7 Ups & 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Nov 20)

3. Clunky Action Mars Opening 30 Minutes

Charlotte Flair The Iiconics
WWE.com

Boy, were SmackDown's first two matches brutal.

Charlotte Flair vs. Billie Kay was a sloppy mess. Kay, for all her positive traits as a performer, can't wrestle to the former Women's Champion's level. She looks way out of her depth when competing in anything other than a basic squash match, especially when hey layouts require control segments, as was the case last night. Her strikes looked particularly awful, and she couldn't even take the Natural Selection finish properly. Poor, poor, poor.

Peyton Royce, who's supposedly the IIconics' superior worker, didn't fare any better. Her match with Flair was full of out-of-ring shenanigans and way too many kickouts for the limited runtime, before Kay eventually ran in for the disqualification, ending things on just under five minutes.

Though The IIconics aren't always this ineffective and have had better matches on the main roster, bouts of this calibre simply shouldn't be happening in the modern era. The minimum working standard is higher than it's ever been, so how does guff like this keep slipping through the net?

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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.