WWE SmackDown results, recap, reactions (Feb. 19, 2015): A dog in the fight

Watching last night's episode of SmackDown made me realize what's been wrong with WWE television over the past couple months.

You have to have a dog in the fight.

That seems like such an obvious thing to say at first, but imagine watching WWE programming if you're not emotionally invested in any one character to any real degree. You like Daniel Bryan, sure, and you dig Damien Mizdow's gags, and Bray Wyatt intrigues you with his cryptic promos, and Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins have fun matches; but what if you don't really care about any of these wrestlers and what happens to them?

Part of what these characters are here for is to get you invested in them, so it's a failure in storytelling if you're not. But even then, there should be a certain entertainment value to the program that certainly doesn't exist.

Nothing interesting seems to happen anymore.

Perhaps it's the lack of fresh match-ups. How much can anyone be bothered to care about a Kane vs. Ryback match, or a Big Show vs. Erick Rowan bout?

Again, if you're not a fan of any of those wrestlers, those matches probably aren't going to appeal to you unless there's a strong story surrounding them.

There isn't.

With that said, let's get to some quick hits from SmackDown:

• Both Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns had matches on this show but did not interact with each other. This seemed odd after that amazing brawl from Raw this week, although I can understand not wanting to bother booking another angle heading into the match.
• That said, I enjoyed Reigns vs. Harper more than Bryan vs. Miz.
• Where do I sign the petition for Dean Ambrose to replace everyone on commentary? Yes, I mean everyone. I quite enjoyed Ambrose bagging on Byron Saxton, alerting us to the fact that he owns two suits, both purchased at Wal Mart, and distracting Bad News Barrett without really attempting to distract him. This felt fresh.
• The Ascension have moved up to beating The New Day but considering booking in recent months is that really moving up? Also, I'm a bit confused here. Is it "welcome to the wasteland" or "welcome to the wastelands"? Last question: Does anyone else look at Konnor and think of Colt Cabana?
• Cameron smacking her opponents in the face with her hair as she turns to walk away from them is an underrated heel move, perfect to lead into her getting beat up by a babyface like Paige. The Bella Twins were awesome on commentary during this match, by the way.
• I'm a little confused about Stardust now saying that Cody Rhodes will be dead after Fastlane. Didn't he say that already? Either way, this break up was long overdue considering the Goldust-Cody tag team was on fire, but the Goldust-Stardust pairing just hasn't worked in the same way.
• I was looking forward to Tyson Kidd vs. Jimmy Uso but I'm a sucker for angles that involve a wrestler randomly showing up during a match and murder death killing everyone. I'm that fan that wishes Brock Lesnar randomly showed up to SmackDown and just F-5'ed everyone on the show.
• Just find the guy already.
• If WWE doesn't bring Randy Orton back sometime soon, why not do a Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler match at WrestleMania? Sure, it's a mostly stale match-up, but you know they would deliver, they have a history, and you can put the Money in the Bank contract up for grabs to give it STAKES. Anyone? No?

This episode of SmackDown would have been great if I cared at all about Kane, Big Show, Ryback, Erick Rowan's of the world. I don't.

Grade: C

That's it from me, Cagesiders. Now it's your turn to sound off in the comments section below. How did you like the show, if you liked it at all?