The ending of Smackdown left audiences shocked much like the ending of Raw when it revealed who the number one contender would be for the WWE Championship. Two weeks ago, nobody would have ever thought it would be Adam Pierce challenging Roman Reigns for the title at the Royal Rumble, yet that is what we got. However, I think more people were okay with seeing Pierce challenge for the title than Goldberg because at least Pierce makes sense storyline wise.
However, a lot of people are saying that this is probably a swerve and what will actually end up happening is that Kevin Owens will make his return and save Pierce and replace him at the Rumble. But, many people are saying this is just the WWE having fun and being creative since after all, no one really watches the Rumble for the championship matches. They watch to see who is going to Wrestlemania. Yet, it wasn't the ending of Smackdown that caused the biggest gripe about the show. The biggest gripe was why the Women's WWE champion wasn't featured at all.
The more intriguing aspect of Smackdown, however, was their use for Shinsuke Nakamura leaving many to wonder will it be Shinsuke to be the one to dethrone Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania. I, for one, find this more interesting as a storyline than using Daniel Bryan to fight Reigns. What I personally do not like about what they are doing with Daniel Bryan is that he conveniently disappears every time Roman Reigns comes around destroying competitors. Where was he when Reigns was double teaming Owens? and Where did he just disappear to when Reigns and Jey destroyed Shinsuke? The disappearance of Bryan before every Reigns segment makes it obvious that WWE creative is purposely trying to keep the two separated before Mania, but I don't think this is the correct way to go about it. Because while Reigns is terrorizing the locker room, Bryan looks like he is in avoidance.
But the question is how could they have fit Sasha Banks into the show besides just completely not having her on the program? Well, if Banks is supposed to be a face, then maybe they could have had segment showing that the reason she was not on the show is because she was busy doing some kind of fan interaction. This would have at least also given Carmella some new material to talk about rather than also having Carmella mouth off the same talking points.
In other action, Ziggler and Rude became the new tag team champions and Big E successfully defended his IC title against Apollo Crews. Lastly, Sonya Deville is now working alongside Adam Pierce as WWE official.
My Ratings for this Show.
Storyline Continuity = A+
Use of All Active Talent = C-
Tune in Factor = B-
Use of other Titles. = A
