the Thursday night show is routinely left out in the cold. There's no real excuse for that, because Smackdown shouldn't simply feel like a Raw re-tread. All too often, that's exactly what happens. This week was certainly no different, but that's not to say there wasn't a lot to enjoy on the show. WWE's focus is definitely on Raw, although even the WWE Network seems more important to the company than Smackdown. That's abundantly clear, but it's a testament to the talent and skill of the actual workers that the matches are often worthwhile. This was the card of results for this week's episode of WWE Smackdown... Team B.A.D def. Team Bella by submission. Ryback def. Kevin Owens by count out (Owens retains the Intercontinental Title as a result). The Lucha Dragons and Neville def. The Ascension and Stardust by pinfall. The New Day and Seth Rollins def. The Dudley Boyz and 'Demon' Kane by pinfall. There were only 4 matches on this week's edition, down from the 5 of last week. Thankfully, all were enjoyable slices of action. There were some other segments on the show, as this article examines. What were the big plus points from Smackdown, and what were the overwhelming negatives?

Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.