Smackdown Review 04/03/2020

Hello! It’s Brady here for my ‘debut’ review for TWC. Looking forward to taking on the role of reviewing Smackdown, and what a better way to start off than with the go-home show for WrestleMania 36. We’re still live from the WWE Performance Center as John Cena is set to answer Bray Wyatt’s FireFly FunHouse Match challenge, MizTv with special guests New Day & The Usos, plus much more action. So, without further ado, lets get into it.

Live from the Performance Center in Orlando, FL.

Miz TV w/ The Usos & New Day
We kick things off with Miz TV, but in strange fashion, the Usos come out first. They cut a promo about how they can’t wait for Miz and Morrison to arrive, especially after what they did to them last week. New Day is out next with a promo of their own. They mock the Usos for thinking they will win the tag team championships at WrestleMania. Obviously, they disagree and say they will win. Suddenly a argument occurs between both teams before they’re interrupted by Miz and Morrison. Miz speaks about how all the odds are stacked against them, but they’ll still come out on top this weekend. Morrison says they’re the greatest tag team of the twenty first century. And with that, New Day and Usos charge up the ramp and a big brawl between all three teams gets started. Surprisingly, after ladders fly and bodies drop, the tag team champions stand tall.
My Thoughts
This was solid segment that got us ready for the big match this weekend. It was a lot of stuff packed into little time. The segment was only under seven minutes, but I enjoyed it. Good opening segment.

Naomi vs. Lacey Evans vs. Tamina
Sasha Banks & Bayley joined Michael Cole on commentary for this match. Michael, sported Lacey’s hat that she put on his head, mentioning this cause it was hilarious. The match itself was decent, nothing to write home about. But not bad. Tamina dominated a lot in the early minutes of the match, but eventually everyone got some offense in. That was until Sasha jumped up from the announcers desk and attacked Lacey. Only to then get taken out by Naomi. Since there isn’t disqualifications in a triple threat, the match continued. Naomi and Tamina battled back and forth for a short period until Bayley got involved and went after Naomi, causing Tamina to pick up the win. After the match, Bayley congratulated Tamina, seemingly trying to get on her good side before the big match. It didn’t work. Tamina laid Bayley out with a superkick. Sasha then tried her hand at getting on Tamina’s good side, but failed as well, falling to a Samoan drop. Tamina stands tall to end the segment.
My Thoughts
the match itself, like I said, was decent. I was more entertained with Bayley and Sasha on commentary throughout the match. I did though, enjoy the post match shenanigans. Seeing Tamina stand tall for the second week in a row was a surprise, and I like it. Solid job at trying to get some last minute hype for the WrestleMania match.

⁃ Tucker is backstage using weight bands when Mandy Rose walks you to him. They start talking, but we can’t hear what they’re saying, Michael Cole is talking over them. He says Tucker will take on Dolph Ziggler later on tonight. Also, during this segment the weird mysterious blue lights flashed on the screen again, but this time with the words “The Truth Will Be Heard”

⁃ We then get to see Shawn Michaels vs Ric Flair from WrestleMania 24. Ric Flair’s farewell match. Good match. I’m sure you’ve seen it, but if not, highly recommend.

⁃ Michael Cole says he has Breaking News for WrestleMania. We see a look back at last weeks segment between Elias and Baron Corbin. He then says that Elias vs Baron Corbin is still on for WrestleMania, as well as Goldberg will now battle Braun Strowman for the universal title at WrestleMania.

⁃ Another backstage segment with Tucker. This time he’s with Otis. He tells Otis that Mandy asked about him. Otis then got a text that interrupted the conversation. He made his weird noises and said he’d be right back. Tucker questioned where he was going, saying his match is next.

Tucker vs. Dolph Ziggler
The match started off with a look back at the segment from two weeks ago when Otis destroyed Miz and Morrison. Tucker dominated the opening parts of the match. Ziggler tried to fight back but was continuously knocked down and thrown around. Eventually the match made its way to the outside. Tucker drove Dolph into the barricade and steel steps, but when he tried for a body slam on the steps, Dolph raked his eyes and hit a ZigZag onto the steps to cause a disqualification. I didn’t like that finish. Ziggler then tried to smash Tucker’s head in between the steps, but Mandy and Sonya ran out to stop him. Otis followed, but the entire cluster cams to a stop when once again the words “The Truth Will Be Heard” was up on the screen. Suddenly a man in a dark hoodie who seemed to be in a control room, started to speak. He reiterated that the truth will be heard, before playing a video of Mandy and Sonya backstage talking about Otis and Mandy’s date. Mandy walked away but left her phone behind. Sonya took Otis’ phone and sabotaged the whole date with the help of Dolph. The camera cuts back to real time where a very obviously annoyed Mandy Rose walks away from Sonya Deville. Otis tried to chase down Dolph but just missed him.
My Thoughts
The match itself was nothing more than a set up for the big reveal which is okay by me. As for the big reveal, I feel slighted and shocked. I feel slighted because I thought the whole truth will be heard and all of that stuff was a new superstar. But, shocked because in my own head, i thought it was going to be Tucker that sabotaged Otis. But, it was Sonya. Nice swerve. Probably one of the best built feuds going into WrestleMania, so this was another nice set up for this weekend.

