7 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jan 23)
1. Little Rumble Focus
While it'd be a stretch to call WWE's Royal Rumble build 'lacklustre,' the company haven't put much time into hyping the big event. This has a lot to do with Raw 25, which received a far stronger marketing push than the pay-per-view, and it's disappointing. The Rumble remains many fans' favourite show of the year. It has a unique appeal, and although the past few years have been peppered with disappointment, even the 'bad' Rumbles tend to deliver at least a handful of enjoyable moments.
This explains the lack of focus. WWE assume fans will be excited simply because it's the Rumble, and while they're technically correct, it still would've been nice to see a stronger focus on this week's programming.
SmackDown saw a retread of Raw's women's angle, only with Naomi and a devious Becky Lynch standing tall instead of Asuka. On the men's front, Shinsuke Nakamura cut a quick interview, Tye Dillinger and The New Day entered the bout, and Randy Orton returned "outta nowhere" (groan...). Selling the PPV wasn't SD's priority, but such is life in the Network era, when go-home shows are as redundant as any other episode.