Legado del Fantasma and the LWO put on an incredible opening contest on tonight’s edition of “WWE SmackDown”, and New Catch Republic snatched a satisfying victory over Pretty Deadly in the second act of the show. All men involved performed to the best of their ability with some innovative offense, and honestly, their performances were some of the very few bright spots in a mostly lackluster episode.
So, you may wonder why I’m writing about them with “hate” in big letters right above. In a perfect world, I would have been able to love both of their performances. However, we need to talk about just how convoluted this qualifying tournament is.
I’ve spent the entire night trying to wrap my head around what is going on, and even now, as I’m writing this piece, I am still uncertain in how much I understand regarding this messy system of qualifying matches and finalists and everything. To my knowledge, there are multiple, distinct, tournament-style brackets — whatever happened tonight will not impact next week’s bracket The Street Profits contest with the Authors of Pain, or The OC’s match against Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. They are two separate things, I think. Then, the finalists of those brackets — two separate systems that do not impact each other — will fight at WrestleMania 40. That’s just on “SmackDown” alone.
Good grief!
I wish I could enjoy this tag team tournament more, but this whole qualifying, two separate brackets business is far too confusing. It takes up far too much space in my brain — space that could be used for getting excited about WrestleMania or appreciating the incredible talent “SmackDown” has in its tag team division. These matches are genuinely entertaining, but the entire time, I’m trying to use every single brain cell I have to decide how this will impact the landscape of the Six-Pack Challenge Ladder Match. The road to WrestleMania is not a clean-cut one — it never is, and it never should be — but this is not just a path with some obstacles around the way. This qualifying tournament nonsense feels like a labyrinth, and we are thrown in there without a thread to retrace our steps. What should have been a straightforward path to WrestleMania with a few bumps along the way has become a Chutes and Ladders-style route.
I should not have to waste time trying to figure out how these teams are going to get to WrestleMania. I should be spending that time enjoying the path to WrestleMania. I should be using my brainpower to get excited about the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship match! Instead, I am squinting at the screen, trying to decipher Wade Barrett’s complicated explanation of an even more complex tournament system, and even then, I am unsure if I’m understanding it correctly.
I’m sure that once I actually watch the Six-Pack Challenge Ladder Match at WrestleMania, then I’ll be able to forgive the craziness of this whole qualifying tournament fiasco. Still, let’s not forget what a mess this is, and never do it again, please.
Written by Angeline Phu
