WWE SmackDown Smacks/Downs: What a tone-deaf opener

Down: an unnecessary path to get to Bryan-Sheamus

…and that would have been to have Sheamus beat Hardy in their first round match and have Sheamus decimate Hardy after the match, shelving him (kayfabe) until after BackLash. See how simple and smooth that is without using real-life issues?

Maybe they wanted a battle royal to give more television time to talents, like the newly re-signed Drew Gulak, the reappearing Chad Gable (again, I refuse to say his current gimmick name), or the now-singles competitor Jey Uso. Considering we’re still in a pandemic (there were 10 people in the ring) and I wasn’t too enthralled by the battle royal on Dynamite this week, I wasn’t too hyped for this battle royal.

However, it was smoother than Wednesday’s and filled with little stories, highlighted by Gable’s resurgence and Jey Uso’s wonderful showing. I’m not sure what’s in store for Jey, but Gable may be in for a mini-feud with The Artist Collective as he defeated Cesaro last night and will presumably face Shinsuke Nakamura next week.

(I chortled hard when Nakamura laughed at Cesaro for getting punched in the mouth by Gable backstage. Classic.)

It was still just so convoluted. Again, there are different ways to tell these stories than through a battle royal. Gable could be preparing backstage only to be confronted by Cesaro and Nakamura, and the same exact challenge that led to their match could have happened.

Jey Uso could have been booked to compete in a singles match against pretty much anyone, including “Performance Center trainees” (not to be confused with NXT wrestlers).

Again, there wouldn’t need to be a battle royal if Sheamus had just been booked to win his match against Hardy.

There are also too many distraction finishes in WWE, and Bryan needing a distraction from Hardy to defeat Sheamus is questionable at best (it was also the third leveraged rollup of the show, and all in a row).

Bryan is one of the best in the world and, atrocious booking of their WrestleMania match aside, has shown he can emerge victorious over anyone through his skill, technique, heart, and guile.

The match was fine, don’t get me wrong, but unnecessary in how they booked the path to the match. Hardy’s appearance at the end with the announcers not knowing what was going on only added to the confusion of the opening angle.

Convoluted booking bookended by a tone-deaf angle and one with no closure: sounds about right for WWE.

Bryan comes off as the noble, honorable competitor for wanting to earn his spot. Styles comes off as an intelligent and savvy veteran for seeing the loophole and advancing to the finals without a match. Why wrestle a match when you it’s unnecessary?

At least we’ll see Bryan vs. Styles in the finals, which should be a fantastic match.