The biggest winners and losers of last night's SmackDown (May 14)
SmackDown was an OK, if frustrating, show last night. "Wild card" nonsense unfortunately interfered with presenting a compelling narrative heading into Money in the Bank. The action was good, but the stars jumping ship from Raw felt forced.
Was there anyone who managed to take something away from last night's show?
Loser: Roman Reigns
Shane McMahon is the most noxious thing on television right now. There's no getting around this. This angle with Roman Reigns where he's appearing every single week is going to quickly lead to him getting overexposed and fans turning on him once again. Already, his reactions have died down and WWE has needed to air segments reminding us of his battle with cancer.
Normally I enjoy when storylines converge, as Miz and Roman's stories against Shane have, but this just isn't clicking. It feels part desperation, part overexposure, and part McMahon nonsense v. infinity.
It's safe to say WWE has wasted what could have been a compelling story of him slowly coming back to the top.
The subsequent match between The Usos (who again showed up) and Roman Reigns against Shane and co. was good, but it felt like an extended time waster.
Losers: Andrade and Ricochet
Obviously, there was no way that this match couldn't be very good, but it gave something away for Sunday. Andrade earned the victory, pinning no less a figure than Finn Balor, and then climbed the ladder to retrieve the briefcase.
Ricochet interrupted him completely randomly and unnecessarily - another silly part of the "wild card" rule it, seems. Ricochet retrieved the briefcase and left.
This obviously means that Ricochet won't win on Sunday. We knew that before, but WWE is never good with subtlety. And by virtue of his victory over the Intercontinental Champion here, Andrade almost certainly isn't winning either.