Hey, it’s WWE Smackdown! It’s one long advert for Wrestlemania! I bet SyFy were stoked!
The show started with the Usos and Naomi coming out. This episode of Smackdown was taped after Raw went off the air on Monday and apparently not everyone knew so there’s a few empty seats.
The Usos are out because Jimmy Uso is fighting in a four way against Big E (representing The New Day), Fernando (for Los Matadores), and Cesaro (who had Tyson Kidd & Natalya with him). Only they didn’t explain that straight away so I figured we were getting the exact same match they were putting on Wrestlemania. Graphics are helpful sometimes.
Anyway, they had a match, and it was a fun little train wreck of a match, with lots of Cesaro-inspired fun. Jimmy Uso won with a splash off the top onto Cesaro. I can’t say it made me want to see the tag-team match at Wrestlemania but then that’s probably why it’s on the pre-show…
They announcers – minus Byron Saxton, who would be coming down our eyes from Axxess with Backstage Renee through the night – plugged the main event, an eight-man tag with Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, John Cena & Mark Henry versus Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, The Big Show & Kane.
After a break, they threw to Byron Saxton & Backstage Renee, who showed stuff from Axxess. For ages. And ages. And ages.
Finally, we went back to the arena, where AJ Lee made her way to the ring. She cut a talky about the match she & Paige would have with the Bellas on Sunday, and how she still wanted to team with Paige even though they had their differences.
Paige came out and wondered if this was another way for AJ to screw her over, but AJ said the important thing was not letting the “Kardashians” win at Wrestlemania. They agreed to to be partners.
This brought out the Bellas, and Nikki ran down AJ for disappearing for half a year. Brie said everyone wanted to be the Bellas, and AJ said, “yeah, right, everyone wants to be D-list failed actresses.” Paige said they were proud to be freaks, geeks, and misfits.
Nikki wanted to go right there, but Brie held her back, and they left, with Nikki calling AJ & Paige “bitches”. Ooooooh! This was good.
They threw back to Axxess, and back to Backstage Renee and Byron Saxton. Again, they plugged Wrestlemania. For more ages.
Hey, it’s John Cena! He came to the ring for the main event, and was followed by the rest of the competitors, and… they went to a commercial break.
After the break, the match kicked off. It was a good match, notable for making Roman Reigns look like, well, John Cena. Seriously, he could have had the “SPOILER: I WIN” t-shirt and everything. Well, he didn’t win, but his team did, when Daniel Bryan hit the running knee on The Big Show.
They went twenty minutes, and it was a fun main event, but it really did nothing for anyone. Sometimes that’s not important, but maybe tonight it should have been?
This was a Decent Show. The two matches were good, as was the Divas’ segment. On its own, and for what it was, the Axxess reports were also good. But Smackdown should be a two-hour fighting show, not half a glorified news show. Weird thing is, take out the Axxess segments and you have a really good one-hour wrestling TV show. Food for thought.