WWE SmackDown Smacks and Downs: Black sheep, lien, and reptilians, oh my!

Down: hotshotting The Forgotten Sons as serious contenders

For a team that did absolutely nothing of note in NXT, unlike recent counterparts Street Profits and Viking Raiders, The Forgotten Sons are being pushed as the next The Fabulous Freebirds (including the social and cultural associations).

I was really hoping WWE would forget them as much as we want to forget The Sons.

With a non-title match telegraphed after their interactions last week, I made a quip in our group chat that “The Forgotten Sons better not go over The New Day clean.”

Welp, close enough.

The New Day is the MOST ACCOMPLISHED TAG TEAM OF THE LAST DECADE in WWE. Yet, this is how they’re treated, unceremoniously losing to a stable with zero accolades 1-2-3 in the middle of the ring? Adding insult to injury, they pinned Kofi Kingston, who was WWE Champion twice removed from its current holder!

(What a precipitous and head-shaking fall for Kingston the last six months. It’s clear now WWE just wanted to capitalize monetarily on Kingston’s run and don’t see him as more than a tag team mid-carder.)

This is so egregious considering there was a much easier way to establish them as legitimate contenders and dominant adversaries: have them face Lucha House Party or a random pairing of lower-card NXT talent like we saw on RAW with Brendan Vink and Shane Thorne.

LHP works not only because they are another tag team on the brand, but they were involved in the four-team faceoff last week involving The Sons. As much as I like Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado, they’ve been booked as nothing more than tag team gatekeepers who provide at least one “holy s**t!” moment in their matches.

A random NXT pairing probably wouldn’t have been as effective, but depending on how ferocious The Sons could make their offense look, it could have achieved the same goals.

Having The Sons decisively crush LHP would have had a similar effect as last night, but with the added benefit of saving The New Day from an embarrassing loss. Since WWE is insistent on us remembering The Sons, this would have been better than forcibly shoving them down our throats.

Let’s hope they receive more character development beyond “We’ve been forgotten!” or “We’ve been overlooked!” Just make sure not to channel their inner MAGA tendencies.

WWE announced there will indeed be a fatal 4-way match for the Tag Team Championship at Money in the Bank as The New Day defend against Lucha House Party, The Forgotten Sons, and The Miz and John Morrison. I hope to see all four teams next week to build to their match.