SmackDown

Rest in Peace

There is nothing I can say about The Undertaker that hasn’t been said a million times before other than how it affected me personally to learn that the Boneyard match with AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36 will officially be Taker’s last (no one knew that at the time).

It truly makes my heart happy to finally see The Undertaker in a peaceful state of mind regarding how his career finished. He has been attempting to find that peace of mind for years. I thought Kane put it best when he said, “The Undertaker is by far the greatest character in the history of WWE” (honestly, I would rank him as the second greatest in-ring performer ever behind only Shawn Michaels). To immerse oneself that deeply into a character in order to preserve the integrity of the business and himself is truly amazing. The legend of The Undertaker will become a mythical character, if it is not already.

The match between Jeff Hardy and King Corbin had no legitimate storyline implications; although it did get Corbin more over as a heel. Jeff Hardy is a veteran who has worked with Taker, so it made sense from this perspective (although it felt a little redundant because Jeff Hardy beat Corbin about three months ago on SmackDown – just a couple weeks before ‘Mania). It is definitely an interesting potentiality, however, to imagine the possibility of Corbin working a non-title feud with the newest addition to SmackDown – Matt Riddle.

Wyatt Challenging Strowman Once More in a Swamp

The segment with Braun Strowman also went over very well. This was largely due to the fact that “The Monster Among Men” showed more personality than he has on camera in quite some time. He seemed very comfortable doing so. This is a very encouraging sign for the Universal Champion. It is evidence that he has settled into a perfect niche in WWE after several years of hard work and immersing himself in the energy of the business.

It came to light that Strowman and Bray Wyatt were going to work together one more time before SummerSlam about a month ago. By that point in time, build for Backlash had already begun, so that left Extreme Rules as the only possibility.

New No 1. Contender

A huge congratulations goes out to Nikki Cross on becoming the No. 1 contender to Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship. Smart fans probably knew it would be either Nikki or Alexa winning the fatal four way – because Bayley and Sasha won the Women’s Tag Team Titles from them. Lacey Evans challenged Bayley for her title as recently as Royal Rumble in January, and Dana Brooke is still a little too new in the eyes of the WWE universe to be receiving a push quite that big; some might not be too familiar with who she is yet.

8-Man Tag Action

While it is true that AEW might in fact have a slightly superior tag team division (which by the way does include one prominent team that just came over from WWE), WWE has a pretty hefty amount of talent in terms of tag teams. It was on full display on SmackDown on June 26. On the face side, there are teams like The New Day and Lucha House Party (this team in particular performs moves constantly and consistently that require a ridiculous amount of athleticism). And on the heel side, you have Miz and Morrison (MC M.I.Z. and Johnny Drip Drip) along with Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura.

I am all for Cesaro and Nakamura being number one contenders to the tag titles like they are right now. They are both two of the greatest wrestlers in the world (I love Cesaro in particular). In my own personal opinion, it would be an absolute shame if Cesaro was not WWE Champion at least one time before he retired. Whatever accolades he happens to achieve before that is absolutely fantastic, WWE would need to get on it if this is going to happen, because the man is already almost 40 years old.

It was very cool of WWE to showcase its adaptability on-the-fly by having two triple threat singles matches for the SmackDown tag team championship for the first time ever in the last two weeks since WrestleMania. I reference the adaptability piece because WWE had to make last minute adjustments due to The Miz pulling out of Mania due to an illness.

The company has also adapted very well to the empty arena format under which they need to conduct shows for now. Vince McMahon along with the entire WWE production crew are observing week-by-week what works and what doesn’t. They are gradually implementing changes to make the shows as enticing as they possibly can be. Everyone is learning throughout the process with the current world situation, and WWE is doing an excellent job of becoming a more malleable company.

Personally, I don’t think the tag team titles needed to be taken off the team of MC M.I.Z. and Johnny Drip Drip. I thought they were settling into their new gimmick as rappers quite nicely. They were, and still are, very entertaining in that role. I will never complain however when The New Day become tag team champions; it simply feels right when they are champions. If someone had told me five years ago that they could be 8-time champs I would have called whoever that was crazy. The WWE universe was annoyed by them and didn’t like them much. Everyone wanted to see them lose. However, things change with time as people became familiar with their gimmick and the audience developed a love for it, and for them.

