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#5 WWE Smackdown Live
Smackdown Live really does deserve to be known as the ' A ' show because they focus on the in ring action and usually tell great stories. It wouldn't be totally insane to say that they achieve more in 2 hours than Raw does with 3 hours.
With Smackdown immediately after a PPV, they are already preparing us for the next feud or the continuation of others. Most of the storylines have excellent build up and this week was no different. The company planted the seeds for possible up and coming feuds, such as The New Day vs The Bar and Randy Orton vs Ali.
It was a thing of both beauty, yet a bizarre choice to put a Smackdown tag team title match between The Usos and The Hardy Boyz on a free episode of Smackdown, rather than on a PPV. It was a dream match up and deserved a PPV spot. What was even more shocking was Lars Sullivan showing up after the match and laying waste to The Hardy Boyz.
Seeing The New Day take on The Bar and Drew McIntyre was something of an unusual call, considering how McIntyre was taken away during the commercial break so as to not be part of the end result ( to keep him looking strong as a top heel). Also seeing virtually a repeat of what happened on Raw between Lacey Evans and Becky Lynch, although Evans got the upperhand this time.
The IIconics faced a team of enhancement talent and won the match easily. It will be interesting to see who Paige has in mind to face the duo next, with some speculation going to Kairi Sane and Io Shirai or former Absolution members Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville.
Either of these would be a great choice. Also having the IIconics hold the Women's tag titles would give the other women on Smackdown something to fight for, as the women have been neglected on there.
Overall not a bad episode of Smackdown. I particularly enjoyed the brief altercation between Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman. Sami Zayn displaying his heel attitude was cringeworthy with how generic it was.
There was no Daniel Bryan, Rowan, Charlotte Flair, AJ Styles or Asuka this week and the show certainly felt it at times. Still it delivered us results. I'd rate it about 3.75 out of 5 stars.
Thank you for reading and please comment below what you thought of WrestleMania week.
