[Amazin69]

The other half of the Brawling Brutes, who was shipped down to NXT once they decided that Sheamus having a "crew" was unnecessary.

"Butch" went back to calling himself Pete Dunne, got some lower-card work, failed to do anything in the tag division with his pal Tyler Bate (they got one unsuccessful title try, at Elimination Chamber 2024 in Perth) and after waiting out an injury to Bate, are now the auxiliary masked Americanos, Rayo and Bravo.

(The fact that all of the "Americanos" are currently-foreign born [Marcel Barthel, aka "Ludwig Kaiser", the current El Grande Americano, is a German of French ancestry] is basically the same joke as when Canadian Chelsea Green was the Women's US Champion, with an all-Scottish Secret Hervice [Piper Niven and Alba Fyre]. Never let be said that Michael Hayes, who writes RAW [allegedly with help from "God"] is above stealing Road Dogg [who writes Smackdown]'s material. Apparently, "God" knows mediocre humor when He sees it.)

Last week's Smackdown drew a viewing audience of roughly 933,000, the smallest Smackdown viewership of all time. That was down by ONE-THIRD over the same episode last year.

(In contrast, the worst-ever-rated episode of WCW Thunder back in the day…not Nitro, but Thunder…drew over 2 million viewers, and that was before the past 24 years of births and immigration boosted the US population. Now WWE can't even pull half of that.)

RAW's ratings are also in the toilet, but at least they're doing better than Smackdown. "God" may not be able to work infinite miracles, but at least He's a better writer than Road Dogg.

(It's darkly hilarious that Brian James [real name] was known for delivering kick-ass ring introductions for himself and his cohorts back in the DX days, but he can't put any better words in Cody Rhodes's mouth than "I luff yew, I rethpect yew" time after time. You've got barely anybody on that show who can do a promo without being rehearsed to death, and the Miz is completely buried and Drew McIntyre is taking more Ls than the Jets.)

Promo highlight of last week's Smackdown came when Jade Cargill forgot her lines and [I think] had to wait until a producer fed her the lines through an earpiece. I think Jade's new "wet look" hairdo is so that hey can hide the earpiece that the old upsweep wouldn't conceal

Second "best" promo of the night came when Rey Fenix literally stood on a box to be able to get in Talla Tonga's face backstage. I think that Fenix's tag partner, Shinsuke Nakamura, should start carrying a box at all times, just so Fenix can stare down future opponents.

Later in the evening, Fenix and Nakamura, who don't yet have a team name, rushed the ring to try to save the Motor City Machine Guns from the various Tongans. The taller Tongan choke-slammed both Fenix and Chris Sabin in succession…and botched both of the moves, depositing neither foe in position to take the bump on their back, as designed. And yet that wasn't the worst botch of the night, compared to Nathan Frazer nearly killing himself.

With quality shows such as that, it's no wonder that WWE is sinking to new depths in the ratings. Last one watching, turn off the TV.