WWE SmackDown Smacks and Downs: Jeff Hardy gives Sheamus a golden shower

How did WWE use the go-home SmackDown to garner interest in tomorrow’s Backlash event? What are we to make of that opening segment? Here are the “smack” and “downs” for Jun. 12.

(Shout out to The New Day, who were also wearing armbands with names of Black people murdered by police.)

Is it just me, or does Backlash just lack a certain enthusiasm? I don’t feel myself necessarily feeling like I need to watch the show. At least, that’s how I felt heading into last night’s SmackDown (full disclosure: I haven’t watched RAW in two months+, but do keep up through written reports).

Did last night’s show do anything to garner my interest in tomorrow night’s show? Well, I almost turned it off after the opening segment if that gives you any indication.

One match that certainly had my interest on SmackDown (though not Backlash) was the finals of the Intercontinental Championship Tournament between Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles. With both men having story reasons to win the title (beyond becoming a champion), who takes the mantle as what’s long been thought of as the workhorse championship?

Just don’t tell that to Sami Zayn.

WWE also advertised a six-man tag team match pitting Universal Champion Braun Strowman and Heavy Machinery (Otis, Tucker) against The Miz, John Morrison, and Dolph Ziggler.

While all six men have been in interwoven stories, those stories have recently been average at best. Was there any improvement considering the lackluster build for the handicap match for the Universal Championship match scheduled for tomorrow’s event?

The Women’s Tag Team Championship also received more shine with last night’s “Bayley-bration” as we head towards the triple threat match between Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection, Bliss Cross Applesauce, and The IIconics. The men’s side, however, is a bit more muddled. How did these two separate scenes frame their matches for tomorrow night’s show?

Lastly, we have the most talked about segment from last night’s show between Jeff Hardy and Sheamus.

I have been critical of WWE for using Hardy’s real-life substance abuse issues as kayfabe story even if it was obvious from the beginning this was all the doing of another individual (shout out the Graham “GSM” Matthews for pointing out Zayn may be the culprit with his red beard, though his hair is more brown).

Especially after last night’s segment, can we just stop?

As a reminder of my criteria, I’m not going to run through each match/segment. Rather, I will identify a couple of segments that either worked (“smack”) or didn’t for whatever reason (“down”).

My criteria includes quality of match/segment and how it starts and/or builds stories. After all, we watch partly to be caught up in the stories. If a great work-rate match happens with no context or bearing on the stories, it’s going to be a miss.

Also, just because something is a hit/miss doesn’t mean it was an overwhelming choice. The selection could be 51 percent hit, 75 percent miss, and so on.

There are other subtleties to my criteria, but those are pretty much the parameters.

I have to start with that opening segment, right?