WWE’s ultimate goal is to make The New Day 10-time tag team champions, surpassing The Dudley Boyz’ all-time record of 9 reigns. This would logically make The New Day the greatest tag team in WWE history. They have earned it. WWE is on pace to make The New Day 10-time Champs by the time Big E and Xavier Woods are about 35 years old. This would give them both plenty of time to test the waters and find out if they gel with the WWE universe on their own. I imagine Kofi Kingston will retire pretty soon after The New Day mutually parts ways in a couple years. Kofi has openly expressed how he would like to wrestle for just a few more years. He is only 38 but has been on the road constantly for the last 12 years.

Braun Strowman is finally a major world champion after spending the last 4 ½ years on the main roster paying his dues, in the future, there may need for a better story with more layers

It’s great to see Braun Strowman finally getting an opportunity to showcase what he would be as a world champion in a prominent role. Smart fans are aware that this moment of being put over by a credible member of one, or maybe even two, generations in Goldberg was intended for Roman Reigns. This would have cemented a babyface that fans now actually like. Because he missed Mania (and understandably so) Strowman had to be inserted into the role of universal champion as basically a placeholder for Roman.

This is not to discredit Braun in any way because he is doing a great job as universal champion. His feud with “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt should be enthralling as it has been for the last two weeks. I imagine Strowman will lose the universal title to Reigns shortly after The Big Dog returns to the ring after the pandemic situation slows down.

The March 13 edition of SmackDown on FOX was truly unprecedented as it was the first ever episode of Raw or SmackDown to be held at the WWE Performance Center (PC). NXT additionally aired live from the PC this week. This was also the first WWE event to ever be held with zero fans in attendance. It reminded me of the time when Mick Foley and The Rock had a WWE Championship match in an empty arena on Super Bowl Sunday in 1999 (I believe it was Super Bowl XXXIII). I don’t remember who was playing, because you have to remember I was only two years old.

All that can be said is that WWE did the best they could do given the circumstances that are currently going on in the United States with Covid-19. Fortunately, the best they could do was pretty damn good because I guarantee it took an awful lot of last-minute planning on Triple H’s part.

I would fully assume that WWE will be having every event (SmackDown, Raw, and NXT alike) in this setting at the PC for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, there is also a good chance WrestleMania will be postponed by at least a month given the conditions. It’s very good, however, that WWE’s most experienced broadcaster in Michael Cole was the first one of WWE’s broadcasters to experience this, because he is so trusted by WWE officials.

This was probably not a huge deal for experienced superstars like Jeff Hardy, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, or Roman Reigns. Fortunately, even the younger superstars did not seem to be at a loss for words or what to do because of the different environment, and that is a very good thing. They have been trained extremely well to do what they do no matter the environment.

Triple H did a fantastic job on commentary, and Mojo Rawley hyping up Michael Cole was the funniest thing I’ve seen on SmackDown in months. This will not be the type of environment Rob Gronkowski can expect to experience regularly, but he will likely most likely debut on SmackDown in this environment with an empty arena.

Goldberg’s Title Reign

Most WWE fans don’t like it, but the Universal Title was put on Goldberg for two reasons. The first is so Roman Reigns is more likely to be cheered at WrestleMania 36. This is Mr. McMahon’s primary goal, and he figured that since The Fiend is so new, fresh, and intriguing, fans might opt to cheer him rather than Roman at Mania. Because of this apprehension, Mr. McMahon decided to go with a safe option in Goldberg.

The second reason Mr. McMahon decided to go with Goldberg as Universal Champion is because he knew that putting the strap on a man like Goldberg, while it may not be necessarily loved by everyone, it would certainly draw fan interest. He knew that people were going to care and be more interested in the events at WrestleMania regardless of whether they approve of who was champion. Goldberg as Universal Champion will surely draw money in large amounts due of the level of attachment wrestling fans collectively have toward the almost mythical figure.

