6 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jan 16)

Downs...

2. Slave To The Grind

While it'd have been foolish to expect a high workrate classic from Xavier Woods and Jinder Mahal, it should have at least been a smart, well-worked TV match. Woods was one of WWE's most improved wrestlers last year, and arguably The New Day's biggest standout, while Jinder, for all his flaws, at least understands his role. Their bout wasn't good, though, and made for a stodgy start to the night.

There were several problems. While technically sound for the most part, Mahal's complete inability to generate crowd heat through his grinding ring work remains a massive problem, particularly in contests as long as this. His control sequence was characteristically laborious. The crowd were so quiet, it was as if they were watching the bout in a library, and this killed all interest in Xavier's comebacks.

'The Maharaja' controlled the vast majority of the match's 18 minutes, generating no real drama throughout. Cut the runtime in half, focus more in Woods' fire than Mahal's dominance, and this contest may have succeeded. Instead, it went down like a turd in a punchbowl.