I missed half of this detail due to distraction, but I agree with most of what I remember. I liked seeing Jimmy do solo work, but I hate seeing Carmello do... pretty much anything. Dude is literally a jobber disguised as talent. His gimmick is "I'm good". Well, shit bro, that's everyone's gimmick.
I think three hours of Smackdown doesn't work as well as the two hour format did. I know it was concession to USA probably, but this group just isn't telling the same stories that Raw was in the heyday.
Hell, Raw actually surprised me this week by firmly clocking in at two and a half hours. I know they said the time was flexible, but I wasn't expecting a shorter show that early. It turns out it was a good move, because I really didn't want or need another half hour of show. Not that the show was bad, but thirty more minutes would have really been stretching for the sake of stretching.