Nonetheless, it is almost guaranteed to be a short run with the title for Goldberg similar to his stint with the Universal Championship in 2017 when he dropped it at WrestleMania 33 to Brock Lesnar. The only difference this year will be the man to whom he drops the title. This year Goldberg will help to cement Roman Reigns as “The Guy” – at least this is Vince McMahon’s vision and has been for the past half-decade. The Big Dog will walk out of Mania with a championship for the first time since WrestleMania 32 at JerryWorld in 2017 in Dallas, TX when he beat Triple H for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

WWE used this week to intensely focus on building anticipation for the Mania match between Otis and Dolph Ziggler, and the inevitable Otis victory.

It’s nice to see WWE acknowledging the history between John Cena and Bray Wyatt so even newer members of the WWE universe can relate to the story.

Right now, it appears that Mr. McMahon doesn’t know who to book Bayley to work with at WrestleMania 36, but I’m confident he’ll find a suitable opponent to work with her in the next four weeks.

Goldberg and The Undertaker may want to consider retiring after they put The Big Dog and AJ Styles over at WrestleMania 36. It makes total sense that neither he nor The Undertaker wanted to retire after the debacle that was Super ShowDown last year, but neither man can live up to his own standards in the ring anymore for more than about five minutes.

From Bill’s perspective, he has done what he came back 3 1/2 years ago to accomplish. His son got the opportunity to see him wrestle several times, and he became Universal Champion not once but twice. It would be the perfect way for him to retire by putting over Roman Reigns. Roman almost, and probably should have, retired The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33. I am not ashamed at all to say I cried after that match because I thought The Undertaker was done. It would have been a perfect sendoff because it was so emotional.

Shawn Michaels was retired by him in 2010, so it would be a fantastic story for The Phenom to be retired 10 years later by The Phenomenal One AJ Styles – who Taker believes is the current-day version of HBK. Styles has even gone so far as to call himself Mr. WrestleMania.

John Cena will now have about five weeks to elevate the status and mystique of The Fiend rather than only two weeks or so. Way to be decisive on the changes to the SmackDown side of the WrestleMania card Mr. McMahon! Sometimes it’s best to let situations marinate and give the audience a chance to look forward to something over a period of time rather than just giving it to them right away. The no-nonsense approach which was used to set up the match was a nice change of pace, given that it’s not usually the method WWE chooses to use. The energy Cena brings to every arena he enters should also be noted by incoming talent.

John brings exactly what Mr. McMahon envisioned when he purchased the company from his father, and that is raw emotion. The strength of human emotion when used for the right reasons has immense power, and Vince McMahon has capitalized on that to build an empire for himself. I believe his ultimate goal is to not only build his own empire but enhance the lives of many others by bringing this level of energy into their lives on a regular basis, so much so that it becomes their dominant state. And maybe, just maybe, they can channel this energy and use it to create a better experience for the world at large.

Cena’s Return!

Even Roman Reigns himself has admitted to WWE insider Ryan Satin that he would rather face a future star like The Fiend at Mania over Goldberg. It’s nothing against Goldberg, but he has really nothing to gain – the goal will be solely to put Reigns over as the face of WWE, which the company has tried and failed to accomplish multiple times before.

The Fiend attacked John Cena to set up a WrestleMania clash between them. WWE had the opportunity to book Cena to put Bray Wyatt over six years ago at WrestleMania 30, but the company decided against it. Bray Wyatt is more than ready to get the nod from WWE’s former Franchise Player after lasting a decade plus.

It will be interesting to see whether The Fiend’s loss to Goldberg impacts his WWE status as No. 1 merch seller. It doesn’t matter if he lost the Universal Championship because he is so compelling as a character that he does not need a title to make himself relevant.

