5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Dec 17)

There's a lot of talk over what the future holds for WWE Thursday Night Smackdown come January. Since the company moved away from the 'Brand Extension' idea, the show hasn't really served much purpose other than to recap Monday Night Raw. Worse, at times Smackdown has felt completely unnecessary, acting as filler more than anything meaningful. When the creative team try, Smackdown can be a worthwhile show. It seems the reset button will be pushed in the new year, when the broadcast moves to the USA Network. This week's episode of Smackdown featured 5 matches, and a whole load of segments designed to move forward some of the bigger stories in WWE...

Downs...

3. Team B.A.D Watch Again From The Crowd

On Smackdown, Team B.A.D didn't have a lot to do. Following the trend set on Monday Night Raw, Naomi, Tamina and Sasha Banks sat in the crowd during a match featuring other members of the Divas division. On Raw, the group watched as Charlotte and Becky Lynch defeated Alicia Fox and Brie Bella. On Smackdown, they surveyed the scene as Lynch beat Brie in singles action. The idea is clear, Team B.A.D were wearing Bella merchandise on Smackdown. This meant they were cheering against Becky Lynch, but simultaneously winding up Brie Bella in the process. The faction didn't take part in the finish of the match, but they were shown several times taunting everyone involved. It's fine to try and keep them involved in some outsider fashion, but there was a poor explanation given for why they were out in the crowd to begin with. Sasha Banks is clearly being readied for a role in the WWE Divas Title scene, but the company need to make that step in a better way than having her mill around on the other side of the barrier. Hopefully the coming weeks on Raw and Smackdown will develop the story a little better, because this felt like a waste of Team B.A.D to have them sitting doing nothing.