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

1. Why Did KO Feel Like An Afterthought?!

Randy Orton Kevin Owens
WWE.com

AEW catch a lot of (deserved) flak for rushing from one segment to the next without letting things digest. One man can burn down another's house, then 0.2 seconds later Excalibur is screaming about Bryan Keith wrestling Bandido on the next Collision. It's too much, and it never lets major story beats sink in. WWE saw that and said, 'Hold my beer' on the latest SmackDown.

What was up with rushing through the story stuff right after Randy Orton vs. Carmelo Hayes? Orton went to punt the cocky Hayes for disrespecting him, but Kevin Owens pulled Melo out of the ring. First of all, the cameras missed that, then commentary moved quickly onto a recap of something from earlier between Braun Strowman and Jacob Fatu. Again, this was AEW levels of quick, and that’s not meant as a compliment.

Owens has been one of SmackDown’s focal points for ages now, so it’s weird to zoom past him like this. Randy's looming comeback and the promise of comeuppance for a tyrannical no-gooder like KO has been one of the show's top stories for months. It was literally a key part of WWE Title matches between Kev and Cody Rhodes on tentpole events like Royal Rumble, and again once Owens worked the latest chapter of warfare vs. on/off pal Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber.

Nobody's saying WWE had to give Kevin or Randy 30 minutes to speak here, but come on. They deserved way better than to have cams miss the punt save (how infuriating) then move on like time was short and Triple H needed to play catch up on the format for the night.

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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.