5 takeaways from this week's Smackdown Live: 13th February 2018

SmackDown Live, sometimes called the B-Show of WWE Programming, presented its latest episode from California, and it was most certainly a great improvement from last week's disaster.

SmackDown Live has a quality list of champions but somehow all the four champions are not looking as lethal as they should. The build-up to Fastlane continued with some major changes being made to the main-event and the start of fresh rivalries.

We look at five major talking points from this week's outing of the blue brand.

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#5 A refreshing way to kick things off

Thank you Sami and KO for preventing yet another Corbin-Ziggler encounter

SmackDown Live has been notorious of late for being an authority-oriented show. Either of Shane McMahon or Daniel Bryan kicking things off with Styles, Owens and Zayn joining in later.

However, this episode featured an interesting start, with a much hyped return of former US Champion, Dolph Ziggler, scheduled to take on Baron Corbin for a spot in the WWE Championship match at Fastlane. However, Corbin was attacked by the "bad boys", Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, a duo which doesn't seem to understand that attacking Corbin won't have great implications.

The creative actually made some interesting progress rather than the repeated Corbin-Ziggler match.

#4 When will this stop?

Isn't this the sight every week?

The Riott Squad, the cheap alternative to RAW's Absolution have absolutely no momentum currently. All their three superstars are struggling to find their feet after graduating from the developmental brand, and some terrifyingly bad 50-50 booking isn't helping their case.

Every week, all WWE does is book a new matchup between the three women from Riott Squad, and three babyfaces of the Women's Division on SmackDown Live- Charlotte,Naomi and Becky Lynch. A new combination of the same old tag matches every week is an absolutely disastrous way to help matters.

#3 When will WWE realise the true potential of Randy Orton and Bobby Roode?

Hey Bobby, we should be heels right?

Two of the biggest "babyfaces" on the SmackDown Live roster are the Glorious One, Bobby Roode and the Viper, Randy Orton. Both these superstars have given the best work of their careers as heels and are currently stuck with a bland face personality.

Randy Orton is left with nothing other than an 'RKO out of nowhere' shtick every week, while Roode's popularity goes down with each corny promo he cuts. The addition of former WWE Champion, Jinder Mahal, is interesting but we've seen Orton vs Mahal way too many times now, and it was a struggle to sit through it every time!

#2 Did I mention the Royal Rumble winner is from the blue brand?

Where is the King of Strong Style?

Conspicuous by his absence was Shinsuke Nakamura. WWE made a great decision by booking Nakamura to be the winner of the event. It is supposed to be his ladder for success, and they need to make sure he doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

Nakamura is definetely not a promo guy, and hence the build up to Styles vs Nakamura is going to lack a lot of intensity. However, WWE must try to include the guy who is set to main-event WrestleMania on their show every week, and not keep him behind the curtains.

#1 This is what the WWE Universe wants

Two heavily underappreciated performers going head-to-head produced a fine main event

Dolph Ziggler vs Sami Zayn is a match which, if given enough time, can easily rake in five stars from any wrestling reviewer in the whole world! Both the superstars are massively talented wrestlers and are capable of giving phenomenal performances every week.

These superstars faced off in the main-event of the show, and made sure they left a mark on the audience. Dolph Ziggler proved that he is still relevant, and a major win followed by a great pop from the crowd was a beautiful sight to see!

If the rumors are indeed true, we might see the WWE Championship match go from being one-on-one to a Triple Threat match with Ziggler sneaking his way in. I won't be disappointed.