Kofi Kingston had a compelling match with Robert Roode, which was surprisingly close given that the match had no stakes. Speaking of great matches on February 28, Jimmy Uso’s Samoan destroyer on John Morrison was unbelievable. WWE is clearly taking a few pointers from AEW, because fast-paced action like this is exactly what AEW brings every week.

Speaking of AEW, Matt Hardy should debut soon as the exultant one of The Dark Order. It’s a dead giveaway that Matt Hardy will reveal himself as the exultant one after the leaders of The Dark Order ended their promo this past week on Dynamite with the word “obsolete.” It’s a word Hardy used all the time when he brought his Woken gimmick to WWE in 2018 (which he used in TNA in 2016 and called it Broken).

Updates on Cena and Sheamus

I would fully anticipate the first edition of SmackDown on FOX featuring John Cena on February 28 to experience a significant increase in TV ratings because of the star power Cena brings. In the meantime, let’s focus on this week’s episode.

Sheamus said he is very focused since returning to WWE. In the short-term, he’s directing his attention to winning the only title he has not held in WWE – the Intercontinental Championship. The Celtic Warrior hopes to go on to hold multiple world championships in WWE; he plans to be around for the next decade and prove he has many more years left in him.

Goldberg gets physical with The Fiend

Goldberg looked surprisingly good with The Fiend on this week’s episode of SmackDown. Hopefully their Universal Championship match in Saudi Arabia goes over smoother than Goldberg’s last match in Saudi Arabia with The Undertaker.

Naomi defeats Carmella to become the Number One Contender for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at Super Showdown

Carmella has significantly improved her in-ring work over the last couple years in WWE. It is finally starting to become noticeable, which is a very positive thing. However, it was the right call for WWE to book Naomi to face Bayley at Super Showdown because she has more momentum behind her at the moment. This is in large part due to the fact that she returned to WWE after quite a few months away.

Congratulations to the Bella Twins on being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame; this segment was relatively uneventful because neither woman could get physical with anyone since they are both pregnant

Daniel Bryan defeats Heath Slater with Drew Gulak at Ringside

This may ultimately lead to a few entertaining grappling battles between Bryan and Gulak before WrestleMania. This is the biggest thing Slater has done in years since he worked with Brock Lesnar briefly and was squashed by The Beast.

Braun Strowman and Elias defeat Cesaro (Keith Lee’s dream opponent) and Shinsuke Nakamura (with Sami Zayn) in a Symphony of Destruction Match

Zayn has been used by the company in a managerial role as opposed to an in-ring role because he is still dealing with discomfort from his shoulders. He had double shoulder surgery roughly 2 years ago. Hopefully, he can get back in the ring in the coming months because he is tremendously valuable in that role.

John Cena Returning

Renee Young announced on WWE Backstage on FS1 this week that “The Champ” John Cena will be coming to SmackDown for the first time since it moved to Fox on 2/28 the day after Super Showdown. Cena is very likely to begin a buildup to a WrestleMania match on April 5. WWE fans will also be curious to find out if he will make an appearance – or even wrestle a match – at the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View on March 8.

The Fiend to go over on Goldberg and Retain Universal Championship

“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt is expected to retain the Universal Championship against Goldberg at Super Showdown. WWE is still planning on booking a Universal Title match between The Fiend and Roman Reigns for ‘Mania. Thankfully… I might faint if Goldberg became Universal Champion again. WWE needs to focus on making this current era as great as it can be – not on reliving the “good ol’ days.” I, quite frankly, thought it was a mistake to put the championship on Goldberg by having him win it from Kevin Owens and subsequently dropping it to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33 in 2017.

Mustafa Ali Lacking Direction

One has to wonder why Mustafa Ali has become lost in the shuffle in recent months. Vince McMahon had big plans to significantly push him up until February 2019 when Randy Orton injured him to derail those plans.

He was replaced in the Elimination Chamber match by Kofi Kingston as a result of a great performance in a gauntlet match shortly before the PPV, thus starting KofiMania which led to his eventual title victory from Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35 and his subsequent six-month long reign with the WWE Championship.

