WWE SmackDown Smacks and Downs: The ladder climb to unemployment

WWE SmackDown is moving forward with the build for Money in the Bank. Also, we have new tag champs … but why this way? Let’s take a look at the “smacks” and “downs” for the Apr. 17 episode.

What a terrible, terrible week in professional wrestling.

“Black Wednesday” saw the outright release or furlough of a large portion of WWE employees including wrestlers, producers, writers, and more. Profit margins are more important than actual humans, as Amelia Nash wrote. Josiah McDonald argued there is a lack of morality in the actions from WWE. Patches Chance gives advice on how to watch wrestling without supporting WWE.

In line with what I’ve said before, Zack Heydorn argued no wrestling promotions should be running any show. They are placing themselves and others at risk for contracting COVID-19.

It was also reported Friday that WWE is now changing its stance on live shows and will include taped shows for the most part moving forward. This would have made the releases/furloughs even more egregious until a certain segment on last night’s show.

With all that said, because most companies are running shows, we here at Daily DDT also have an obligation to cover shows, and I have an obligation to cover SmackDown every week.

(Shout outs to Ring of Honor, Impact Wrestling, Major League Wrestling, and in particular, New Japan Pro Wrestling for having the prudence and morality to shut down)

That obligation isn’t just because of the stubborn insistence of WWE on holding events; it is because I have an obligation to you, my dear readers, to continue bringing the analysis and coverage you’ve come to expect from me.

Preamble aside, let’s move to last night’s show.

This was the first live SmackDown since WWE was deemed an “essential” business by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Were there any noticeable changes from the pre-taped shows of the past few weeks?

Further, the build to Money in the Bank began on Monday’s RAW with the first qualifying matches for the MITB ladder matches. Two more qualifying matches occurred last night across both men’s and women’s divisions.

Since I won’t cover them here, Daniel Bryan defeated Cesaro with the LaBell Lock to qualify. Dana Brooke defeated Naomi with a sunset flip (yes, that really happened).

(Quick aside: I am concerned with Bryan being in another ladder match considering the ladder match at WrestleMania 31 was the beginning of the end for Bryan in 2015. His remarks that he is winding down his full-time career may help alleviate some concerns.)

Lastly, as I discussed last week, the men’s tag division is leaving me questioning the direction. With another triple threat match for the titles, was there any more clarity moving forward?

As a reminder of my criteria, I’m not going to run through each match/segment. Rather, I will identify a couple of segments that either worked (“smack”) or didn’t for whatever reason (“down”).

My criteria include quality of match/segment and how it starts and/or builds stories. After all, we watch partly to be caught up in the stories. If a great work-rate match happens with no context or bearing on the stories, it’s going to be a miss.

Also, 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.

There are other subtleties to my criteria, but those are pretty much the parameters.

Well, let’s begin with the main event segment, where we have a NEW Tag Team Champion.