Here we are on the Eve of WrestleMania for the Friday Night Smackdown 4/9 episode. I find that in the lead up to WrestleMania, less tends to be more, don’t bog us down with too many matches, give us enough to wet our appetite, while teasing out the good stuff for WrestleMania.
We open with a promo from Daniel Bryan doing his best to hype up WrestleMania. To start it’s a long promo, which is fine for a promo on the eve of WrestleMania. To his credit it’s also a great promo, this truly feels like this could be the last great match of Daniel Bryan’s career, it probably won’t be, but he certainly thinks it might be. It’s great to see how fired up he is, beyond the Yes! chants, beyond the charisma, there’s someone here who will truly shine at WrestleMania which is legitimately cool.
Fatal Four Way for the Smackdown Men’s Tag Team Championship: The Alpha Academy vs. Zigler & Roode vs. The Street Profits vs. The Mysterios:
A Fatal Four Way for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship is a curious decision for a match on the Eve of WrestleMania. I understand why there needed to be a certain amount of live wrestling when there were live crowds for RAW and Smackdown, but since this is merely for TV ratings, you can probably skimp on the Wrestling the week of WrestleMania, regardless the show goes on. This match is nothing special, the benefit of a fatal four way ensures that no one is getting too much of the spotlight (or has to wrestle too much). Given the opportunity this could have been a great WrestleMania match, but for a Smackdown show, it’s fine. The Street Profits and the Mysterios get the most shine and action with little involvement by Otis/Gable and Roode/Zigler. Robert Roode gets the pinfall on Chad Gable after being frog splashed by Montes Ford.
There was an interesting promo where Big E called out Apollo Crews from a barber shop. It included a video package where Big E went around to all the Tampa landmarks talking about what he did growing up in Tampa. It’s honestly a great promo, it’s a shame that Big E isn’t on the New Day anymore, but he’s so good at holding a championship belt, it’s a fantastic promo.
Nia Jax Accompanied by Shayna Baszler and Reginald vs. Tamina accompanied by Lana
This match was incredibly fast. It starts with a pushing match by Tamina and Nia Jax ultimately ending with Tamina having the upper hand. Tamina hits the Samoan Drop on Jax forcing Shayna Baszler to intervene. The match is called off and Tamina wins by disqualification. I didn’t mind the brevity of this match which serves as a lead up for a Women’s Tag Team Turmoil match at WrestleMania which should be fun.
The next promo features Edge sitting in the middle of the ring in a folding chair. His grievances are what you would expect, Daniel Bryan shouldn’t be squeezed into the match between him and Roman. There are a few interesting things about this promo, it almost plays like a shoot (it isn’t) about how none of his work over the past 9-10 years coming back from his injury is featured in the promo package or social media posts by WWE. He isn’t a part timer, he works hard, and is doing moves that no one else his. We get some great crazy eyes and fury by Edge, that does prove how good he is at this; WWE is better with him in it. Finally, it’s crazy that the WWE Main Event features TWO wrestlers that have had serious neck surgeries, it doesn’t mean anything but it is interesting.
Next up is a recap of the Sami Zayne/Kevin Owens matchup at WrestleMania. I must say, Sami Zayne playing an over-the-top charismatic coward who is living in an alternate reality of his own making about how there is a conspiracy against him, is quite hilarious. It seems like Sami is being ghosted by Logan and Jake Paul (two people I can’t believe WWE is bringing into their stables), and Sami is trying to convince the announcement desk that everything is fine, after which, Kevin Owens comes out and beats up Sami, promising more at WrestleMania.
Andre the Giant Battle Royal
Up next is the Andre the Giant Battle Royal, an event normally reserved for WrestleMania but has been relegated to Smackdown. There was a horrible betrayal by the Lucha House Party against Kalisto, unfortunately it didn’t end well for the other two members. An elimination of Garza by Shinsuke leaves 5 men and the ring, Uso, Ali, Corbin, Ricochet, and Nakamura. Ricochet manages to eliminate Ali, but is then eliminated by Jey Uso with a superkick, leaving Uso, Nakamura, and Corbin. Nakamura gets beat on by Uso and Corbin, until Uso comes around and superkicks Corbin, but is unable to get an elimination. Corbin turns on Uso but is superkicked by him and then eliminated by Nakamura. Shinsuke gets Uso with the Kinshasa, he tries to eliminate Uso over the top rope, but Jey Uso gets the reversal winning the 2021 Andre the Giant Battle Royale.
After the match, Roman Reigns comes out to cap off the evening. He talks about not having to sell himself to the WWE universe. Most of the promo involves Roman’s incredulousness, at the fact that he works so much harder than Edge and Daniel Bryan. It’s a fine promo, while Roman works well heel there isn’t of a feud here to work off. It also hurts that it seems that every participant in the Triple Threat Match is working off of their own agenda, which makes it feel like disjointed story lines.
That’s it, overall a fine Smackdown to lead us into WrestleMania, not too much wrestling, which is good, there has been plenty of wrestling so far this week, with more to come. See you all at WrestleMania!
