6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (14 Mar - Results & Review)

2. Local One Off For Axiom (But A Good One!)

Ignore the fact we had a Raw guy wrestling an NXT guy on SmackDown. Remember the Transfer Window? WWE don’t! Seriously though, all that moaning aside, this was a really good one off showing for Spain’s own Axiom. He looked like a spitfire, Gunther got to do his wrecking ball wrestling machine act, and everyone was happy with the end result locally.

Well, sort of. Some in the live crowd would've preferred a surprise Axiom win like he was The 1-2-3 Kid going up against Razor Ramon on Raw back in 1993, but that was never realistically going to happen. World Heavyweight Champ and all round wrestling machine Gunther gave his masked counterpart enough licks to make the match zippy and exciting anyway.

This was the kind of segment most would assume could never happen under Vince McMahon's watch. That's unfair, and the aforementioned dialogue about Sean Waltman stunning the world in '93 proves it. Even so, it is true to say that Hunter favours more of an old-school wrestling approach than his father in law did, certainly during Vince's latter years heading up WWE.

Triple H lets guys like Gunther go out there and do pretty much whatever he feels is right. Thus, his match vs. Axiom was akin to something that would've flown under McMahon's radar on NXT UK before. It's a good thing, and it feels refreshing to see this sort of content on WWE's main roster.

Even one offs with local flavour can help sell WrestleMania matches if handled properly. This one was.