7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (5 June - Results & Review)

SmackDown (and Triple H's booking in general, let's be honest!) has taken a fair bit of flak in recent times. Some reckon the show suffers because of the 3-hour length, whilst others have poked fun at possible AI intervention and rolled eyes at the drip-feeding storytelling that's prevalent on WWE programming.

However, this is worth saying: When WWE gets it right, they really get it spot on. The current WWE Title mix involving champ Cody Rhodes, rightfully-annoyed challenger Gunther and 'the last real good guy' Sami Zayn is powerful stuff. On Friday in Bologna, Italy, that trio kicked SmackDown off with a bang, and there's plenty more to come from them as the weeks and months roll on.

Elsewhere, Chad Gable popped back up for the first time in a while. His AAA adventure and time as El Grande Americano has come to an end, so it's back to basics for the technical wizard. The response from that live crowd in Europe must be music to his ears, and Hunter is presumably pleased that people seem totally into Gable as a babyface.

Several King and Queen Of The Ring opening round matches showed what's coming deeper into each tournament too, but not everything was positive. Indeed, creative appears to be botching an NXT > main roster call up badly, and they'll be in more hot water with fans if they dare to think that Solo Sikoa's MFTs crew is ready for WarGames later in 2026.

That'd be an awful idea, at least as things stand right now in June.

Here's all the good and bad from Bologna!