SmackDown: 3 things that went wrong on the Oct. 15 episode

For this week’s SmackDown, WWE had two goals: get in the last bit of hype for the blue brand’s matches at the money-grab propaganda show and cut into AEW Rampage’s viewership with a 150-minute runtime and some added star power.

We’ve already discussed the things that went right on this show, but as we all know, WWE can’t let any show pass without injecting some nonsense into the proceedings. It’s like expecting an M. Night Shyamalan movie to not have a dumb twist that ruins the whole film. The WWE shenanigans are part and parcel of the experience.

So, where did WWE err on this show? Well, let’s take some time to talk about it.

These are three of the things that went wrong on the Oct. 15 episode of SmackDown.

Another short Queen’s Crown match

At this point, it would be more surprising if WWE didn’t book a Queen’s Crown Tournament match that lasted 2-3 minutes, has a weird finish, and never gets out of first gear. This week’s edition of “WWE doesn’t actually care about women’s wrestling that much” features a heel vs. heel match between Carmella and Zelina Vega.

This was another match that centered around the first-ever Ms. Money in the Bank not wanting to get hit in the face (Why is she a wrestler at all, then? And why is she so concerned about this now after having a years-long, championship-laden career?). It led to Liv Morgan taking the mask and chasing Carmella back into the ring, where ‘Mella got rolled up by Vega.

You know, because that’s how you get a tournament over: short, heatless matches with undercard wrestlers with fluky decisions that don’t make them look better.

Potentially going back to a “Happy” Corbin/Shinsuke Nakamura feud

It’s bad enough that WWE subjected the audience to more “Happy Talk” with “Happy” Corbin and Madcap Moss, which included more “jokes” from Moss that surely had people checking to see if Rampage had started yet.

But then, the two heels were interrupted by Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs. Wasn’t the point of the WWE Draft to create fresh matches and feuds? Yet here WWE is teasing a revisit of a terrible storyline from just a few months ago that centered around *checks notes* the BABYFACE wrestler stealing the heel’s crown for no reason.

And if WWE thinks “Well, this time, we’re adding MADCAP Moss!”, that actually makes this even less interesting. Just find something else for these wrestlers to do, please?

Recaps

Why are there so many recaps on these WWE shows? Of course, the answer is “to fill time”, but wouldn’t that time be better spent on wrestling matches? The answer to that should be “yes”, but clearly the company is allergic to doing the simplest things to make these shows more watchable.

WWE plastering these video packages throughout the show, as well produced as they are, also reveals its long-held low opinion of its fanbase. You see, how else would the audience be able to keep up with such “sophisticated”, “complex” stories (to be fair, the recaps also try to make sense out of many of WWE’s convoluted narratives, so there’s that, too)?

Unfortunately, these long mini-movies aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, but at some point, WWE has to realize how much filling a show with these saps the momentum out of the program.