What a week so far and I’m not even talking about Prince Philip. WrestleMania Week is absolutely crazy and unless you take the week off work it’s near impossible to keep on top of everything that’s available as a wrestling fan. Personally, I’ve managed to get through NXT TakeOver Night 1 and Night 2 as well as NXT UK. I even managed to squeeze in the David Arquette documentary so far, so not bad going but there’s plenty of other shows on offer this week as WrestleMania alternatives. It’s just an awesome week to be a fan, isn’t it?
But undoubtedly the highlight is WrestleMania itself, a huge production over two nights made even more special by the return of a live crowd in Raymond James Stadium. There’s so much going on that a few matches couldn’t even make the crowd and, instead, we’ve got WrestleMania SmackDown this week including plenty of hype promos as well as the Men’s tag team titles on the line and the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. I hope you all love watching whatever shows you get a chance to catch over the next week or so.
Learning To Say Yes
Is there any better way to kick off a Friday night than with Daniel Bryan? His passion is infectious and his drive is exactly why he’s ended up in the main event again this year. It’s not exactly what we were all expecting with Roman Reigns and Edge in the top spot together but it’s hard to moan about the addition of Bryan when he’s one of the best performers out there. Undoubtedly all three men will put on an absolute spectacle on Night 2. Even more special that it’s three men that have overcome so much to be where they are today. All things considered, it’s not a match we should have ever been witness to so I say we all just enjoy the chance to see them perform together on such a grand stage.
Bryan on the mic this week was absolute fire and it’s the Daniel Bryan we all fell in love with years ago. The determination against everyone holding him down. The love he obviously has for the business. Put all of it together and he’s still the ultimate underdog that we all want to get behind. At least I know I do – I did see a few people booing on the ThunderDome screens so I’m hoping his reaction will be positive come Sunday, but you never know do you? Maybe this will be the year Vince McMahon finally gets his wish and Reigns gets cheered. We all know WrestleMania weekend is basically bizarro world but that’s probably 99% the English fans and we’re not there this year. Who knows! I just know the match will be awesome and I have no idea who’ll win.
Fatal 4-way SmackDown Tag Team Championships – Dirty Dawgs (c) vs Street Profits vs Alpha Academy vs Rey & Dominik Mysterio
Issues between all four teams have been bubbling under the surface for months now and it’s no surprise it’s come to this. A bit of a shame that they couldn’t find a place at WrestleMania for them but hey there’s always next year. This one actually kicked off with a Street Profits backstage segment where the champs jumped them and it all went pretty damn chaotic really fast. I love a bit of chaos. Profits have been determined to take back what they see as theirs but it hasn’t been quite that easy as Otis and Chad Gable have been on a roll, plus Rey has desperately wanted to achieve success alongside his son. I’m liking the fact Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode feel like a proper tag team now as that’s always more enjoyable to me than makeshift ones. Tag wrestling can be really special when two guys really gel together.
This was an enjoyable match and everyone brought their WrestleMania game despite being a little early. The sad thing is they didn’t really get a huge amount of time to do much. Maybe it was down to the fact that the Dirty Dawgs retained and it didn’t feel like an essential WrestleMania moment, but for everything that’s been built between all these teams I just felt like they deserved a little more. But hey this is the same year where Bayley isn’t booked yet so who knows. Good effort from all guys and I don’t think the issues between them all are done at all, so I’m intrigued to see what direction they go in next.
Big E with the home advantage
No ThunderDome appearance from Big E this week but instead we were treated to an awesome promo package where he felt the powahhhh and made it clear that Apollo Crews doesn’t stand a chance at WrestleMania. He’s played at the stadium before. It’s his home turf. It’s his destiny and his legacy and Apollo can bring all the Nigerian drums he wants but it’s not going to make a difference. Big E is just absolute gold on the mic and while I’ve enjoyed his run as Intercontinental Champion I cannot wait for him to step up a level. Personally, I’m hoping for him vs Roman Reigns at some point as I think that’d be pretty damn magical. Fingers crossed. Maybe this time next year?
Nia Jax (with Shayna Baszler) vs Tamina (with Natalya)
Nia and Shayna are still the tag champs and have no idea who they’ll be facing at WrestleMania. I don’t think they really care either. It doesn’t seem to matter who you put in front of them, they’re just quite happy to smash through them. There’s absolutely no fear there and I’m not sure who will be able to dethrone them. Chances are it’ll probably be Reginald’s fault when they do lose. Maybe he’s an undercover spy for Carmella or something? I’m probably overthinking things and trying to give them excuses for how terrible all this stuff has been.
