5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (June 16)

2. Great Opportunity For Xavier Woods

Xavier Woods AJ Styles
WWE.com

More often than not, Xavier Woods has had to stand around ringside playing musical instruments and acting as cheerleader for The New Day. Commonly, it's Big E and Kofi Kingston who are chosen ahead of Woods when the WWE Tag-Team Champions are either wrestling in non-title matches or defending the gold.

Therefore, it was heartening to see Xavier handed an excellent opportunity of his own on SmackDown. AJ Styles and Woods did square off in TNA (when Xavier was known as Consequences Creed), but this was a far larger platform for both men to work on. During their 10-minute match, it was clear they were having a blast.

Better yet, Woods was allowed to look competitive. That's the beauty of Styles, he can work with just about anybody and leave them looking better than before the match. AJ did win, but that makes sense given his status on the card compared to Woods, who is more of a tag wrestler than a singles star.

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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.