⁃ We come back to see Sonya chasing down Mandy backstage but Mandy blows her off once again.

⁃ Highlights are shown from the tag team match between Gulak and Bryan vs Shinsuke and Cesaro to hype up the next match.

Daniel Bryan w/ Drew Gulak vs. Shinsuke Nakamura w/ Cesaro
Sami Zayn was on commentary for this match while Cesaro and Drew Gulak were ringside. This match was exactly what you would expect it to be. A nice technical back and forth battle between both men. As it came down to the ending moments, Daniel Bryan locked the Yes Lock on Shinsuke, but Cesaro attacked Bryan and broke the submission up causing the DQ. Drew tried to help, but Cesaro took him out, then went after Bryan again. Shinsuke, Cesaro & Sami all attacked Gulak and Bryan leaving them laying in the ring and on the outside. Sami holds the intercontinental championship in Daniel Bryan’s face to end the post match segment.
My Thoughts
I loved the match. Easily the best match of the night, which wasn’t a hard bar to clear, but nonetheless it was great. The post match angle was great too, with everyone around the ring you just knew it was bound to breakdown. If i had to nitpick one thing, it’s that two back to back DQ finishes was odd and every match thus far has ended in some shenanigans. But, i understand that’s what they have to do to try to build at least some sort of hype for the Pay-Per-View.

⁃ We see a look back at Bray Wyatt challenging John Cena to a FireFly FunHouse Match.

John Cena Addresses Bray Wyatt’s Challenge
John Cena is here. Cena starts off by loosely explaining why WrestleMania is in the PC. He begins to hype up the show of shows. He says WrestleMania is exciting because no one truly knows what’s going to happen, including him. He says that he has no clue what a FireFly FunHouse Match is, but he thinks Bray Wyatt doesn’t even know what it is. He says The Fiend is trying to put fear and panic into everyone, leaving us to stare into uncertainty. John goes on to say he is not afraid and will not panic. He’s here to squash Bray Wyatt and finish what they started six years ago. Cena claims Bray isn’t even on the level below him, he’s just a poor man’s version of a bootleg Mr. Rodgers. He then runs down the fiend, asking if he’s supposed to be afraid of someone who looks like Wiz Khalifa and the WB Frog, which got a chuckle out of me. John Cena says that Goldberg exposed that The Fiend has weakness but now he will expose The Fiend as an embarrassment. John explained that even though Bray has tried to give himself ever advantage, he’s still going to get his ass kicked. John Cena accepts Bray Wyatt’s WrestleMania challenge. All of Bray Wyatt’s puppets begin to appear in the crowd, saying that after Bray is done with him, he will play with them forever. The continuously repeat the word “forever” as eerie music plays. Rambling Rabbit then says “Uh-Oh, he’s here” before the lights shut off, only to come back on with The Fiend perched on top of the performance center balcony, staring down John Cena. As Cena intensely stares down The Fiend, Bray Wyatt appears behind Cena, muttering Let Me In, into his ear. As Cena turns around, Bray and The Fiend are both gone. John Cena looks shaken up as the show closes.
My Thoughts
Wow is the first word that comes to mind. I really enjoyed that ending segment a lot and at least for me, made me even more excited than I already was to see this match go down this weekend. I love Bray Wyatt’s antics and getting the puppets involved was super cool. Also, seeing Bray and The Fiend in the same place was amazing and only something that could be done within the PC, so if there’s any positive to the whole PC mess, it’s that. John Cena plays to The Fiend so well and I loved that John started off by making fun of Bray and saying he was not scared of The Fiend, but by the end of the segment he was visibly shaken up. Great way to end the WrestleMania go home show.

Final Thoughts
I enjoyed Smackdown tonight. Overall I thought the show was pretty good. It had three solid matches to hype up their respective WrestleMania matches. As i said before, the only thing i didn’t like was that all three matches ended in a cluster and two of the three ended in a DQ. But, they’re trying their best to get us excited for the big weekend to come, so I understand. From a personal standpoint, the main two matches I’m looking forward to are Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan & John Cena vs. The Fiend. So, i thought they did a great job at amplifying that excitement for me. Braun Strowman being thrown into the universal title match with a ten second announcement was odd, then they moved on like it was nothing, but again I understand that due to the circumstances at hand. A big flaw for me though, is that they have once again neglected to tell us which matches are on Saturday and which matches are on Sunday. So, we’re going into WrestleMania with a little bit of a blind eye, which I’m not too fond of. Again, good go home show this week, and I’m looking forward to talking about the post-mania show next week!