I have no desire to see Tamina in singles matches. It’s bad enough when she’s in tag matches so let’s not make a habit of this. Let’s just look at the roster and you really think you can give Tamina a spot on the WrestleMania card but not some of the others? It’s ridiculous. We’re even living with the possibility of Tamina and Natalya winning on Night 1 and then us having to see them wrestle again on Night 2. Double Tamina. That’ll be three Tamina matches in a week. Even I have my limits. Anyway, this was a short pointless match that ended in a DQ because Shayna broke up a pin and that was the end of that. Toilet break if I ever saw one.
Making Dreams A Reality
Now, this is the Edge that works the best. The intensity on the mic is something so many others could only dream of having. Edge’s in-ring promo this week, simply looking into the camera without any pandering to the crowd or anything like that, was a masterclass in how to get yourself over with words. Some people have it and others don’t. It’s clear that Edge hasn’t missed a step in that area anyway. The anger and rage that is currently driving him because Daniel Bryan has weaselled his way into his WrestleMania match is something that will no doubt bring out his vicious side come Sunday. A lot of his past successes have come from tapping into that dark side so maybe it’ll help him overcome the odds once again. Again I’m just excited to see a trio of top tier wrestlers go at it.
André The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Supposedly the logic is that WWE want to save the big initial cheers for someone like Drew McIntyre rather than the pre-show stuff so here we are with a load of people in a fairly meaningless battle royal before WrestleMania itself. I could give you a complete rundown of the entrants but it doesn’t really matter does it? Most came down to the ring in a bunch like jobbers while a few got proper entrances like Shinsuke Nakamura, King Corbin and Jey Uso. It’s clear who the favourites are and guess what? It’s not Tucker. I wonder how he feels about his old tag team partner getting a tag title match while he barely exists most weeks. Poor guy.
Standard battle royal match all things considered. In fact, the most interesting thing was probably Sami Zayn coming out before the match and then getting attacked by Kevin Owens. I just love anything and everything Zayn does and Twitter has been having some fun with gifs of him dancing lately. I don’t think he’ll be dancing at WrestleMania sadly. The match was really just there to remind me of what a terrible idea it was splitting up the Hurt Business, as well as how awful a job they did with RETRIBUTION, so thanks for that. One success story however has been Jey Uso and he deservedly got the win here eliminating Nakamura at the end. Main-Event Jey Uso finally delivers instead of constantly looking like a loser. Good for him.
No Predictions. Just Spoilers.
Talking of predictions, make sure you check out ours and now moving on from the cheap plug – of course, we had to end the show with the Head of the Table because he’s not capable of allowing anyone else to have the spotlight. In fact, he then went on to take credit for Jey Uso’s success over the past year. What a man Roman is. Will Jey get sick of him eventually? Will we ever see Jimmy again? It’ll be an interesting few months coming up but first Reigns needs to worry about keeping his title against two immense challengers. He doesn’t seem scared though which usually means he has something up his sleeve. The pyro will go off and The Tribal Chief will still be Universal Champion. I personally don’t like having my results spoiled so I’m going to root for Daniel Bryan on this occasion.
The best of SmackDown
- Jey Uso – a huge win and well deserved after his top-level efforts lately
- Dirty Dawgs – the tag champs retained under a lot of pressure
- Big E – I just like the guy
- Daniel Bryan/Edge/Roman Reigns – if you weren’t sold on the match already you are now
The worst of SmackDown
- Tucker – showed why he doesn’t appear much
- Promo packages – too many really when I can watch that stuff on YouTube
- Sami Zayn – he gets beaten up everywhere he goes
In summary…
A pretty breezy SmackDown all things considered. I know they called it WrestleMania SmackDown but I didn’t think it would mostly just be an advert for WrestleMania. I’m well aware it’s happening and, to be honest, I don’t think you need to be trying to sell it to the people that watch SmackDown. I think they’ve probably made their minds up already. Anyway, at least it made for an easy watch and it was nice to see Jey get some success. I’m damn hyped for the crowds and the pyro and the big ship and everyone just going out there for a few hours and enjoying something we all love after such a rubbish year. Whatever the outcomes I’m sure WrestleMania will bring some much-needed joy to a lot of households. Hopefully, I could get there myself one day. Enjoy the show, everyone.
All images and videos courtesy of WWE