8 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (16 Jan - Results & Review)

5. An Improvement For Trick Williams

One thing to point out immediately is that Trick Williams has a bit to work on if he’s going to fly as a heel on the main roster. He’s losing fans during his beatdown/heat sections, but it’s all a learning process. Overall, this match vs. Matt Cardona was an improvement on last week’s bout with Rey Fenix. It's also fine to have Cardona lose this early into his return, because he’s at his best when he’s an underdog with a story to tell, and Trick is a rising star.

Mark this down as another tidy qualifying match.

No, it never quite kicked into that higher gear, but not every TV match needs to. Sometimes, basic is perfectly fine. The word "basic" shouldn't carry the negative connotations is often does on this occasion either. Trick and Cardona meshed well as rivals vying for the same spot (a berth in that SNME Fatal-4-Way to find out who challenges McIntyre at Royal Rumble), and the action had a nice pacing to it.

It’s awesome that Williams has just arrived on SmackDown and yet here he is in an elevated spot. WWE have been doing a bang up job of presenting him as somebody who was about to over-ripen if he stuck around in developmental wing NXT for much longer. Trick was more than ready to reach that next tier before it happened. He knows it, creative know it, everyone knows it.

All in all, this was better than the match vs. Fenix in Berlin, Germany. Progress is good.