Perhaps Ali could ultimately emerge as a contender for the Intercontinental Championship and end up taking the IC Title off Braun Strowman. This would go a long way toward getting the former police officer over as an ultimate babyface. It may even help Strowman too, as it would demonstrate his respect for the hierarchy of WWE and his willingness to build younger superstars and contribute to their success down the road.

Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan defeat The Miz and John Morrison, with an attack from King Corbin coming Immediately after the Pin

I think I speak for most everyone when I say that we are looking forward to the story between Reigns and Corbin hopefully ending at Super Showdown, and this result appeared to be a step in the right direction. There has been too much TV time devoted to this same storyline in recent months. It’s not that either of them is doing a bad job – there’s only so much they can do with this particular story.

Bayley defeats Carmella to Retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship

I figured this match might take place at Super Showdown, but that’s okay. On a positive note, Bayley is defending her title again on a regular basis after going about three months without doing so, from October through January. Unfortunately for Carmella, who Booker T accurately described as being “the female Miz in WWE,” Naomi appears most likely to get a victory over her next week and receive the next title match against Bayley. Naomi has a little more momentum right now since she just returned.

Elias on the Rise

It may take a little while for Elias to bring his in-ring scale up to par. It’s a little rough at times, but I guarantee he is a future star in WWE. He may not ever be the face of the company, but he’s made the audience care about what he does and sometimes that’s the hardest part.

Sheamus defeats Apollo Crews and Shorty G

Sheamus is getting a whole lot of fan favoritism again. He may have at least one more major championship reign left in him before he retires. He could be a potential Universal Champion before the end of 2020 if fans continue to respond to him at the level they have in the last few weeks.

Dolph Ziggler steals Otis’s Date and Breaks his Heart

This was just outright mean, but it was a great way to keep the WWE universe confused in whatever transpires next in this story. It left fans feeling dejected and wanting more, which is exactly what Vince McMahon wants.

Carmella defeats Naomi, Alexa Bliss, and Dana Brooke in a fatal four-way match to become No. 1 contender to Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship

Well, that was surprising. I would’ve anticipated that Carmella was the least likely to win and become the number one contender. Naomi would have been my first pick because she challenged Bayley and told her outright that she was coming for the title. Dana Brooke might have been the second choice because she formed a small alliance with Lacey Evans, who was Bayley’s last challenger at Royal Rumble for her title.

And no one can ever count out The Goddess simply because she’s a five-time Women’s Champion in WWE. Nonetheless, Carmella is a very talented former SmackDown Women’s Champion and should put on a great match with Bayley in Saudi Arabia. It’s a massive step in the right direction for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to finally allow women’s matches to take place. Fans would be reasonable to wonder if Becky Lynch will also be announced to defend her Raw Women’s Championship against Asuka in Saudi Arabia.

Goldberg challenges The Fiend for Super Showdown

Goldberg and/or The Undertaker seem to always show up in Saudi Arabia because the people who put on the shows typically requested that a few stars from the past are included. The Fiend will become an even bigger star than he already is if he were to take down a legend like Goldberg. This would make sense because The Fiend has attacked several legends in the recent past – like Kane and Mick Foley.

King Corbin challenges Roman Reigns… Again at Super Showdown

I was hoping for Goldberg to interrupt Corbin and make a challenge to him when Corbin announced he wanted yet another match with The Big Dog. At this point, it’s feeling a bit redundant for Corbin to be continuing his feud with Roman.

Elias defeats Cesaro

Both Elias and Cesaro have serious potential to be main eventers. Vince McMahon has one last time to propel Cesaro to the level considering he’s 39 years old. I’m confident Elias will get there because he’s still so young, but there has been a legion of fans who have been clamoring for Cesaro to get a main event push that WWE management has been seemingly oblivious to for the last several years. The support is there whenever the company is ready to pull the trigger.

Daniel Bryan defeats Heath Slater

Perhaps Heath Slater will be included in a storyline again after not being included in anything in what seems like forever. I almost got excited for a second when I first saw this and thought he might be booked to be able to hang with Bryan.