5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (May 26)

Downs...

3. Rusev vs. Kalisto Felt Like A Rerun

Rusev Kalisto

The main issue with booking pay-per-view matches on free television is that they instantly make the supershow bout look like old news. People should still be digesting the fact that Rusev defeated Kalisto to win the WWE United States Title, but instead the pair were pushed into another match together on SmackDown.

Quality was high, Rusev and Kalisto do have a fair level of chemistry together. However, there was no other narrative than the familiar 'Big Man vs. Little Man' tale to tell, and that hurt the match. Throughout, it just felt like a scrap people had already witnessed back at Extreme Rules.

Even the finish, during which the Bulgarian locked on the Accolade, was the same. It would have been nice to see Rusev face someone else in a non-title match, rather than just needlessly beating Kalisto again. The masked man's title hunt is now surely over.

WWE.com
Advertisement
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.