WWE SmackDown’s Smacks & Downs: The Fiend finally has character development

The last show before Elimination Chamber was a mixed bag. While it did build some more hype, there were also some conspicuous decisions on WWE SmackDown. So what was a smack, and what was a down, including the gauntlet match? Let’s take a look.

After I thoroughly excoriated SmackDown last week in my smacks and downs, was this episode any better? That depends.

It seems like this is the season for gauntlet matches in WWE. Remember the ones last year that Kofi Kingston and Big E/Xavier Woods endured? It left us with this moment:

Well, it seems like WWE is dipping into the “KofiMania” playbook, only this time for another group. There will be more on this later, but suffice it to say the booking of this match was questionable.

With Elimination Chamber on Sunday and WrestleMania not long after, WWE really needs to regain fan enthusiasm for what has been a tepid (at best) or downright bad product. The build to the PPV has been lackluster, partly due to having so many marquee events only a few weeks apart.

Well, how did they seek to reverse their fortunes on last night’s SmackDown?

The show had “A Moment of Bliss” segment featuring the n.W.o; two women’s tag matches (Sasha Banks/Bayley vs. Naomi/Lacey Evans and Carmella/Dana Brooke vs. Fire and Desire); Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews; and the aforementioned tag team gauntlet match to determine who would enter last in the Chamber match.

Might as well start with the biggest and longest match of the night.