{"id":137865,"date":"2022-04-16T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=137865"},"modified":"2022-04-15T21:54:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-16T02:54:30","slug":"wwe-smackdown-hits-misses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/04\/16\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES 4\/15: A spirited RK-Bro promo, meaningless IC title match, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-972253023\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>Smackdown Hits<\/h3>\n<p><strong>RK-Bro and Usos promo segment:<\/strong> This was a spirited and fun segment to kick off Smackdown, particularly from The Usos and Randy Orton. I don\u2019t think that there was ever a doubt that this match was gonna happen once Roman Reigns proposed that Jimmy &amp; Jey make the challenge last week but it was still a fun exchange. One thing can\u2019t be denied and that\u2019s that the crowds love RK-Bro. It\u2019s easy to knock WWE booking (trust me, I do it quite a bit) but the patience they\u2019ve shown in not splitting these guys up and letting this act evolve is to be commended. When the breakup does happen (presumably later on this summer?) it\u2019ll make their feud all that much better because of this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Naomi vs. Rhea Ripley:<\/strong> This was a decent match from two pretty good workers. The booking was also the right decision which calls more into question why Sasha Banks beat Liv Morgan on Monday? Three straight wins from the challengers going into Monday\u2019s title match would\u2019ve felt like significant momentum for Morgan &amp; Ripley. I still don\u2019t believe that Morgan &amp; Ripley will win the titles on Monday and believe this is the means to an end where we see Morgan &amp; Ripley split after just a few months (another WWE trope). I can only hope that WWE will start to develop its women\u2019s tag division coming out of this. There are a good number of women wrestlers just sitting in catering right now that could be inserted into the tag division, if nothing else.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Humberto vs. Madcap Moss:<\/strong> Well, this is a tough one. I\u2019ll give it a minor hit because Moss is off to a good start with a showcase win. However, he still has the same bad nickname and ring gear. I guess one step at a time and I\u2019m hopeful that the \u201cMadcap\u201d name and suspenders get swapped out in the coming weeks. Perhaps as he commences in his feud with Happy Corbin he\u2019ll start to shed the old nickname and gear (and bad jokes for that matter).<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Lacey Evans story:<\/strong> Last week was great and the breath of fresh air continued this week with letting <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LaceyEvansWWE\/status\/1515148906933460995\">Lacey<\/a> tell her story in her own words. Obviously the followup Is always the key but there\u2019s no reason to believe that Lacey won\u2019t re-debut as a huge babyface with a strong crowd reaction. I\u2019d like to think that it\u2019d take a colossal failure in booking to mess this up after putting together a few great segments to help Lacey get over as she prepares for her re-debut. I\u2019m guessing we\u2019ll get one, maybe two, more segments like this to really put a bow on things for Lacey to tell how she overcame her rough upbringing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Riddle vs. Jimmy Uso:<\/strong> This was a fun and expected choice for the main event. It\u2019s not often you\u2019ll see two guys as part of tag teams main event a show like Raw or Smackdown but it happened on this night. Riddle hitting the RKO out of nowhere and Orton\u2019s reaction certainly made the finish even more exciting. I would venture to say that The Usos will be unifying the titles so it is also smart to see RK-Bro get as much momentum as possible heading into this PPV. Part of me expected Riddle to take the loss because I don\u2019t usually trust the booking and Riddle seems to be the fall guy most of the time when Orton or Riddle have to take a loss. A solid main event in terms of action and booking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Overall Smackdown Show:<\/strong> This really was a middle of the road show but considering it had a strong opening segment and main event I\u2019ll give it a nod as a minor hit. I also can\u2019t say I was bored at any point even if I wasn\u2019t thrilled with where roughly 50% of the show fell on this list. We\u2019re less than a month out from Backlash and the show doesn\u2019t feel all that exciting at this point but there\u2019s still a few prime weeks left to build the show up.