6 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Sept 2)

WWE owns Clash At The Castle build; Ronda Rousey is 'Stone Cold'; SmackDown delivers.

by Jamie Kennedy
Drew McIntyre
WWE.com

The object of any 'go-home' wrestling episode is to get you excited for some of the main matches on the coming pay-per-view. The object of most pre-taped wrestling episodes is to get through without an obvious lack of energy or any phoned-in segments. That's why this week's WWE SmackDown deserves praise.

Everyone brought it, and the last-minute Clash At The Castle hype was (mostly) ace.

Triple H still has some kinks to iron out on WWE programming, but he's been doing a bang-up job since replacing Vince McMahon as head of company creative. This, a pre-taped show, could've been his excuse to stretch back in that director's chair and present a skippable final blue brand chapter pre-Cardiff.

Instead, 'The Game' and his writers produced a solid two hours that made one yearn to see Drew McIntyre boot heads from shoulders and added new layers to some workers who aren't on the pay-per-view but WWE still wants to feature; Happy Corbin just got a legendary manager, in other words, and his TV persona could be much better for it.

Here's all the good and bad ahead of Saturday night's UK stadium show.

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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.