6 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Nov 22)

6. War In Pieces

Team SmackDown Sasha Banks
WWE.com

The actual post-intro segment thrust into sharp focus just how thrown together this whole brand warfare - despite being an annual occurrence - has been thus far. And with Survivor Series on Sunday, it's obviously not going to improve.

Sasha Banks emerged on the ramp with her crew of cronies to call out Charlotte and co. The Queen responded, but didn't disturb the general silence enveloping the arena one iota. It wasn't until Rhea Ripley led her band of NXT rebels into the fray that Chicago sprung into action in support of a brand that has given them a reason to care.

The heavy implication was that Rhea's gals would be filling the as-yet unnamed slots at Survivor Series, but this wasn't explained. Theoretically, it should be determined by the women's WarGames match on Saturday, though Ripley is already leading the team. There's absolutely no throughline of logic here.

So where did this go? Nowhere! Instead, we went to commercial, and when we returned, a Triple Threat had been made between Banks, Flair and Ripley. That's the sort of thing you might tell your audience about, unless you were trying to promote a very similar match on a PPV in two day's time. In which case - why do it? The dots are there, but nobody is joining them up.

Advertisement
Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.