WWE SmackDown Smacks/Downs: Celebrating 25 years of forced mediocrity

Smack: sensible choices to qualify, mostly

Down: tired, far too predictable booking

King Corbin and Lacey Evans both qualified for their respective Money in the Bank, I mean, Climbing the Corporate Ladder matches last night over Drew Gulak and Sasha Banks, respectively.

Here’s why these two choices make sense, and why Gulak and Banks being out of the match works better for them.

First, with Corbin, unlike with Triple H’s segment, his presence is necessary for the match. Out of who has qualified, only Corbin is a true heel. The others are pure faces (Daniel Bryan, Apollo Crews, Rey Mysterio) or a tweener (Aleister Black).

This could change if Dolph Ziggler defeats Otis next week, but either way, there was a glaring lack of heels in the ladder match.

It’s also poignant to remember that Corbin actually is a former Money in the Bank winner. Yes, his cash-in was unsuccessful, but he has experience that should prove useful in organizing this match. Don’t be surprised if he takes a hellacious bump or two as well.

With Gulak, it didn’t make sense for both him and Bryan to qualify unless one was going to cost the other the match. Their pairing is so wholesome and welcome that I hope that doesn’t happen for a long while.

Banks losing to Evans is just mind-boggling. However, for Bayley, does she really want to risk having (in kayfabe) “the Blueprint, the Boss, the GOAT, my best friend Sasha Banks” win the contract and have that spectre haunting her during the rest of her reign?

Thus, her “accidentally” distracting the referee while Banks had Evans rolled up for a Big E-esque five-count was just another chapter in the book that has been Bayley’s cunning, slick psychological war she is waging on Banks.

Plus, this saves Banks from taking what should be some nasty bumps involving ladders. Considering she just returned from another injury, this is the prudent decision.

Now, where these angles receive a “down” from me is in how we came to these two as qualifiers.

Yes, I said Bayley’s distraction was done well and Corbin winning was the right decision. Both matches, much like the Women’s Tag Team Championship match, had far too predictable booking.

I know, dear reader, that you might be rightly pointing out how I’ve praised predictable booking before. It’s true, I have. However, in those situations, the booking and outcomes were more coherent in a long-term sense. Even with Bayley’s tactics, it wasn’t apparent enough through commentary or reactions that there were simmering tensions between the two, leading to their (I think) eventual match at SummerSlam.

Here, we just have booking to fill the ladder matches. It’s not necessarily about what’s in the best for the winners in these matches long-term.

Of course Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro were going to cost Gulak the match and attack Bryan. Of course Bayley is going to do “unintentionally” cost Banks the match.

That’s the issue: there was more story and character development for wrestlers (at this point) not on the PPV card than for those who qualified for the match. Long-term storytelling is always a “smack” so to speak, but there has to be enough vision to balance the macro with the micro.

WWE tends to sway one way or the other. These matches were the epitome of that.