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

Smack: Women’s Tag Team Championship scene

Down: Men’s Tag Team Championship scene

I can’t believe I said that even though it involves The New Day, yet here we are.

They faced Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura, The Artist Collective (or as I call them, Cesaromura), on last night’s show. In traditional WWE booking that makes no sense and is so predictable, the challengers pinned the champion to presumably challenge for the Tag Team Championship either on Backlash (probably the pre-show, unfortunately) or next week’s episode.

I mean, look, it was a good match. It’s hard to have a bad match when you have those four wrestlers involved. It’s just so predictable, and not the good predictable like Rose siding with Otis or MVP being a pro on the mic.

I understand Cesaromura were thrown into a unique situation with Zayn voluntarily staying home during the pandemic, and they’ve bounced around in different angles since. Having them in the title picture is a big step in the right direction for the two, who’ve built a great chemistry and coalescing style.

I don’t think The New Day should drop the titles again so soon, but I wouldn’t be mad if Cesaromura won.

However, and this is another one I can’t believe I’m saying, but where are The Forgotten Sons? Even before the overwhelming reaction to Jaxson’s Ryker MAGA tweet and previous Facebook post, TFS kind of disappeared to be forgotten once more. Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake were the main tag team anyway, and their style is much more adaptable to RAW/SmackDown than when they were in NXT, so reintroduce them without Ryker and hey, maybe change the name?

To their credit, they also tweeted what basically amounted to rebukes of Ryker’s comments.

The men’s tag team picture is suffering from a bit of booking fatigue, but we can’t say that about their counterparts.

First, my sincerest apologies to Bayley, whom I referred to as Bayley-2-Belts last week. She has since corrected me (and many others) by referring to herself as Bayley-Dos-Straps and you know what, that’s fire.

Did you know that all four women’s championships in WWE are currently held by women of color? Io Shirai (Japanese) is NXT Champion, Asuka (Japanese) is RAW Women’s Champion, Bayley (Mexican-American) is SmackDown Women’s Champion and one half of the Women’s Tag Team Champion, and Sasha Banks (Black/African-American) is the other half of the Women’s Tag Team Champion. It’s also a big deal that this fact isn’t a big deal.

To the show, out Bayley and Banks came for their “Bayley-bration.” Didn’t you just love the two acting like they wanted a selfie with Cole only to block him from each shot and shouting, “Yeah, right!” Again, heel Bayley is gold.

I was SO looking forward to hearing the poem Bayley had created for the moment, but we were robbed of this verbal eloquence by the interruption of Bliss Cross Applesauce (this is the other segment I want released!). Then we had an appearance by The IIconics on the screen (with a RAW logo on the monitor behind them if you weren’t sure what show they’re on), who distracted the champs long enough for Bliss and Cross to attack them from behind.

Like with The New Day, I would avoid a title change here because we just had a change last week. The best thing to do is probably extend both reigns of Bayley through the summer, leading to some kind of final clash with Banks in the fall.

The most interesting long-term prospect regarding Bayley and Banks is just how will fans respond to them if some are able to return during their reign? Is my praise of heel Bayley due to her just being that good, or is it buttressed by the lack of fans to give her negative and/or apathetic reactions?

Regardless, I’m enjoying this ride and hope to see it continue.

It was a go-home episode, but did little to really hype me for tomorrow night’s event. My biggest hope is that we are finally done with stories and angles involving Hardy’s substance issues.

One thing to look forward to next week is the debut of Matt Riddle! My immediate thought is he would face Ziggler (seemingly everyone’s first opponent), but with “Performance Center trainees” being used as jobbers, don’t be surprised if poor Leon Ruff takes another (wonderfully-sold) beating.

Until next week, stay safe everyone!