5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE Smackdown (Dec 22)

1. Dudley Boyz And Friends vs. The Wyatts Didn't Cut It

It seems like WWE are content to continue the feud between The Dudley Boyz and The Wyatt Family until the turn of the year. Perhaps after the Royal Rumble, The Wyatts will move on to their WrestleMania program. There's still talk about putting Braun Strowman against The Undertaker on the big event, but that's wholly dependent on how ready officials feel the rookie is by that time. On Smackdown, Ryback and Kane teamed with The Dudleyz to face the Wyatt quartet. The match went over 15 minutes, and felt a little too long to be fully effective. By the time the finish came, the fans in attendance were noticeably quiet. WWE didn't even have the luxury of piping in fake crowd noise like they do when Smackdown is pre-taped. Overall, the bout went across 3 segments. This means that it was broken up on numerous occasions by advertising breaks, which hurt the flow of the match. Teams like The New Day and The Lucha Dragons can wrestle for that long without fan interest dropping. Newcomers like Braun Strowman and power-move guys like Ryback cannot. That came across loud and clear, hurting the match.