WWE SmackDown Smacks and Downs: ‘Daddy Deville’ is amazing

Down: Otis doing too much and no follow-up from Bray Wyatt/The Fiend

To borrow a phrase from the defunct show His & Hers, Otis is #1 on the “Doin’ Too Much” countdown.

Look, I understand the charm of Otis. He’s gregarious and hyperbolic, and his short yet stocky stature lends a bit of a “teddy bear” persona to his gimmick. It also helps that many fans have been behind Otis in his attempts at wooing the heart of Mandy Rose.

Still, last night seemed like the one night Otis needed a crowd to react to him to see if he was fine doing what he did, or if my thoughts were more widespread.

Otis hip thrusting with the briefcase on the entrance ramp was funny…until he kept doing the same thing every three seconds. At least when he hip thrusts/swivels during matches, they’re well-timed and not overabundant.

Yes, Big E does many hip swivels. He also balances being serious and hilarious better than Otis did last night. His offense is also more believable than Otis’, and that might be the crux of my issue with his overly-comedic shtick.

Further, we find out he’s not very bright. After a time-wasting Miz TV filled with fat-shaming and really nothing else, Otis revealed Tucker was not able to compete as his tag partner against The Miz and John Morrison. The Miz told Otis he had until the end of the show to find a partner.

Technically, if he waited until the end of the show, there wouldn’t be a tag match until next week. Just a thought.

Otis asked the first wrestler he saw in Sheamus to be his partner. Sheamus, besides being locked into a rivalry with Jeff Hardy, is a heel; why would he say yes to partnering with a face against two other heels? Sheamus promptly declined the request, and Otis was left to ponder.

It took Rose telling Otis to ask Braun Strowman to be his partner for it to click. The roster is shallow, even with the new wildcard/brand extension/brand invitational. There really wasn’t another option for Otis considering the other top babyfaces are in the Intercontinental Championship Tournament (more on this later).

Yes, having the Money in the Bank contract winner team with the Universal Champion might seem odd considering the possibility of a cash in, but if any champion shouldn’t be afraid of one, it’s the “Monster among Men.”

WWE also strung us along a bit by having Strowman initially seem hesitant to the idea and that he would think about it. I’m guessing most of us have the same thinking routine as Strowman, too.

Then again, since Otis didn’t ask anyone else after Strowman, he was either going to have Strowman as his partner or have a handicap match with The Miz and Morrison.

They did tease the cash in after the match as Strowman was distracted by Rose, but Otis said he was just joking and celebrated with Rose (and the briefcase) to end the show.

That left me wondering: where was the follow-up with Wyatt/The Fiend? How their match ended at Money in the Bank did not seem like a definitive end, and even Wyatt’s words after his loss seemed to foreshadow continuing the feud.

I though The Fiend would show up and incapacitate Strowman with the Mandible Claw. If this happened with enough time in the show, Otis could have cashed in and Strowman-The Fiend could move forward without the burden of the top championship.

I don’t necessarily think Otis would work as Universal Champion considering he is 98 percent comedy gimmick. I argued building him by winning gradually more difficult singles feuds over a number of months would lead to a credible cash in. This wouldn’t be that.

For the time being, it looks like we aren’t even going to have a mini-feud between Strowman and Otis with the teasing of a cash in; Otis and Rose face Sonya Deville and Dolph Ziggler in a mixed tag match next week, which makes it all the more glaring there wasn’t even a peep from Wyatt or an appearance by The Fiend. There also wasn’t an announcement on what Strowman may be doing on next week’s show.

I just hope Ramblin’ Rabbit isn’t taking the brunt of the punishment for Wyatt’s frustrations…