Tiffany takes a look back at WWE Smackdown for April 30 in this edition of Tiffany’s Takes!

Last week’s SmackDown was not all that it could be. With RAW faltering, will SmackDown rise to the occasion?

WWE Championship

Well, apparently, the only people surprised by Kevin Owens’ turn last week was New Day. The power of positivity seems to have made them shockingly naive, as Kofi admitted that they’d really believed that Owens was genuine, when everyone saw it coming from a mile away.

I was honestly rolling my eyes during Kofi’s first in-ring segment. You’d think such an intelligent group of men and an 11-year veteran would know better, but the rose-colored glasses are off. I was a big fan of Woods and Kingston taking the fight to Owens, especially Kingston, who showed his badass side to close the show. As for Owens, he’s at his best as a whiny heel, but his comment about Kofi’s moment being just that, a moment and moments end. I honestly don’t want him to beat Kofi just yet, but I think this will be a good early summer feud.

Money in the Bank

I said last night that I was less than impressed with RAW’s Money in the Bank choices for the men and the women. SmackDown did a little better, Ali, Balor, and Andrade will bring plenty of excitement, Orton is a seasoned vet who will be able to keep things going if it gets too crazy. The match between Balor, Ali, Andrade and Orton was MUCH better than its equivalent on RAW, I could really get onboard with a Balor/Ali tag team and seeing Ali get the better of Orton made me VERY happy. He’s my pick to win.

The choice for the Women was okay, but I’m still not happy about having so many former champions in the mix. Ember and Mandy are the only non-champions picked from SmackDown, which seems ridiculous when Nikki Cross, Liv Morgan, Kairi Sane, and Sonya Deville are available.

Speaking of Deville and Rose, I’m a little confused as to why Deville would give up a spot in Money in the Bank so easily. Yeah, Rose came close to beating Asuka, but so did Deville. I have a feeling that things between Rose and Deville aren’t as great as it looks.

Becky Lynch vs Bayley

Why is this not the match for Money in the Bank?! I thoroughly enjoyed that match and hope that we’ll get to see it again down the road. As for Charlotte, for all the claims that she’s the Queen, she proved that she’s pretty insecure on her throne to resort to cheap shotting Becky and Bayley. Hopefully, the Becky/Charlotte story will end at Money in the Bank.

As for Bayley, I LOVE seeing this nasty side of her coming out more often, if Sasha Banks did nothing else, she helped Bayley develop a more Main Roster friendly persona.

Hardy Boyz

I’ve been a fan of the Hardy Boyz for decades and this segment felt more like a retirement announcement than just a vacating of the titles. I’m not a fan of Lars Sullivan and R-Truth’s feud being part of this, but it is what it is. Hopefully, Jeff will recover quickly and be back because I’m having trouble remembering who is part of the SmackDown Tag Team Division.

Aleister Black

Another great, and thought provoking promo from Black. Hopefully, we’ll get to see him in the ring again.

Kairi Sane and Asuka vs Local Talents

This wasn’t quite a squash, but it was definitely a dominant performance. Since Pirate Empresses seem to be the only team IIconics are going to be feuding with, I wonder if the IIconics will be dropping the titles soon or will they find a way to survive.

Roman Reigns

I think it’s safe to say that Roman Reigns vs Shane McMahon has the potential to be another Austin vs McMahon. They certainly got a good start on it with a handicap match with all the odds against Reigns. Thank god B-Team are both good enough competitors, stupid gimmick aside, to not look like total jokes in this and Reigns getting the best of Elias was fun. We’ll have to see if Reigns will have a say in Shane’s fight with Miz.

Firefly Funhouse

I can’t figure out how to insert a “Kill it with Fire!” .gif in here but that was my reaction to that mess.

Overall Thoughts

Well, this SmackDown was a little better than RAW, but not by much. The storytelling was much more coherent than on RAW, but this was just an underwhelming week.

I will say that the major storylines on both shows: Rollins vs Styles on RAW and Reigns vs Shane and Kingston vs Owens on SmackDown, were very well done and interesting. The Women’s Championship situation was also well done, setting the stage for things to move forward after Money in the Bank. Other than that, I was not impressed with SmackDown this week.