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If you missed SmackDown this week and were wondering whether or not to watch it based on this review, I would recommend that you give the show a pass. No, it's not that the show was unwatchable because there was actually a lot of good on SmackDown this week, but it was just uneventful.
Time is a luxury to many of us in the WWE Universe and if we are investing 2 hours of our time into a program, which, mind you is longer than most movies these days, then it better be worth our time. SmackDown had a lot of room for improvement, in my personal opinion and it almost felt like Bruce Prichard is keeping his best ideas for RAW these days.
So, with that said, let me not waste any more of your precious time and dive straight into my SmackDown review.
#1 Best: Sasha Banks and Bayley remind us why they're so heavily featured on SmackDown
The whole idea of The Undertaker making a phone call to Bayley is probably the funniest thing that I have come across in quite some time. I think my colleague Gary Cassidy sums it up best when he says the following:
I also love the fact that Sasha Banks and Bayley kept the SmackDown Women's Championship feud going on in a subtle manner with what they did, with Sasha Banks throwing Bayley under the bus and having her compete with Alexa Bliss and subsequently wearing the SmackDown Women's Championship. These two women have stepped up now that Charlotte Flair is on the shelf and Becky Lynch is gone, and they are carrying the WWE Women's Division on their backs.
As for the shots at The Undertaker, I hope that leads to something down the line.
#1 Worst: The weakest SmackDown segment of 2020?
The story of Jeff Hardy and Sheamus just doesn't seem to end on SmackDown at all, does it? I just thought that the fact that Jeff Hardy's personal struggles with alcohol addiction were brought to the forefront on SmackDown is something we've seen on so many occasions in the past that it lost any effectiveness on this particular occasion.
But I would have been okay with it honestly, had the segment at the end of SmackDown, in the main event segment been any good at all. But we had Jeff Hardy, who is supposedly a man of the people and a babyface take his ire out on a hapless waiter, who had seemingly done no wrong to him really.
Both Jeff Hardy and Sheamus would do so much better if they started wrestling with other people at this point. Their feud just feels stretched out and pointless at this time, to me.
Plus, SmackDown really needs stronger players in the main event picture because this did not cut it at all.
#2 Best: 3 solid matches on SmackDown
As much as I can find fault with the storytelling on SmackDown, I have to admit that I have no issues at all with the in-ring action, personally. I thought that AJ Styles and Drew Gulak, in particular, tore it up and Matt Riddle vs. John Morrison was also a very strong contest.
But what really came as a surprise to me on this week's episode of SmackDown is that Shinsuke Nakamura scored a clean win over Kofi Kingston, who is a former WWE Champion, as you well know. I wonder if this is a sign that WWE management believes in him and that, he and Cesaro could be considered as potential SmackDown Tag Team Champions in the days that follow.
Also, what did you guys think of Daniel Bryan appearing via Zoom during the AJ Styles vs. Drew Gulak match to lend his expert opinions on SmackDown? I quite liked it and thought it was an interesting way to keep the feud alive for a while more.
#2 Worst: Another match is going to be replayed on SmackDown?
Yes, I do get why WWE has to resort to replaying old matches considering the overall situation of the world at the moment. But I just have to say that I am not a fan of replaying old matches in their entirety when a lot portion of the SmackDown audience has already subscribed to the WWE Network and do not want to see their paid content replayed for free on WWE SmackDown. Moreover, there are so many ways to kill time creatively, and more importantly, the audience may tune out if they see old content on SmackDown.
I wasn't even a big fan of the package that promoted the swamp fight between Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman because it just felt like SmackDown went through the motions with it. Obviously, it was well made, as one would expect from WWE.
Somehow, the fact that 'the horror show' is repeated so many times during the broadcast just lessens the impact of the same quite significantly indeed.
#3 Best/Worst: Some heavy hitters missing from WWE SmackDown this week
I just thought that Otis should have been on this week's episode of SmackDown considering that he's the current Mr. Money in the Bank and let's be honest, one of the most popular stars on SmackDown at the moment. I wonder if it has to do with the boat trip that Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose took recently, as a result of which Otis had to stay away too.
I am glad that Drew Gulak got screen time and he really showed us what he is capable of, but the time that was reserved for Sheamus and Jeff Hardy in the main event would have been spent better had SmackDown's more popular acts been on the show.
But maybe it's a good thing that Otis, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, and even Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt weren't live on SmackDown considering that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Especially if you consider that the SmackDown audience of 2020 is a lot more fickle than it ever has been.
