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Smackdown from Montreal seemed a little cold to me, I didn't find it very engaging at all. You'd never know there was a PLE next weekend. You?
I felt the same way and said as much on the FMB with Mike Eps. I was really down on WWE after that show but then SNME happened and it gave me hope. I am typing this on Sunday so I haven’t seen Raw yet. I hope that the momentum continued.
Is the lack of hype for the Rumble just bad booking and PR by WWE, or are they trying to mitigate some negative feelings that fans have over the event being in Saudi Arabia? These days, I couldn't really see them caring about if fans like the chosen venue/country, so that leaves us with the former, I guess.
I think it’s the former. I think it’s also that they had to get through the angle where Cody would be the first to declare for The Rumble, which was also bad booking since it hamstrung when they could start promoting The Rumble. Also having SNME in between probably had something to do with it as well.
I couldn't believe how quiet the audience was for Priest/Trick on Friday. I kinda felt bad for them. Even Sami coming out didn't motivate the crowd very much and the biggest pop of that segment seemed to be the RKO on Trick AFTER the match.
That crowd was subdued all night. Thank God that changed on Saturday.
Should Trick have been in there with someone else? Priest, in my view, has been ice cold lately. And I put that to the booking and not on him.
I think a lot of people are cold due to how they have been booked. It’s a shame. Even in Trick’s case, they made his match with Rey Fenix way too competitive. The dude has star written all over him. He should be booked that way.
Priest is established, and they're trying to give Trick some rub, I get that. But when the "hot new addition" to the roster isn't garnering some good heat, is that on him, or WWE for putting him in there with someone who isn't really doing much, which can make the fans ambivalent towards the match?
I think in this case it was WWE giving Montreal a meh Smackdown and the fans just weren’t into a lot of what they were presented with.
Last, but not least; what the hell do you do with Ilya Dragunov now? A TV feud with the Miz seems to be next, but is that really going to help him? I love Miz for getting the most out of everything he does and being a great utility man, but does beating him even mean anything in 2026?
They have totally blown it with him on the main roster. They have used him badly from the start of his return. If it’s me, I go back and watch NXT UK shows and see how greatly he was booked there and I try and recreate that on the main roster. I loved the way they booked him there. It irks me that they are wasting him this way.
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