The Usos start the show, Men’s Fatal 4-Way
The Usos arrived to kick off a special WrestleMania edition of Friday Night SmackDown, but they were quickly interrupted by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Kevin talked about how he once looked up to Jimmy and Jey and he made it pretty clear that they’re going to take the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships away from them at WrestleMania. Sami Zayn then talked about how being Blood doesn’t just mean you are family, families are also built on loyalty, something Roman Reigns has never shown to them. Jey Uso then fired back at them saying this weekend is going to be “BloodlineMania”, but you could tell just how conflicted he was. This was solid stuff, all four guys made the feud feel even more real.
Grade: B-
Montez Ford made his way down to the ring as he was about to battle Ricochet, Chad Gable and Erik in a sort of preview for the WrestleMania showcase match on Saturday night. This was full of spots, but it just felt like a waste of time. The ending was cool though as after Montez Ford delivered a Frog Splash to Chad Gable, Ricochet hit a lovely looking Shooting Star Press (onto Gable) to pick up the victory. Both babyface teams have picked up a victory this week and I just hope the tag team match on Mania is better than this.
Grade: C
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
We got a video package recapping the story between Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair before it was time for the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. 30 men were standing in the ring as both Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman got entrances. Baron Corbin was the first person to be eliminated which I was happy about as that’s what I’d done in my booking article earlier on in the week. Dexter Lumis just stood in the corner of the ring which was funny until the Maximum Male Models tried to eliminate Otis. Lumis came over and dumped Mace to the outside before Johnny Gargano eliminated Mansoor. When we came back from the ad break, Dexter Lumis was just out and so was Xavier Woods. Mustafa Ali and Dolph Ziggler had a tussle on the ring apron which resulted in Ali being eliminated by Karrion Kross before Bobby Lashley eliminated Johnny Wrestling. Karrion Kross and Santos Escobar were then eliminated from the proceedings before Bronson Reed chucked Butch over the top rope. However, Ridge Holland caught his tag team partner and threw him back into the ring only for Reed to properly eliminate him on the other side of the ring. The final 4 men in this match were Bronson Reed, Bobby Lashley, Braun Strowman and LA Knight. The Megastar was by miles the most popular superstar in this match to the point when Bronson Reed eliminated him, the LA crowd (which was pretty flat) booed heavily. The Colossal one was then able to eliminate Braun Strowman, but he failed to eliminate Bobby Lashley as the All Mighty chucked the big Aussie over the top rope to win this year’s Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal trophy. I enjoyed this match, but it would’ve been nice to see someone get elevated with a victory in this match rather than Lashley win it who’s already a credible main-eventer.
Grade: B-
Women’s Fatal 4-Way, Drew McIntyre and Sheamus VS Imperium
We got a video showcasing Cody Rhodes before it was time for a Women’s Fatal 4-Way match as just like the men’s, four women competing in the WrestleMania showcase match tried to gain a bit of momentum. Raquel Rodriguez, Shayna Baszler, Natalya and Sonya Deville represented their teams and this match was really short. Because of that, it never got an opportunity to be any good and Raquel Rodriguez picked up the victory after delivering the Tejada Bomb to Sonya Deville. Unfortunately, I’m just not looking forward to the tag team match on Sunday.
Grade: C-
Santos Escobar and the rest of Legado del Fantasma went up to Rey Mysterio backstage and said they will have his back at WrestleMania if and when the Judgment Day get involved. Rey thanked them all before he gave them all new shirts. Drew McIntyre then stormed his way down to the ring as he was about to team up with Sheamus to take on Imperium. Neither Drew nor Sheamus looked particularly pleased to be teaming together and both men repeatedly tagged themselves into the match. However, they did work together at the end as Sheamus delivered the Brogue Kick to Giovanni Vinci before Drew McIntyre took out Ludwig Kaiser with the Claymore as Sheamus got the pinfall victory. This again wasn’t particularly good, but I expect their triple-threat match with Gunther will be.
Grade: C
All Rhodes lead to Roman
Cody Rhodes came out and cut a passionate promo which included him taking the mick out of Roman Reigns for “only getting good in his 8th year”. Roman Reigns then came out and did his whole entrance before he said he doesn’t care what the crowd thinks. Instead, he’d rather hear Cody Rhodes acknowledge him. Reigns then dropped his microphone and the two stood face-to-face before the show went off the air. This felt like another filler segment. Cody’s promo was good, but Roman spending way more time on his entrance than actually developing the story was kind of weird. It’s almost like when you play My GM on the 2K games, but you’ve already got a level 4 rivalry the week before the PLE. I really hope that’s not Roman Reigns' last segment as Universal Champion because that would be pretty disappointing.
Comments