<\/p>\n<h3>Misses<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Drew Gulak:<\/strong> Why is Gulak a broadcaster now? This guy is a very good in-ring talent that has been reduced to the Josh Matthews role circa 2006. I am curious if there\u2019s more to this though since it was made a point of emphasis by Michael Cole and Pat McAfee that Gulak was making this transition. Does this lead to something where Gulak actually does get back in the ring and it\u2019s just a matter of me not letting the first chapter play out into the subsequent ones? If so, I\u2019ll have no problem admitting that I\u2019m wrong but I don\u2019t like that Gulak has taken this role at this point in time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Charlotte Flair interview segment:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know. I guess this plays into my previous point about Gulak. Was Gulak made an announcer for just one night to sell the figure eight? Or maybe Gulak will be the one announcer that doesn\u2019t ask the silly questions that many WWE backstage interviewers ask and that\u2019s going to be his gimmick? Is he gonna be the guy that asks the \u201ctough questions\u201d but will also pay the price for it since he\u2019s a trained wrestler and knows how to sell properly? Perhaps. Other than that, Flair\u2019s answers were mostly fine but it felt overshadowed by the Gulak nonsense and McAfee selling all the questions audibly on commentary that Gulak asked after each question.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2763402406\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Sami Zayn vs. Drew McIntyre:<\/strong> There\u2019s nothing I can say about this match that I didn\u2019t say last week. It\u2019s a mild miss if only because there\u2019s no real stakes to this feud. This feels a lot like a holdover feud for McIntyre until after Backlash. Both guys are very valuable in their roles but having them intersect feels a bit strange right now. Much like McIntyre\u2019s feud with Corbin felt all along, the conclusion to this already feels like it isn\u2019t in any doubt. Hopefully the Zayn-McIntyre III will be the conclusion with the lumberjack match happening next week. This just feels like McIntyre is being defined down more than Zayn being elevated with this feud.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jinder Mahal vs. Ricochet (Intercontinental Title):<\/strong> So, Mahal hasn\u2019t won a match since October 21 of last year (thanks to Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net for that nugget) but got his IC Title match on Smackdown. Welp, Mahal still hasn\u2019t won a match since Oct. 21 of last year. It\u2019s also no wonder that Ricochet got mostly no reaction throughout the match considering how he\u2019s been booked since winning the IC Title. I said this pre-WrestleMania and I\u2019ll echo it now but the mid-card titles need to mean something now that the two major titles have been unified. Unfortunately, that should\u2019ve started a few months back and the damage is mostly done. The uphill battle for this seems to get steeper and steeper as the days roll on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The saga of Butch:<\/strong> McAfee pops when Butch spoke. Butch is \u201clost\u201d after walking away 5 seconds prior to being seen on camera. I\u2019ve joked that Butch is the new Spike Dudley. I sincerely apologize to Spike Dudley. Butch is being booked like a petulant child and it\u2019s embarrassing. I was worried about how the former Pete Dunne debuted and it\u2019s only gotten worse from here. Only time will tell if this can be salvaged.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tony Donofrio is a Contributor for PWTorch.com. You can contact Tony at TonyDonofrio@icloud.com and follow him on Twitter @TonyDonofrio.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>CATCH-UP:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/04\/15\/4-15-wwe-smackdown-results-kellers-report-on-ricochet-vs-mahal-for-ic-title-mcintyre-vs-sami-plus-rk-bro-visit-smackdown\/\">4\/15 WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS: Keller\u2019s report on Ricochet vs. Mahal for IC Title, McIntyre vs. Sami, plus RK-Bro visit Smackdown<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3688737462\"><div id=\"pwtor-2753565231\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Smackdown Hits RK-Bro and Usos promo segment: This was a spirited and fun segment to kick off Smackdown, particularly from The Usos and Randy Orton. I don\u2019t think that there was ever a doubt that <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/04\/16\/wwe-smackdown-hits-misses\/\" title=\"WWE SMACKDOWN HITS &#038; MISSES 4\/15: A spirited RK-Bro promo, meaningless IC title match, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":134759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[72,71,117],"class_list":["post-137865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","tag-smackdown","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-smackdown"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2022\/03\/RK-BRO.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137868,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137865\/revisions\/137868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}