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

Downs...

4. Nothing New

Paul Heyman’s hype promo for ’Tribal Combat’ was standard Heyman stuff. That’s not meant as criticism, but it’s just chewing up time at this point, and there’s only so much WWE can do without Roman Reigns actually being there. Solo Sikoa then coming out to confront Paul led to nothing new either. Hmm, one didn’t expect the lack of energy here considering what’s coming on Raw, but something just felt a little off.

WWE’s writers stretched thin material as far as they possibly could, and that was obvious as soon as they sent Heyman out with a stick to do his usual story recap. Put it this way: Did anyone actually need Paul talking about how Solo recruited Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa and Jacob Fatu? That was a little too basic for a story everybody has been glued to anyway.

Heyman crapping his pants when Sikoa marched out to get in his face was cool, but it wasn't nearly enough to make this segment worth anyone's time. There was nothing new on offer. Solo simply said that he wanted Paul to put the ula fala around his neck and acknowledge him as 'Tribal Chief' "when" he beats Roman Reigns.

Again, did they need a 15 minute promo skit to put that across?

The announcers tried their best to add some spice by presenting the breakup between these dudes as heartbreaking last summer. It really wasn't. In fact, everybody wanted it to happen. Yeah, this was a rare miss for WWE when it comes to The Bloodline. Things will pick up again on Monday.