WWE SmackDown: 4 biggest questions from this week’s show

SmackDown has been dishing out good to great shows in the past few weeks and this week, they tried to keep the bar high and not disappoint their fans. However, a number of average bookings led to the show faltering from start to end with only the match between Ali and Buddy Murphy shining through.

Apart from that, Randy Orton managed to deliver two major statements to Kofi Kingston which will continue to play on his mind before his match with The Viper at Clash of Champions.

On the other hand, the show had some questionable segments and bookings which made it lag behind the efforts from the previous weeks. In this article, we will look at the 4 biggest questions we have from SmackDown Live this week.

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#4 Can WWE do something new for the 24/7 Championship?

The title simply belongs to R-Truth and Maverick

Since its inception, the 24/7 Championship has provided a lot of comic relief to the WWE Universe. This has been done more through social media than in-ring action, and the chance of a 24/7 Championship changing hands keeps rising with each passing minute.

In just over 3 months, we have seen the title change hands at least 40 times, with R-Truth claiming it 13 times while Drake Maverick is currently in his fifth reign as champion.

While things are still interesting, WWE should do something new for the championship before it becomes stale and fans lose interest. Truth and Maverick have remained at the center of the championship drama, and they can add more well known but underutilized wrestlers such as EC3, Eric Young, and Shelton Benjamin to the drama and allow them to have proper matches for the championship too at times.

Adding it to the card of the Clash of Champions pay-per-view could also help increase its value where the champion can give an open challenge to anyone to battle in a proper match and end up with a battle royal instead.

#3 Is Lacey Evans even ready for the challenge?

Can Lacey Evans step up her game amidst a crowded roster?

With a roster filled with women like Naomi, Ember Moon, Asuka, Kairi Sane, and more, WWE seems to still be fixated on Lacey Evans.

Evans hasn’t wrestled even half the number of times she’s walked down the entrance ramp since moving to the main roster, and her matches have been largely forgettable. She’s required women like Charlotte Flair to help her carry matches and make them interesting, and one now wonders whether she is ready for the challenge.

After several failed Raw Women’s Championship shots against Becky Lynch, Evans was given a non-title match against Bayley this week. It ended up being a long and sluggish match with Bayley making it more interesting than it was and ultimately handing another loss to Evans.

WWE really needs to go back to the drawing boards and work Evans in the mid-cards to make her better and more popular before bringing her to the top while giving chances to the already established women of WWE.

#2 Why is Shelton Benjamin treated so badly?

These two could have put up an incredible performance had they gotten more time

Shelton Benjamin was once a big star in WWE. Working as a sidekick to Kurt Angle boosted his career and his alliance with Charlie Haas was rewarding for the superstar. For years WWE has hired his services for the company but largely kept the extremely talented superstar to Live Events rather than televised shows.

Benjamin finally had a chance to come out and show what all he’s still got to the WWE Universe on SmackDown Live this week as he took on the ever more talented Chad Gable.

Instead of giving us another stellar match just like Ali and Buddy Murphy during the first half of the show, the match was treated like an afterthought. Benjamin didn’t even get an entrance and the mediocre match ended soon with a roll-up victory.

Not much was achieved during the entire match as WWE had a chance to let Benjamin shine and give Gable a hard-fought victory to make his next match between Andrade more anticipated. Where will Benjamin head from here? Nobody knows.

#1 Do we need to call the FBI?

Reigns needs to come down hard on Bryan and Rowan

This storyline has given us everything from car crashes to falling rigs and even Rowan lookalikes. All it has lacked is something to actually bring it to an entertaining and conclusive end.

Roman Reigns has usually been good at building storylines by being physical and using his fists, and having him cut promos and indulge in segments for a storyline isn’t really working here.

Top that with weeks of story creation without any real end in sight, one wonders whether this investigation needs to be taken up by the FBI to solve as quickly as possible before fans get bored of SmackDown ending with a confused Reigns and a manipulative Daniel Bryan.

The Planet’s Champion seems to be the only one carrying this storyline forward and even took a pin from Buddy Murphy to make it even more rewarding. However, how long can this last and will WWE finally reveal the real attacker so that we can get some real action heading into Clash of Champions?