7 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jan 23)

2. Surprise, Surprise...

Chad Gable Jey Uso
WWE.com

Regular readers of this column will have noted a strong fondness for SmackDown's elite-level tag teams, so it'll come as no surprise to see Chad Gable vs. Jey Uso finish so highly. This is entirely justified, though. Their singles match was too short to call excellent, but accomplished everything it needed to ahead of the Royal Rumble, where they'll contest the SmackDown Tag Team Championships alongside their respective partners.

Chad and Jey are two of the best pure workers in the company. They showed it through eight minutes of solid, well-paced action that heated up towards the end, with Gable picking up the victory. His Chaos Theory finisher is sublime. Eye-catching, pop-worthy, and impactful enough to look like it hurts, it's another great hook for a performer who has really grown in stature since Jason Jordan jumped to Raw.

Coupled with his and Benjamin's screwy title 'win' a couple of weeks ago, Gable's triumph tells us that him and his partner are more than capable of upsetting The Usos this weekend. 50/50 booking tells us that this probably won't be the case, of course, but there'll be few complaints if the company do decide to pull the trigger.

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Channel Manager
Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.