What you need to know
You get a return announcement! And you get a return announcement! And you...well, actually...so far it's just Batista and Brock Lesnar. But when Randy Orton and John Cena next grace our screens, they may be deserving of one. The men who will face off for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship were missing from television on Monday night, and some might say that the product was better for it.
Batista won't be back for a few more weeks, but Brock and his lawyer Paul Heyman returned to announce that The Beast has his sights set on the newly unified championships. Mark Henry had issues with the former UFC champ jumping the line, and he got bounced off the floor with an F5 when he came out to make them known.
The World's Strongest Man's tag partner of late, Intercontinental champ Big E Langston, thwarted a challenge for that belt from Fandango on Raw. Big also spoiled the return of Lesnar with his promo from this taped-out-of-order episode of Smackdown, so that may have fueled Brock's rage.
The faction that Langston has been sniffing around, The Hounds of Justice known as The Shield, have been working more separately than together of late. The men who seem to be on a collision course with the IC champ, United States titleholder Dean Ambrose and fellow hoss Roman Reigns, have been just off stage as their compatriot Seth Rollins has worked show closing and opening matches against the likes of Cena and CM Punk.
Tag team champs The Rhodes Brothers have been fending off challengers on multiple fronts with former champs Reigns and Rollins, The Real Americans and The Wyatt Family all coming at their throne. Luke Harper and Erick Rowan of the Wyatts have been frequent dance partners for Cody and Goldust, and their faction got a little bit stronger on Monday with the addition of Daniel Bryan to the fold.
Meanwhile, in the mid-card program that has gotten more creative energy poured into than any other mid-card program in recent memory, Brodus Clay has been transformed from babyface Funkasaurus to heel Main Event Playa. His dancers have jumped ship and attached themselves to R-Truth and Xavier Woods.
Damien Sandow is upset about his lack of direction. Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Curtis Axel and the entire Divas division (to name but a few) simply lack direction.
What to look out for
Smackdown filmed in the US capital last Sunday night. Previews are spoiler-free, but what hasn't already been spoiled by the roster can be found here, if that's your thing.
The match being hyped on the company's web site is another tag title throwdown for Harper and Rowan. Can Los Hermanos Rhodes avoid the fate that has befallen Kane and Daniel Bryan? Will the current status of The Beard be addressed, in the ring or behind the scenes?
Questions abound about the suddenly crowded main event scene. Will Orton or Cena be on-hand to address their rematch at Royal Rumble? Will Batista, Lesnar of the man who's orchestrated their returns, Triple H, shed any light on their immediate plans? Is Punk, the longest reigning champ of the modern era, content to sit on the sidelines while his nemesis Heyman ushers his most loyal "guy" into a championship program?
And it doesn't take a talent scout to see that all three members of The Shield are capable of big things. Every appearance of theirs is worth watching for tremendous ring work and character development, but also to see signs of whether their rise to solo accolades will be as allies or enemies.
What they should do
During the hectic late December taping schedule, WWE has seemed to rely on a strategy that focuses heavily on wrestling content. Raw has benefited from this strategy as well, but the Friday night show has really shined with a focus on in-ring storytelling not seen since the early aughts.
As the road to WrestleMania winds into the spring, and Monday nights become the place where big names burn off scheduled dates, or aging legends appear but don't get physical, the powers-that-be would do well to establish Smackdown as the go to destination for the "sports" side of "sports entertainment".
The brand split is dead, and without even an official death notice. Hunter stabbed it by making Monday's "SuperShows" and delivered the coup de grâce when he put Smackdown's main title on the WWE champion. With new channels and television contracts on the horizon, this is a great time to give each show a unique mission statement. Raw should naturally have all the bling that comes with being the flagship. But the blue brand is better than serving as a clip show for Monday nights.
In the tradition of the Smackdown Six, Fridays should be the place to go for longer matches. Heck, the announcement of the show's focus can even tie into the blurring of face/heel lines that The Authority already represents - dedicating the SyFy show to workrate is a move for the fans. A certain kind of fan, anyway. A kind of fan that will put up with app tutorials and Raw Rewinds, as long as it can see Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose, spread across a couple of commercial breaks.
It could also free up an already tapped Creative team to focus more on scripting the three hours they have to fill on USA every week. Having the two hours of programming that airs on Friday advance storylines in a slightly different way is a win-win-win for all the company, the talent and the fans.
What we're afraid they will do
Having a wrestling-centric show doesn't mean they can just drop the narrative for an evening. Xavier Woods and Fandango may be able to put on a fun little match every other Friday, but without some meat on the bones of a story, it'll get old fast.
Same with the alleged move past traditional good guy/bad guy plots. Even in non-scripted sports, broadcasters go to great pains to craft a story around each game. Wrestling still needs to do that, even if the workers are capable of entertaining with nothing more than their physical gifts.
Should Smackdown continue to forge its own identity, separate from what WWE serves up on other nights of the week?
Let us know your ideas for how they should build the blue brand in a post-unification Universe. And join the gang in the open thread for tonight's show - where records are made!