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

​The Intercontinental Title situation dominated attention on SmackDown...​

by Jamie Kennedy
Cesaro WWE Intercontinental Title
WWE.com

Ask most who watch WWE programming regularly, and the same old story about the Intercontinental Title will be told. The belt isn't quite what it used to be, people will argue. Whilst it's certainly a million miles away from the level it was at in the 1980's and early-1990's, the IC Title has had some seriously good champions over the past year.

Ryback was a blip, a poor choice to follow the injured Daniel Bryan, but the likes of Kevin Owens and The Miz have rescued things since. Owens is simply one of the most entertaining figures on WWE television right now, and Miz is sorely under-rated in the hot seat as champ.

On this week's episode of SmackDown, the secondary strap continued to come across as important. Cesaro, Sami Zayn and former champion Kevin Owens all want what The Miz has, and that's coming across loud and clear in WWE's storytelling.

The Intercontinental Title may never again be as important as it once was, but at least it's a valuable aspect of TV again. That continued on last night's show.

Let's analyse SmackDown, looking at the main 'ups' and 'downs' from this week's broadcast...

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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.