Daily DDT
Fansided

SmackDown: 2 things that went wrong on the Oct. 22 episode

By Christopher Jeter

COLOGNE, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 07: Baron Corbin during the WWE Live Show at Lanxess Arena on November 7, 2018 in Cologne, Germany. (Photo by Marc Pfitzenreuter/Getty Images)
COLOGNE, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 07: Baron Corbin during the WWE Live Show at Lanxess Arena on November 7, 2018 in Cologne, Germany. (Photo by Marc Pfitzenreuter/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

We’ve already discussed what went right on the Oct. 22 episode of SmackDown, so now it’s time to go to the other end of the spectrum, and it wasn’t that hard to find things to criticize this show for.

Yes, it must be shocking to discover that a two-hour wrestling program that featured just over 20 minutes of wrestling fell short from a quality standpoint, but even looking at the wrestling and non-wrestling content itself, there were things that missed the mark.

What were those things? Well, that’s what we’re here to talk about today, as we go through a couple of missteps that happened on this show and figure out why they didn’t work as WWE intended.

These are two of the things that went wrong on the Oct. 22 episode of SmackDown.

Women’s Championship Title Exchange

Woo boy, was this closing segment a mess. You can read here about all the drama that led to Charlotte Flair attempting to one-up Becky Lynch in that Championship Title Exchange nonsense and the interaction that followed backstage, but much of this could’ve been avoided if WWE had simply booked something better in this spot.

Seriously, WWE couldn’t find anything better to fill 10 minutes other than “let’s have Flair and Lynch swap belts”, an action that, at best, takes a minute to complete? Why the big ceremony over something so trite?

This is the price WWE has to pay for naming their championships after the shows and putting them on wrestlers knowing that those wrestlers will be moving to the other show soon? Knowing what we know now makes this segment a little more interesting in hindsight, but it was pretty dull as it was happening.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. “Happy” Corbin

Again, wasn’t the point of the WWE Draft to create fresh matchups and stories for at least the next year? If so, why is WWE going back to this Shinsuke Nakamura vs. “Happy” Corbin feud?

Does the creative team think that the inclusion of Madcap Moss and his awful jokes (yes, they’re supposed to be awful, but not “change the channel to anything else” awful) is enough to revitalize this? If so, it’s clearly not working.

WWE: Without Brock Lesnar, there’d be no Roman Reigns. dark. Next

If that wasn’t enough of a turn-off, booking Nakamura and Corbin in the ever-lazy “Championship Contender’s” match and having Corbin win thanks to an even lazier distraction finish secured this program’s spot in the “I never want to see this again” folder alongside the aforementioned title swap stuff.