WWE SmackDown: 4 huge mistakes WWE made on this week’s episode (May 28, 2019)

Monday Night Raw tried to compete with the success of the Double or Nothing event by All Elite Wrestling (AEW), but failed in doing so. It was up to SmackDown Live to make it up for WWE, and it tried to do so as much as possible.

As most of WWE’s recent televised shows have circulated around a dozen men and women thanks to the wild-card rule, fans are sure to get bored of the same rivalry being pushed forward every Monday and Tuesday.

While SmackDown managed to deliver a much better show than Raw this week, there were a few major mistakes that were made which made the entire show feel a bit off.

In this article, we will look at the 4 huge mistakes WWE made on this week’s SmackDown, and what it means for the futures of the show and the Superstars involved.

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#4 The Showoff

Ziggler made a statement on SmackDown last week

Last week on SmackDown Live,we saw the return of a Superstar many fans were missing, but not expecting to return anytime soon.

Dolph Ziggler made an appearance and attacked Kofi Kingston out of nowhere while Paul Heyman was busy teasing the Champion with Brock Lesnar's possible Money in the Bank contract cash-in.

Ziggler delivered a brutal beating to the WWE Champion, and then issued a challenge to him to defend the title against him at Super ShowDown. Kofi soon accepted the challenge, and fans got an unlikely booking for the Saudi Arabian event.

This week on Raw, Ziggler once again attacked Kingston and Xavier Woods and then trash taked the Champion. While it was a good segment, it came after a much stronger segment, which made the entire Ziggler story feel weaker.

Instead, WWE should have avoided having the segment on Raw and had it on this week’s SmackDown Live to keep the focus on the WWE Championship and the two men involved. WWE made a mistake not having Ziggler on this week’s show at all, and a match between Ziggler and Woods could have helped heat things up a little bit more.

#3 The knock-knock joke

The SmackDown Tag Team Championships were finally seen once again, as Daniel Bryan and Rowan took to the ring for a special interview with Kayla Braxton.

The WWE Universe already know that the state of the SmackDown tag team division is quite frail at the moment, especially after the Superstar Shake-up, and the Creative, for some odd reason, decided to make the point obvious.

They made a huge mistake by letting Bryan mock the other teams on the roster and suggest that none are worthy of a Championship opportunity. While it's very common for heels to cut such promos, they are usually met with good competition at the end of it to silence them.

Rowan joined in with a terrible knock-knock joke before Heavy Machinery interrupted the proceedings.

The two men, who haven’t competed on television for some time and have been made part of the 24/7 Championship madness, expressed their desire to challenge for the gold. While the team is definitely a good one, its unlikely that they will beat the heel team for the Championships at this point.

WWE could have avoided making their own division look weak at a time when the AEW fever is running high and ratings are falling low.

#2 The Elias treatment

We’ve spoken about Elias’ treatment on the main roster many times in the past, and we will continue to do so until WWE actually gives the Superstar the booking he deserves.

This week on SmackDown, not only did Shane McMahon “award” Elias the 24/7 Championship, but also put him in the main event match with Drew McIntyre to take on Roman Reigns and R-Truth.

While Shane played his character well and took more heat for taking the Championship off a current crowd favorite and put it on a heel, it made little sense that he put it on the man who failed him in the past and not on himself or McIntyre.

Later in the night, not only did Elias take the pin from Roman Reigns to lose the match for his team, but took another spear from Reigns after the loss, which resulted in R-Truth pinning him to win back the 24/7 Championship.

Whatever WWE is trying to do with Elias at the moment does not seem very good. Maybe he and Lacey Evans will find themselves in the same boat at the end of the year.

#1 The KO No-Show

This was by far the biggest mistake WWE made during the night, and probably the entire month.

At Fastlane, Kevin Owens battled the then WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in a losing effort which took him out of the title picture. He re-entered the title picture by first partnering with The New Day, and later turning on them.

Owens took on the new WWE Champion Kofi Kingston at Money in the Bank, and once again, lost the Championship match clean, which further affected his case.

This week on SmackDown, he once again got a chance to battle for the WWE Championship which he again lost after making many tall claims. This was a huge mistake as it takes him out of the title picture for some time, and also affects a possible rivalry with Dolph Ziggler which he spoke about earlier in the night.

There was no need for Owens to get another title shot this week and lose it cleanly. The match could have ended in disqualification or no-contest instead and kept Kevin Owens alive as a heel.