WWE Smackdown Review: 5 Things We Learned from Tonight's Episode (June 1)

I already miss Chris Jericho, I already miss Randy Orton and it's going to suck waiting for them to come back from their suspensions.

But if I'm just being totally honest with myself here, I already knew that before tonight's episode of Friday Night SmackDown.

So, being the student of wrestling that I am, I made sure that the blue brand would teach me a handful of other valuable lessons on this fine Friday night.

And guess what? It did.

Here are five things I learned from the June 1st edition of Friday Night SmackDown.

5. The WWE Has Officially Ruined Zack Ryder

I bet some of you thought that something good might come out of Zack Ryder's appearance on tonight's SmackDown, right?

I bet that some of you thought that seeing Ryder on TV was better than not seeing him at all, too, huh?

Yeah, so much for that.

The lone reason for Ryder's appearance on SmackDown was quite simply to be someone that the Big Show could destroy.

That's largely what Ryder has been relegated to as of late, as he's either completely left off of Raw and SmackDown or only gets on the show so that he can job.

It was safe to say that the WWE had basically ruined Ryder before tonight by completely derailing his push, but they officially ruined him by making him look like an idiot once again.

I guess that's the price you pay for getting yourself over.

4. Daniel Bryan Still Wants AJ

It's pretty clear that Daniel Bryan is regretting dumping AJ.

When Bryan crossed paths with AJ backstage, he basically told her that CM Punk is using her, and then after the Triple Threat main event, Bryan tried to get AJ to leave the arena with him.

Obviously, Bryan is second guessing his decision to break up with AJ, and this is a storyline that could have some major ramifications in the WWE Championship picture.

It's likely that Bryan and AJ will get back together or that AJ and Punk will end up together at some point, which may very well affect who is holding that WWE title in the near future.

No worries, though, D-Bry—I think all of us would regret dumping a fine-looking woman like AJ.

3. Dolph Ziggler's Going to Get Elevated Quickly

Dolph Ziggler obviously didn't beat Sheamus, but the way tonight's match played out leads to me believe that he's going to be elevated to the main event rather quickly.

"The Showoff" had a strong showing in this match, and the only reason he lost was because Jack Swagger interfered and cost him the bout.

It says a lot about the creative team's faith in Ziggler to book interference from Swagger in order to cause him to lose, because Sheamus generally beats everyone rather cleanly.

Especially with the recent suspensions of Randy Orton and Chris Jericho, the WWE is undoubtedly going to need to elevate a few mid-carders to the main-event level.

Ziggler looks poised to be one of those guys, and I think we all know that he deserves it.

The guy's been an absolute workhorse over the past year-plus, and he's a main-event superstar and World champion just waiting to happen.

2. SmackDown Needs More Feuds

Let's just cut to the chase: SmackDown needs more feuds.

I realize that not every star on the blue brand can always have a rivalry, but a number of the show's mid-carders have no feud or storyline, and thus, have no sense of direction.

You have Christian vs. Cody Rhodes in the midcard, Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio and Kane vs. CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan in the main event, which are all fine.

But then you have Sin Cara (who debuted with a squash), Ryback (who only squashes people), Damien Sandow (who only squashes people), a tag team division with no real feud at this time and a number of other stars who are stuck in no man's land.

In turn, that makes everything that isn't one of SmackDown's majors feuds really boring.

We don't want to see squashes every week from anyone who isn't involved in a title feud.

How about throwing some SmackDown guys in feuds with each other that actually don't involve titles for a change?

1. Big Show's Heel Turn Spells Doom for WWE's Baby Faces

I honestly feel really bad for all of the WWE's baby faces.

Why? Because they're going to get buried.

Big Show just turned heel less than two weeks ago, but he's already single-handedly destroyed John Cena, Alex Riley, Kofi Kingston, R-Truth, Brodus Clay, Zack Ryder and Santino Marella.

In a span of four TV shows, it took one Big Show to dismantle about 80 percent of the WWE's baby faces.

That's insane.

Clearly, the WWE wants to establish Big Show as an unstoppable, crazed heel monster. But there are certain ways to go about this process, and having Show make all of the WWE's baby faces look weak isn't one of them.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be a face right now, because chances are that I'd be getting destroyed by Show in the not-so-distant future.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.