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WWE SmackDown Recap 5/6: The Last Show Before WrestleMania Backlash
After building up this Sunday night's WrestleMania Backlash Premium Live Event around the main event match where the Raw Tag Team Champions Randy Orton and Riddle would face the SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos in a match to unify the Tag Team Titles, WWE decided to throw a wrench into those plans last week when they seemingly realized they had no match set for the rarely present Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Conveniently, Drew McIntyre was also without a dance partner, and thus, the planned and promised title unification tag team match was turned into a six-man tag match with McIntyre joining Orton and Riddle, while Reigns will team up with his cousins, The Usos.
So with all of the chaos of the haphazardly planned WrestleMania Backlash just two nights away, it looks like Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, and Riddle will have a little face-off with The Bloodline on this week's SmackDown to see if they can actually come up with something of a story here for fans to get into. Let's take a look.
Charlotte Flair vs Aliyah
The SmackDown Women's Champion starts things off with a very long-winded and unfocused promo here before attacking Aliyah. Ronda Rousey then runs in and has a ringside brawl with Flair that works into the ring, where a bunch of refs and officials try to separate them. Aliyah has seemingly combusted into invisible matter and is nowhere to be seen: No Contest
No Contest
Next up, we have…
Sasha Banks vs Shayna Baszler
A really solid and fun match here that actually goes longer than five minutes, which is a feat in and of itself for SmackDown. Baszler takes this one by cheating when Natalya holds her legs on the ropes when she rolls up Banks for the pinfall.
Winner: Shayna Baszler
After the match, Natalya and Naomi join their partners in the ring and brawl for a bit.
We now get a backstage interview with The Usos, who talk trash about their WrestleMania Backlash opponents.
Following that, we get a backstage interview with RK-Bro, where they return the favor.
Happy Corbin now heads to the ring for Happy Talk, where he talks trash about Madcap Moss before Moss appears on the Titan Tron and cracks jokes about him. Moss then heads out to the ring and confronts him face-to-face, where Moss keeps up the insults. Corbin just gets his feelings hurt and walks out of the ring.
Tired of being the punching bag for the SmackDown Women's Division, Drew Gulak has decided to step back into the ring as an active competitor again against a mystery opponent. Unfortunately for him, that opponent is Gunther.
Drew Gulak vs Gunther
As you can imagine, Gulak has his ass handed to him here quickly and Gunther finishes him off with a big Powerbomb for the pinfall.
Winner: Gunther
Next, we go to a backstage interview with Shinsuke Nakamura, where he promises revenge on Roman Reigns. We see Sami Zayn watching Nakamura from behind a trailer.
We then get a backstage interview with Drew McIntyre, who hypes up his match on Sunday, coins the name RK-McBro, and says he's looking forward to kicking Roman Reigns' head off tonight.
Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs Sheamus & Ridge Holland: Tables Match
A fun match here. There's a pretty incredible visual about halfway through, where Kofi jumps from the ring post and hits a diving Crossbody on Sheamus through the barricade.
As Kofi sets up Sheamus to put him through the announce table, Butch reappears from under the ring and gets involved, leading to Sheamus and Holland double Chokeslamming Woods through a table in the ring for the win.
Winners: Sheamus & Ridge Holland
We next head backstage for an interview with Paul Heyman, who does his best Harvey Weinstein impression on poor Kayla Braxton. They're interrupted by Sami Zayn, who informs Heyman of what Nakamura said earlier and he wants Heyman to let Reigns know that he'll deal with Nakamura himself. Heyman thanks him and tells him Reigns respects him.
Zayn then finds Adam Pearce and demands a match with Nakamura next week on SmackDown, but Pearce tells him he'll face him immediately instead.
We now get another upsetting video from Lacey Evans, who tells us how her father died of an overdose right before her WWE tryout and another family member committed suicide around the same time when she had her first match. Yikes. So then the ring announcer brings out Evans live and in person, but before she does, she says that Evans asks everyone to applaud her and show the proper respect for her.
So that leaves me wondering; did WWE anticipate that their fans are almost always jerks and are trying to implore them to behave and act the way they want them to, or is this just seed-planting for Evans being a heel again? We shall see, as she doesn't do anything besides come out and wave to the crowd.
Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura
A fine match here with some decent action. They eventually spill outside and as the ref counts, Zayn nails Nakamura with a Helluva Kick and runs back into the ring before ten to win by count-out.
Winner: Sami Zayn
Orton, Riddle, and McIntyre head out to the ring now and do an overlong comedy routine where they make fun of Reigns' demanding people "acknowledge" him. This brings out The Bloodline, who slowly make their way to the ring and everyone starts brawling. RK-Bro and McIntyre end up on top as SmackDown ends.
And that's that for the last show before WrestleMania Backlash and while they didn't exactly make the event a must-see on Sunday, they did make something of an effort to set it up on this week's SmackDown. Was it enough of an effort? We shall see.
Till next time friends.
5/6 WWE SmackDown
3/10
While not particularly exciting or amazing, this week's WWE SmackDown did actually have stuff going on and moved the ball down the field a bit. Grading it on that curve, it wasn't nearly as bad as the other post-WrestleMania episodes.
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