Best and worst of WWE SmackDown - Current Champion pinned, Terrible Royal Rumble spoiler

Honestly, I've sat through some weak episodes of SmackDown but this was one of the weakest episodes in history. I'm struggling to find good things to say about this show and before this episode happened, I was a lot more excited about the upcoming pay-per-view.

I've barely managed to scrape together some good things to say about the 'best' section of this article, and honestly, this was a show of only 'worsts'. I get that WWE did not want to give anything away before the Rumble but the way that the show played out was a chore to sit through.

Of course, you may have felt differently about this week's show and if such was the case, I invite you to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. If you really did think that this was a good show, I'd love to hear exactly what worked for you folks.

In any case, let me commence with my article and then, leave this show behind forever.

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#1 Best: John Morrison defeats a second New Day member

I absolutely loved the fact that John Morrison got a chance to take on Kofi Kingston and defeat him in a very solid performance indeed. Kofi Kingston is already an established Superstar and Morrison needs to remind the WWE Universe that he's a big deal before he presumably teams up with The Miz to take on The New Day for their Championships.

Morrison hasn't lost a step and both Big E last week and Kofi Kingston this week gave him a chance to showcase just how athletic he truly is. Some may say that he's far too athletic to be a heel, but this is 2019 and the old rules do not apply anymore, in the new era.

#1 Worst: Miz and Morrison announce that they will be Rumble participants

This week, we found out that The Miz and John Morrison will be part of the Royal Rumble match and honestly, that leaves very few spots for genuine Royal Rumble surprises. I think that we can all agree that the best thing about the Royal Rumble is that we don't know who's going to step out from behind the curtain on most occasions.

With Cain Velasquez pretty much confirming that he will be a part of the Royal Rumble match as well, and with nobody being a part of the match from NXT, I think that there are only a few undeclared spots left and it's pretty easy to guess who will occupy the said spots. I mean, if Edge does return, it will certainly blow the roof off the building, but why advertise the whole card in advance when you don't have to?

I'm a lot more excited about the women's Royal Rumble match, where nothing has been made public yet. The element of surprise is still strong with that particular match, at least.

#2 Best: The Fiend signs his contract in blood

The contract signing segment between The Fiend and Daniel Bryan wasn't the best I've seen by a long shot, but honestly, in a show that is devoid of anything good, this stood out. I loved the fact that The Fiend signed his name in blood. I also liked the fact that Bray Wyatt was on the big screen while The Fiend was in the ring, which was a good way to swerve the WWE Universe.

The Fiend got the better of Daniel Bryan on this week's show and that's generally an indication that he will lose at the Royal Rumble, relinquishing his Universal Championship to the leader of the 'Yes' movement. Except, in this case, I don't think that is going to be the case at all with The Fiend's momentum being as strong as it is right now. I think Daniel Bryan is going to succumb to the Universal Champion at the Royal Rumble again.

And then, Roman Reigns wins the Royal Rumble and challenges The Fiend for a Championship opportunity at WrestleMania!

#2 Worst: A very long match

The 6-man tag team match that started off this week's show was not a very good match and yet, it seemed to go on and on endlessly. At a time when the attention span of viewers is dropping by the day and by the hour, it was honestly very difficult to watch the match in its entirety. I liked the story of Jimmy Uso getting injured and making a valiant return mid-way through the match but even that was not enough to salvage the whole thing, to be quite honest.

Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin is a feud that we've seen for a very long time now and The Usos vs. Ziggler and Roode is not something that is setting the world on fire either, at this time. The match was okay but far too long, and that set the pace for the rest of SmackDown that also seemed to drag on and on. This match wasn't Flair vs. Steamboat, and hence should have been considerably shorter, I felt.

#3 Best/Worst: Lacey Evans

Honestly, the Lacey Evans promo did not resonate with me as much as it seemed to with the rest of the audience, but it got them into the segment and that's honestly half the job done. It would lead to a brawl with Bayley that would disrupt a backstage promo and in time, even disrupt a promo to the point where it got ridiculous.

I would have loved to see the next chapter of the Mandy Rose and Otis saga because of how entertaining it has been over the last few weeks, but it was ruined because the Bayley-Evans brawl continued all the way to the ring disrupting the match and killing any excitement ahead of the Royal Rumble. The booking of the women's division has been really shoddy if you discount the feud between Becky Lynch and Asuka and even in that feud, it is pretty easy to see that The Man will emerge as the winner.

And thanks to Evans, we didn't get to see The Goddess perform this week!