An anonymous messenger reveals the truth behind Mandy Rose’s fake text from Otis, the SmackDown Tag Team and SmackDown Women’s championship contenders clash, and John Cena addresses WWE’s situation ahead of his Firefly Fun House match with The Fiend Bray Wyatt.
It’s WrestleMania eve and the Blue brand looks to finalise its storylines going into the first-ever Showcase of the Immortals taking place across two nights with no paying crowd in attendance. Welcome to the most must-see SteelChair review in history; welcome to… the SmackDown Review.
Results:
– Tamina defeated Lacey Evans and Naomi in a Triple Threat match.
– Tucker defeated Dolph Ziggler by disqualification.
– Daniel Bryan defeated Shinsuke Nakamura by disqualification.
Bradley’s Best Bits:
Opening this week’s show ahead of the weekend’s stay-at-home extravaganza was The Usos who alongside The New Day hyped up their own historic rivalry whilst reminding everyone at home that this might be different but it is still WrestleMania.
The two teams bounced well off each other as we’ve come to expect before being interrupted by Miz and Morrison who were supposed to be hosting an episode of Miz TV. The Dirt Sheet Duo spoke about their recent reign as SmackDown Tag Team champions and promised their A-list success to continue long after the weekend. This was when a brawl broke out between the three tag teams to close the opening segment.
We don’t deal in rumours here at SteelChair but given the circumstances, if some reports are to go by this match may not be a Triple Threat after all, but that will remain to be seen over the weekend. As far as this segment went, it did very well in setting the tone for what should be an excellent ladder match between the best-established tag teams on the blue brand.
The first match of the night did the best with the hand that it was dealt with. A solid triple threat saw Tamina run through Naomi and Lacey Evans with the help from Bayley and Sasha Banks who were initially on commentary.
After Tamina picked up the win, the champ entered the ring to offer a congratulatory handshake to the winner of the match only to be met with a superkick. Banks, tending to Bayley, also went to offer a scared but peaceful gesture to her former Team B.A.D. ally but was also taken out with a Samoan Drop.
This served to continue building Tamina as the biggest credible threat to everyone going into the Fatal 5 Way match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Even though the emphasis probably should have been on Naomi since the Royal Rumble, the companies attempt to build up Tamina as a short term threat will likely culminate when it comes to testing the strength of Sasha Banks’ friendship with the champion Bayley in the match.
One half of Heavy Machinery, Tucker, found himself being dominated by Dolph Ziggler in a singles match without Otis at ringside who was apparently busy visiting Mandy Rose. The match soon came to a close when The Show Off got carried away with assaults causing a disqualification.
Despite this, it was what transpired next that grabbed all the headlines from this segment. As Otis, Mandy and Sonya Deville arrived, the mysterious hacker who has been causing glitches on SmackDown segments took over the broadcast. The anonymous figure vowed to reveal the truth and showed a recording of how it was Deville and Ziggler that conspired to screw the big man out of his Valentine’s Day date with The Golden Goddess. Infuriated, Otis chased after Ziggler whilst Rose walked away with her best friend pleaded for forgiveness behind her.
It’s been a wild ride of a story that, as it comes to an end, has also helped introduce a new character for someone on the roster who looks to expose the truth. As for the love triangle, it likely comes to a head when Otis takes on Ziggler at The Performance Center’s WrestleMania.
We got to see the beginnings of a wonderfully technical match-up between Daniel Bryan and Shinsuke Nakamura before Cesaro and Sami Zayn got involved to cause a disqualification.
It was an exciting preview for what promises to be a highly enjoyable match for the Intercontinental Championship when Bryan comes face-to-face with Zayn providing the two aren’t interrupted by any of the extra men at ringside.
The final moments of SmackDown’s broadcast before the big show at the weekend witnessed John Cena deliver a passionate promo to the WWE Universe, reminding us all that “no one really knows what will happen” and despite there being no audience it is still the biggest night of the year.
As Cena drew his attention to Bray Wyatt with some scathing remarks, the Hollywood star accepted the challenge to a Firefly Fun House match. This was when the show used the lack of crowd to their advantage, exploring the magic of television by having all of Wyatt’s Fun House characters appear from the barricades at ringside to warn Cena of his decision. This was when the lights went out, The Fiend appeared at the platform in the corner of the building before Wyatt startled the 16x world champion from behind to say “let me in”.
For Fox Sake:
Some issues are to be raised, mainly that they are even putting on shows at all right now, but focusing on the product specifically they chose to simply brush over what is going to happen with the possible main event Universal Championship match between Goldberg and Roman Reigns. With the latter being immunocompromised, The Big Dog has made the smart decision to pull out of the match and a replacement has been named.
The lack of any attempt of a storyline for this and failure to address the situation they have known for nearly two weeks meant that Braun Strowman has been drafted in at zero hour with not much more of a claim to a Universal title opportunity than anybody else on the roster.
That being said, there are various reasons as to why this wasn’t mentioned sooner and the important thing is people stay safe. With the underlying issues of everything we know right now, this was still an enjoyable go-home episode of SmackDown given the circumstances.
Full WrestleMania Card:
Read our predictions here.
– Otis vs Dolph Ziggler
– The Kabuki Warriors (c) vs Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross for the Women’s Tag Team Championship
– Sami Zayn (c) vs Daniel Bryan for the Intercontinental Championship
– Edge vs Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match
– Elias vs King Corbin
– Aleister Black vs Bobby Lashley
– The Street Profits (c) vs Angel Garza and Austin Theory for the RAW Tag Team Championship
– Miz and Morrison (c) vs The New Day vs The Usos in a Triple Threat Ladder match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship
– Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins
– The Undertaker vs AJ Styles in a Boneyard match
– Bayley (c) vs Lacey Evans vs Naomi vs Sasha Banks vs Tamina in a Fatal 5-Way Elimination match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship
– John Cena vs “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Fun House match
– Becky Lynch (c) vs Shayna Baszler for the RAW Women’s Championship
– Goldberg (c) vs Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship
– Brock Lesnar (c) vs Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship
– Rhea Ripley (c) vs Charlotte Flair for the NXT Women’s Championship
All pics and videos courtesy of WWE