WWE sends us to WrestleMania with an underwhelming show that ended just right.
The main event of Friday Night SmackDown this week, the final show before WrestleMania 40, saw Jey Uso come to the blue brand to do battle against Solo Sikoa ahead of finally squaring up with his brother for a straight up singles match.
Of course, this has less to do with those two having an actual match and way more to do with Jimmy Uso interfering and creating some space for Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins to hit the ring to a monster pop to put the boots to the lower ranking members of The Bloodline.
Of course, Roman Reigns and The Rock weren’t around for any of this.
Jey hit a splash on Jimmy and stood tall.
Rhodes then grabbed a microphone and asked the fans if they could feel 40 years of WrestleMania and the pressure they all feel. He promised to slap The Rock on Saturday, and then come Sunday it’s time to finally dethrone Reigns. He’s fighting for everyone who ever believed in him and his dream was to become champion.
“Know this — when one good story ends, an even better one begins.”
An interesting line to say the least.
Corey Graves sent us away with a fitting note, for a number of reasons: “this weekend we all live forever.”
They sent us off to the big one just right here. Not too much at all.
Your LA Knight segment of the week:
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard at something in pro wrestling as I did at LA Knight choking on his gum for a second mid promo and managing to recover from it.
Bianca Belair explained that she’s had a long history with Damage CTRL, fighting for her life for some two years now and how exhausting it’s been until Naomi showed up to remind her what she was fighting for in the first place. That’s why she decided to join up.
Because Damage CTRL has been doing too much for too long now.
They teased yet more dissension from them — arguing over who got them into this mess now — but agreed they need each other. I still think we could very well be seeing the start of Belair turning heel but we’ll see on that.
Meanwhile, they didn’t think someone else would come through to help out and that someone is Jade Cargill.
She really does have an aura about her.
She didn’t have to say much, making clear Damage CTRL is now in the eye of the storm and they’re going to take them out at WrestleMania. That they gave them this time for such a simple promo would seem to say a lot about what they see here.
All the rest
- Kevin Owens hosted an episode of the “KO Show” with special guest Randy Orton, a man he said he’s always honored to share the ring with. Logan Paul interrupted to cut a promo on them via video but he did so from Lincoln Financial Field just across the street. Orton and Owens decided to head that way on a golf cart of all things. Grayson Waller & Austin Theory tried running them down. Naturally, Paul took off and showed up to the Wells Fargo Center to continue talking trash about his WrestleMania opponents. Orton is dumb and Owens is fat, basically. He cut to Waller and Theory looking for them on the WrestleMania stage but it turned out they were back ringside. Paul was left alone to take a Stunner and an RKO from the babyfaces. This was a simple, unfussy segment.
- The Andre the Giant Battle Royal saw Omos return to TV, look impressive early, then basically eliminate himself while tossing out the Creed Brothers during a commercial break. It’s hard to tell if this was by design but it makes zero sense if so. Meanwhile, I loved that the match became a whole mess of meat flying around, with Ivar, Bronson Reed, and Otis throwing themselves around at each other. In the end, Reed took care of business and it was fine for what it was. It wasn’t too little, wasn’t too much. Just fine.
- Dragon Lee was shown backstage having been taken out by someone just before Zelina Vega walked out for her match with Elektra Lopez. Dirty Dominik Mysterio and Andrade joined Lopez and Santos Escobar for the match, with only Rey Mysterio out with Vega. Naturally, Dom cost Vega the match and helped Elektra score the win. And then, the turn! Instead of helping Escobar and Dirty Dom attack Rey, he turned on the group and took both of them out to join forces with Rey. A big hug and a handshake made clear where this was going — with Lee seemingly out, who better to step in for him than Andrade? Vega gave him a big hug and all felt right again.
- New Catch Republic vs. Grayson Waller & Austin Theory didn’t get a finish because The Judgment Day showed up to take everyone out ahead of defending their titles in the Six-Pack Ladder match at WrestleMania. Standard stuff here.
This was a go home show but it didn’t feel like much of one until that final promo, which was a great way to send us to the big one.
Grade: B+
Your turn.
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