Another two episodes of Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live bite the dust. In a reverse of recent fortunes, the Monday night show ended up trumping what the blue brand had to offer on Tuesday night.
This is especially disappointing considering this was the go-home episode of Smackdown Live with WWE Backlash coming up this Sunday.
While Raw came up with the perfect response to losing Braun Strowman to a long-term injury, it wasn’t a perfect show. After all, which episode of Raw ever is? But, it was a refreshing change from some of the same old stuff we’ve seen in the past.
Smackdown Live, on the other hand, was an extremely bland affair and was littered with questionable booking decisions. The episode did very little to hype up the next pay per view on the WWE calendar – Backlash. Fans really look for more on a go-home episode before a big PPV.
So, without any further ado, let’s get into the 5 mistakes committed by the WWE for the week of 16th May 2017:
#5 More Hardy Boyz vs. Sheamus & Cesaro singles action
Surely there has to be something different that these four men can do other than boring old singles matches week after week on Monday Night Raw. This time around Jeff Hardy took on Sheamus and predictably picked up the victory.
Sure the dynamic might be a little different since Sheamus and Cesaro turned heel but nothing other than that has changed. Matt and Jeff keep winning while the Irishman and the Swiss wrestler keep losing. What is the point of this?
The most important about this match was Sheamus’ hilarious botch where he looked to catch Matt Hardy – who was on the apron – with a Brogue Kick but missed him completely. He needed an extra attempt to pull it off. It’s not great when the best part of a match is a botch.
#4 Dusty finish to the Intercontinental Title Match
I don’t believe that I’m the only one who’s sick of dusty finishes being used as a Get Out of Jail Free card by the creative team week after week. This time it was the Intercontinental Championship match between Dean Ambrose and The Miz which fell prey to a weak finish.
Unbelievably, Mr Tough Guy Babyface, Dean Ambrose, got himself intentionally disqualified in order to keep the belt. Look, we all get that you want to set up the big match for the title at Extreme Rules with some stipulation but there are a million better ways to do this instead of a finish like this one.
It’s a shame because the two were putting on a damn good match up until the disqualification shenanigans. Let’s hope for a better ending come Extreme Rules.
#3 Kendo Stick on a Pole nonsense
If you look at the history of X Thing on a Pole matches that the WWE have put on, almost all of them are terrible. These matches are even worse than Chairs matches, and that’s saying something. Unfortunately, the WWE doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo on this one.
When Alexa Bliss and Bayley squared off in a heated exchange – where Bliss was predictably great and Bayley was predictably bland – it ended with The Hugger getting beaten black and blue with a kendo stick.
Cue a Kendo Stick on a Pole match booked between the two for the WWE Raw Women’s Championship at Extreme Rules. It’s a shame that the WWE seems hell-bent on bringing back these matches over and over again.
#2 Booking undercarders to beat legit stars
There were three – that’s right THREE! – undercard performers who picked up wins against main event talent this past week. To start off, Sasha Banks was booked to lose against Alicia Fox. We can only guess that The Boss ran over Vince McMahon’s dog and that’s why she’s being punished this way. It’s a sad state of affairs for Banks.
Then, the following night on Smackdown Live, Jinder Mahal picked up the win against AJ Styles in the opening match of the night, albeit with the help of Kevin Owens and The Sing Brothers or The Bollywood Boyz or whatever else you wanna call them.
Look, we get that Jinder is the No 1 Contender for the WWE Championship, but we all know that he isn’t anywhere near AJ’s level. Stop making your stars look weak, WWE.
And finally, Carmella – from the much-maligned Welcoming Committee – picked up the win against the Smackdown Live Women’s Champion, Naomi, destroying what credibility that Human Glow Torch had retained after the recent weeks of terrible booking.
#1 Predictable SmackDown Live
At the end of the day, though, that major problem was just how predictable the go-home show of SmackDown Live was.
Everyone saw the KO interference coming from a mile away. Everyone saw how bad the Women’s Division segment was going to be. Everyone saw Baron Corbin attacking Sami Zayn from behind and everyone saw Randy Orton winning with an RKO out of nowhere.
The WWE needs to do better with a go-home show in order to build the hype for the upcoming pay per view.
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