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With just three weeks to go for the Grandest Stage of Them All, WrestleMania, things have been ramping up at a fair click. The hype train for most of the matches is picking, up and to an extent, one has to admit that anyone and everyone is slowly catching up with the fever of WrestleMania.
This week's edition of SmackDown Live was supposed to do the same. And to a great extent, it delivered. The show that featured a gauntlet match that lasted more than 60 minutes was able to keep everyone on their feet.
Let's go through a few things that WWE did right during the latest edition of Smackdown.
#1 The Miz responds to Shane McMahon
It's been more than a decade now since the Miz has been part of the WWE roster and not many would have thought that the quintessential heel of the WWE would finally switch over to be a babyface and do it this well. To an extent, we have to agree that until now, Miz the babyface has been a hit with the crowd. It just seems to work.
He came out today and cut a resounding promo which both resonated with the fans and got them on board in a minute. This segment too was the need of the hour for the match because with only three weeks left there isn't much time left otherwise to build this one into something meaningful.
With the help of the promo both from the Miz and Shane earlier, the fans have legitimate heat against Shane while the Miz is rallying the crowd behind him.
#2 Charlotte stands toe to toe with Becky
To an extent, this was the need of the hour. Charlotte has been slowly getting sidelined in recent times and is starting to look more like a third wheel. The feud between Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey is legit and both have exchanged blows on multiple occasions. Charlotte, on the other hand, has been slightly subdued in all of this.
She didn't do anything when Ronda brutalised Becky, and when Ronda again interfered in the matchup between Charlotte and Becky which cost Charlotte a win there wasn't any action from Charlotte's side.
She has been lying under the radar while the spotlight has been on the other two women. That's why the brawl between Charlotte and Becky couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. This puts Charlotte right in the mix and brings the spotlight back on the three women rather than just the two.
#3 The Kofi Kingston swerve
Maybe everyone is wrong and WWE is actually giving Kofi Kingston a mega push. The odds that Kofi Kingston is having to overcome are almost outrageous now and what WWE has done is turned the focus from it being a Kofi-Bryan feud to it being a battle against all odds for Kofi. And to top it all off, Kofi is losing at the last step of every challenge that is being thrown in front of him which makes it all the more intriguing.
He lost the Triple Threat against The Bar earlier, and during this week, when it seemed that everything was finally going to work out as he won the gauntlet match against five opponents, Vince McMahon threw a spanner in the works by adding a match against Daniel Bryan at the end of the show.
The WWE Championship match is building up at a fair click now with the fans completely on board and backing Kofi to the hilt. It's interesting to see how WWE plays this one next because Kofi is still not the No.1 contender for the WWE Championship.
