SmackDown Live review (Jan. 2): 3 takeaways

How did the blue brand’s first episode of 2018 fare? Here are our takeaways from this episode of SmackDown Live.

SmackDown Live rang in the new year in Orlando on Tuesday night. The blue brand’s superstars got plenty of shine on this episode. The women, tag team division, mid-card and main eventers all got a piece of the pie. The show had its ups and had its downs, so basically, it was just like any other WWE show.

The Royal Rumble is a long few weeks away, and everything from here on out is going to probably feel pretty plodding. With that said, it’s a great time of year, soo excitement should still be palpable.

As always, before we begin to run down our takeaways, here are a few other noteworthy events from Tuesday night’s show.

• The Bludgeon Brothers’ match with Breezango never really came into fruition. The Ascension came out, and Harper and Rowan laid waste. This seems like good, lower-card fun. At some point though, things will have to come to a head. We’ll see when that moment is. For now, here we are.
• Xavier Woods defeated Aiden English. It was a pretty solid singles matchup between two guys who, for the moment, had mostly been regarded as tag team specialists. Woods quietly improved into a standout worker in 2017. And we know now of English’s development. Woods plunging through the bracket was the right call, of course. Now he’ll face Jinder Mahal, whereas Bobby Roode will face the winner of Mojo Rawley-Zack Ryder.

Now, the main takeaways for this week’s episode:

SmackDown Live’s tag division kept it rolling

The best thing SmackDown Live had going for it in 2017 was the tag division. It turns out that wasn’t just a one-year thing, at least if Tuesday night’s episode was any indication. No, it looks like they’re going to keep that rolling into 2018, too.

The Usos faced Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable for the tag team titles. Per the usual, both teams delivered an exciting and enticing encounter. Gable and Benjamin looked to have won the titles, which would’ve caused a major disruption in the division to start the year. However, they walked it back. A replay was used, showing that they pinned the wrong Uso. Jimmy and Jey prevailed after that, successfully retaining their titles in the process.

People will nitpick it, saying the logic wasn’t there. You can argue that, for sure. But you can go down a long chute and open a can of worms if you go into that. And let’s be honest … this isn’t going to open Pandora’s Box. Yes, WWE picks and chooses things from time to time. Yes, you should probably expect better. But the ends wind up justifying the means here.

I’d expect this feud to continue, now that there’s more fuel to the fire. If the next encounter is as good as the last, then SDL’s tag division will reign supreme once again.