WWE SmackDown: The ‘smacks’ and ‘downs’ of Feb. 21, 2020

As we hit the stretch run to WrestleMania, what is WWE SmackDown doing to garner fan interest in their matches in Tampa? How were stories built upon? What worked and what didn’t on last night’s show? Why? Let’s look back at the main takeaways.

Since we started our own version of a “hits and misses” column for Dynamite (“booms and duds“), we decided to start one for what many thought would be the “A” show considering the large price FOX is paying for WWE SmackDown. For the purposes of this show, we’ll call the hits “smacks” and the misses “downs.” Makes sense, right?

The show has been anything but “A.” Out of the four main shows (RAW, SmackDown, NXT, Dynamite), SmackDown is clearly the show in need of the most help. While it seems to draw the same viewers every Friday night (including this one, but hey, I have an article to write), the quality of the show pales in comparison to even RAW, which has been improved in recent months.

How did tonight’s show fare? Well, it didn’t do much to instill optimism as we head into Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania. Stories were advanced, yes, but to what end? Goldberg appearing live; the Bellas on “A Moment of Bliss”; Naomi vs Carmella in a #1 contender match; and an eight-person tag were advertised.

I forgot to mention in my AEW piece that just because something is a hit/miss doesn’t mean it was an overwhelming choice. The selection could be 51 percent hit, 75 percent miss, and so on. Using the AEW piece as an example, the cage match was a 99 percent hit and the lights out/Darby Allin segments was a 55 percent miss for me. OK, back to SmackDown.

Let’s start with the surefire “smack” of the night.

(For the record, I would name the Cesaro-Nakamura-Zayn band The Roots, with Cesaro playing the role of Questlove on the cowbell.)