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WWE Smackdown Live has been labelled as The "B" show ever since the brand split took place two years ago and while the blue brand usually lives up to that name, this week was a bit different. Of course, a lot of that probably had to do with Daniel Bryan finally being cleared for in-ring competition again, but it was truly a special moment to behold.
With that being said, it wasn't all Yes chants and five-star moments as Smackdown Live was forced to build up to Wrestlemania 34, which proved to be too much for the two-hour show to accomplish. In the end, this is the good, the bad and the ugly from this week's edition of Smackdown Live.
The Good: Daniel Bryan Fighting Back
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It's no surprise that Daniel Bryan was the big story from Tuesday's edition of Smackdown Live, but it was his main event segment with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn that was the most thrilling to watch. Of course what made it so entertaining was the fact that for the first time in two years, Bryan was able to fight back and actually held his own against Zayn and Owens.
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Unfortunately for Bryan, he was ultimately ganged up on one too many times and suffered a helluva kick and pop up powerbomb on the ring apron for his troubles. With that being said, the crowd was still white freaking hot when they say Bryan hit his signature corner dropkicks, which made the main event segment very memorable to watch.
It was also a great way to put Owens and Zayn over as the most hated people in WWE right now and will definitely be fun to see what WWE decides to do with them and Bryan from here. Maybe it will result in the dream match between McMahon and Bryan versus Owens and Zayn, or they might go in another direction, but it will certainly be fun to watch.
The Bad: United States Championship segment
While WWE may or may not be going in the wrong direction by putting Bobby Rhoode anywhere near a title opportunity right now, the biggest problem with the segment between him, Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton was the fact that it felt unbelievably rushed and almost a complete redo from Monday Night Raw's IC title picture.
Not only that, Randy Orton barely got a word in before the whole thing devolved into a brawl with Orton and Roode having a staredown to end the segment. With that being said, it wasn't all bad, as Orton and Roode blocking each others finishers was a nice touch, but it wasn't enough to make the segment particularly entertaining.
In the end, Orton is carrying this feud and that's a really bad thing for WWE if they actually want Rhoode to go over at the end of this storyline. Unfortunately for the company, Roode is pretty much only an entrance and even The WWE Universe is starting to pick up on that disappointing fact.
Whether WWE can pull this out or not remains to be seen, but they don't seem to be doing anything interesting with the storyline at the moment.
The Ugly: Shinsuke Nakamura versus Rusev
Not only was this just a rematch of Nakamura and Rusev's bout at Fastlane, it also followed the same formula as AJ Styles' match with Rusev last week on Smackdown Live. Both superstars defeated their opponent after a babyface like a comeback, both superstars were attacked after their match and the only difference was how each superstar handled the attack.
While Nakamura had to come to Style's aid to ward of Rusev and English last week on Smackdown Live, Styles wasn't able to help Nakamura when he was attacked by The Bulgarian Brute and his lackey. Of course, that's due to the fact that Styles is injured and unable to compete right now, but there was just little story development here.
With that being said, it was nice to see Nakamura be able to defend himself against both Rusev and English, but having Styles not able to do anything looks really weird and almost coward like. In fact, it almost looked like a heel move on Styles' part by allowing Rusev and English to gang up on him, but then you remember that Styles is injured right now.
In the end, WWE really needed to do something here to distract from the fact that Styles was injured, but they ended up just putting a huge magnifying glass on the situation instead. WWE could have literally done anything else and it would have been fine, but just decided to copy and paste a segment that wasn't even interesting last week!
What are your thoughts? Did you enjoy Smackdown Live this week? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to tell us what your favourite moment of the show was!
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