7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (3 Jan - Results & Review)

3. Serious Time (And The Right Winners)

Lengthy matches are another thing regular SmackDown viewers will need to get used to again. You'll be seeing a ton of those over the piece. WWE gave The Usos and Sami Zayn vs. Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga approx 22 minutes to close the show. Honestly, they could’ve shaved a few minutes and made the match tidier, but the important thing was always gonna be Solo standing tall before ’Tribal Combat’ on Raw.

A few weeks back, it looked like Hunter might drop the ball there by booking Sikoa to suffer a dramatic loss of confidence before meeting Roman Reigns in a destiny-shaping epic on Netflix. Thankfully, he's gone the other way and made Solo look dominant in the right moments. It's rather telling from a character standpoint that he only felt comfortable confronting someone like Paul Heyman on his own.

Had Paul been a wrestler, Sikoa would've brought Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga out with him as backup.

Back to the match. Everybody except maybe Tama got to show their wares throughout, and Drew even walked out with more chaos on his mind before Jey cut him short with a dive spot. That added some last minute hype to their Raw match on Monday, and it's sweet that WWE kept that clash in mind even when Uso was doing the tag thing here.

Yes, the six man could've benefitted from a little less time, but the extra minutes meant nobody had to rush. Telling stories has been a Bloodline hallmark. It's nice to see that continue in the interim no matter what's coming on Netflix.