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2 things that went wrong on the Feb. 11 episode of SmackDown

By Christopher Jeter

Nov 21, 2021; Brooklyn, NY, USA; WWE World Heavyweight Champion Big E enters the arena to face WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (not pictured) during WWE Survivor Series at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 21, 2021; Brooklyn, NY, USA; WWE World Heavyweight Champion Big E enters the arena to face WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (not pictured) during WWE Survivor Series at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /
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As time goes on,  it becomes more and more clear — if it wasn’t already — that WWE is more of a content farm than it is a wrestling promotion. This isn’t to say that everything WWE puts on television is a waste of time, but so much of their stuff has that “we’re just fulfilling obligations” feel to it, and this week’s WWE SmackDown was no different.

As discussed earlier, there were some good things sprinkled throughout Friday’s two-hour broadcast, but there are still too many instances of WWE essentially going “here’s some stuff, doesn’t matter if it’s good or not”.

So, in that spirit, let’s talk about a couple of those missteps.

These are the top two things that went right on the Feb. 11 episode of SmackDown.

Aliyah vs. Natalya

All that time WWE spent giving Aliyah this gimmick based around her beating Natalya in record time just to have her lose in what was essentially a regular match with no DQs because she didn’t know the rules, thus letting the audience know that she’s in the same spot she was when this program started.

As the post-match shenanigans showed, this was a placeholder for Natalya before moving on to Xia Li, which makes you wonder why they even bothered having her lose to Aliyah in the first place if the ultimate goal is to boost Li.

Speaking of Li, it was nice to see her finally make the big babyface save without going through her whole entrance beforehand.

Kofi Kingston and especially Big E

So, this is WWE’s big plan for Big E in the aftermath of losing the WWE Championship at Day 1: moving him back to SmackDown, putting him back in a tag team with Kofi Kingston (nothing bad about reuniting the New Day members, by the way), placing them in a pointless program with Los Lotharios, and having them go 50/50?

Next. 2 things that went right on the Feb. 11 episode of SmackDown. dark

Listen, it’s nice that WWE is doing something with Angel and Humberto, but this feels as lifeless as many of the other things SmackDown offers and given where E was just last month, it also seems like WWE has given up on him as a top babyface, which is baffling considering *gestures at the lack of top babyfaces in the promotion*.