9 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown 1000 (Oct 16)
1. No Longer A Novelty
WWE wisely kept The Undertaker's involvement brief last night. 'The Deadman' marched down to the ring after Rey Mysterio vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, and essentially read from the same script as he did on Raw, claiming he had three words for D-Generation X at Crown Jewel: "Rest in peace." He then bailed out, securing one of the easiest paydays of his career as the show went off the air.
It felt pointless, and it isn't even possible to apply the old arguments anymore. Such segments used to be passable because "well, it's The Undertaker, and we don't see him often, so it's kinda special," but he's on our screens every other week at the moment. There's no novelty factor anymore, and that makes content like this completely skippable.
'Taker had to be on the show. He's a huge part of SmackDown's history, and he still gets good pops, no matter how many sh*tty, fossilised matches he farts out. That doesn't forgive the filler, though. The brevity itself as a supplemental Up, but WWE could've at least had 'Taker get involved with a brief, fun interaction with someone from his past, rather than dribbling their way through a flat closing segment.