WWE SmackDown Smacks and Downs: The ladder climb to unemployment

Smack: a pretty decent match

Down: an unnecessary match with a title change that shouldn’t have needed to happened in the first place

Considering the bell rung with only about 10 minutes left in the show, I thought we were given a pretty good story with some fast-paced action although with no picture-in-picture, who knows what happened during commercials?

Sometimes predictable is good. It was predictable that Jey Uso and The Miz would team for a short while to remove Big E from the equation (let’s not discuss the logical fallacies of multi-person matches in WWE today).

Credit to E since his lower back looked like it landed square on the edge of the announcer’s table. Ouch, indeed.

However, this was still a triple threat match for the Tag Team Championship and not a triple threat tag team match. We already had the “novelty” of this match at WrestleMania. As I discussed last week, there is some kayfabe logic in doing the same match with the other partners.

When employing actual logic, however, the tried-and-true #1 contender match would have been a better option.

Beyond just being weird that the Tag Team Championship is being defended in non-tag matches, triple threats generally involve endings where the champion isn’t involved in the decision. At least they rectified that usual pitfall by having E pin The Miz. Having a contender match with a title match either next week or at Money in the Bank would have created a more definitive change.

Further, why did The New Day lose their title in the first place? There really was nothing that The Miz and John Morrison did (to me) that elevated the titles, the show, or the company. Not only were they basically transitional champions, but this reeks of a welcome back gift for Morrison more than anything.

Also, were the title changes to help The New Day add another title reign so that they catch up with The Dudley Boyz, who have nine reigns? They’re quickly going the route of Charlotte Flair it seems in that the thought is having a large number of reigns is better than having longer reigns. It’s the “quantity vs. quality” argument. This is also weird considering just how heavily their record-breaking reign of a few years back was pushed.

In terms of division clarity, there is some, but not necessarily the outcome I prefer.

Moving forward, it seems like (and I hate that I’m typing this out) The Forgotten Sons will be given a strong push to a title match almost immediately.

I made my disdain for TFS well-known last week. Their sole good match was their last one in NXT against Grizzled Young Veterans. Remember, TFS had a beef with GYV because of the use of the word “Veteran,” revealing just how little comprehension skills Steve Cutler, Wesley Blake, and Jaxson Ryker possess.

They’ve also posted photos on social media with Trump-Pence/MAGA gear visible, and I discussed how this MAGA gimmick of aggrieved White men just doesn’t do it for me. For one, it just reinforces to people (mainly White people) that what they perceive to be their birthrights, their privileges are being “taken away” by those different from them.

Two, it fails to place any sort of responsibility for their placement and/or predicament either on themselves or forces beyond their control. Is it really the fault of teams like Street Profits and The New Day that TFS didn’t get a chance, or just the fact that TFS are so bland they receive go-away heat? “WE FORGOT YOU” from the Full Sail crowd never gets old.

However, I can just see a certain billionaire in Titan Tower (more on this later) laying out the feud with the eventual triumph of the “aggrieved” White men over those Black people who “took” their job. Now I have South Park stuck in my head.