This was the WrestleMania Go Home episode of Friday Night SmackDown, dubbed “WrestleMania SmackDown,” and neither WWE Champion Brock Lesnar nor Universal Champion Roman Reigns appeared live and in person.
Instead, we got a video package that was admittedly good (“All Nightmare Long” by Metallica was a nice choice of music, salute to Triple H), but lacking a strong go-home angle in favor of a happy Corbin segment starring Drew McIntyres Sword in the main event of this show felt odd to say the least.
It was downright bizarre.
I suppose the idea was to show how important they still think McIntyre is and what the future probably holds for him, but I just don’t see any real justification for not doing this show with the big names or damn it to stop them appearing at all.
amazing.
Charlotte Flair was given solo airtime to sell her SmackDown women’s title defense on that show against Ronda Rousey, and she didn’t really say much of anything other than what we got. It was good enough and she comes across as a big star should and the crowd reacts to her as such.
Flair called herself “cool” and how “cool” it is that every woman wants to be her and every man wants to be with her. She’ll take Rousey to school with it, and for everyone’s sake, “I hit you there too, bitch.”
Rousey didn’t appear live, instead getting a short video from “earlier today” in which she was briefly interviewed while “doing some extra training.” She again told Flair to tap or have her arm ripped off and bring to the Rousey household to become a souvenir for the family that they would cherish.
Of particular note is this hype ass video they put together for the match and aired just after Rousey’s interview and just before Flair’s promo:
How good is that?!?
It almost makes the rest of the feud worthwhile just so they could pick out the little things they needed to make this video. The WWE production team doesn’t miss out with these video packs.
It’s finally here, folks.
all the rest
- The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal has felt like an afterthought for years, especially considering it was moved to the SmackDown before WrestleMania rather than being placed at WrestleMania itself. That being said, this year’s version was a fun little sprint of a battle royal, managing to hit multiple stories in about 10 minutes or so. Madcap Moss’ win by last eliminating the US Champion was a surprise, but it seems clear that they have future plans for Moss and I’m beginning to understand why that’s the way it is all the time. He bugs me to death, sure, but he’s supposed to. Famous Last Words Coming: Let’s see where they go from here…
- Ricochet vs. Angel vs. Humberto was always about whether the latter two, being a tag team, could get along enough to see who would be the one to win. Sure, they could dish out all the damage they wanted together and Ricochet would be overwhelmed, but then who would win? That was the story of that game and they nearly attacked each other before Ricochet capitalized on the discord to retain his Intercontinental title. Although we knew this was going to play out, everyone involved made it fun and got the crowd involved. It was fun!
- Sasha Banks & Naomi continued their winning streak of building up to the Fatal 4-Way Women’s Tag Team Title Match simply by letting the teams involved wrestle fun matches, defeating the champions, Queen Zelina Vega & Carmella without too much difficulty. Maybe a sign for the future? The crowd certainly appeared to be behind it, but the message here wasn’t as subtle – the teams of Liv Morgan & Rhea Ripley and Shayna Baszler & Natalya both watched ringside and watched it go down, their presence was huge.
- That whiny little prick Austin Theory went and committed the mortal sin – he interrupted Pat McAfee while he was dancing on the desk while Rick BOOGS was playing Shinsuke Nakamura in the ring. He then ran to Vince McMahon to save him from McAfee, who yelled his ass out and hid behind him like a punk kid! I hate him! (Man, this whole thing is actually pretty nifty, huh? It’s such a basic story and such a simple hook, but they fucking got me with it. Even more so now that Vince himself put his face in it and threatened it with McAfee fire. The reward here, McAfee finally beating up this troll is gonna be a lot of fun.)
- Theory’s trolling interrupted a singles match between Jimmy Uso and Rick BOOGS, and after Finn Balor decided to show up and put the boots on Theory, they made an impromptu six-man tag team match. McAfee was great at his comments and cheered hard for every bit of Theory’s misery. At one point he yelled at him on the apron, “You’re a punk dude! Everyone hates you!” Surprisingly, or maybe not, they had Balor pinned in said Theory’s six and Michael Cole had to hold McAfee back. The fans responded by singing to Cole, which was actually pretty awesome. Another fantastic promotion for the game.
This was a good standalone show, but as a go-home show it was missing a few things.
Grade B
It’s your turn.