This really is the show of The Tribal Chief. And we just watch it.
After sending Daniel Bryan packing on last week’s show it looks set that Cesaro remains the current last hope to take on Roman Reigns at WrestleMania Backlash. So I would presume on this show we will get confirmation of that. It also seems that last week’s show set up not only Street Profits challenging Roode and Ziggler for the tag titles, but also the entertaining possibility of a fatal 4 way for the IC title with champion Apollo Crews, as well as Big E, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn also in the scene.
Oh and another thing… Tonight isn’t a regular show… it’s THROWBACK SmackDown… whatever that means… expect the odd cameo from some stars of yesteryear, which could be fun. One match confirmed so far is another clash between Cesaro and Seth Rollins, which if WrestleMania was anything to go by, should be great…
We had a retro style WWE opener, followed by a SmackDown opening video with a very retro feel that began with lots of The Rock saying it was his show. The staging features the retro WWE logo (the one prior to the classic scratch logo). It appears as Michael Cole tells us this is because it is retro week on Fox.
They replayed footage from the main event of the first ever SmackDown in August of 1999 when HBK turned heel ref again to help Triple H retain the title against The Rock.
Finally some normality to proceedings… as our Tribal Chief and his awesome new theme song came to the ring, with Heyman and Main Event Jey Uso with him. They recapped with a video of the end of last week’s show. Heyman says that Roman asked him to eulogise the career of his victim Daniel Bryan, and we shall do so with a ten bell salute… Heyman then made the bell noises himself as Roman tried not to laugh as the three men bowed their head. Reigns was handed the mic as the ‘you suck’ chants rained down… Roman said that he was a man of his word and he did what he said he was going to do. He said he always gives everyone what they want, including Daniel Bryan. He said with his absence they have replaced him with someone who will acknowledge him… and then… out came JIMMY Uso! Jey and Jimmy embraced, Jimmy slapped hands with Roman and Heyman…. Cesaro then came out… He said you could never replace Daniel Bryan, but that he doesn’t have time for Roman tonight as he had his match with Seth to focus on… and then Rollins right on queue came out to attack him. Officials came out to separate the pair… and then… TEDDY LONG (because its throwback smackdown of course) came out…. He said that if Cesaro beats Rollins he gets the title match with roman at wrestlemania backslash. He of course said holla and playa a lot too. Roman then threw Cesaro back out the ring once he got in it, and Rollins had the advantage as we went to the ad break. This was a decent opening segment to be fair, good stuff. Now lets hope Cesaro gets the win and it’s another banger. Cool that Jimmy Uso is back too.
We had an ICO-PRO Advert to really ad to the retro feel.
Cesaro defeated Seth Rollins
The Usos were at ringside watching on as the match began. Rollins was on top to begin with stomps and a slingblade for a nearfall. Rollins hit a knee off the top for another nearfall, he then threw Cesaro between the barricade and apron for another nearfall. Roman and Heyman were seen watching on from the back. Cesaro fought back and tried to lift Rollins up, but soon Seth took over again kicking at Cesaro’s knee. Cesaro powered Rollins up and hit a great suplex, Cesaro hit uppercuts in each corner then a clothesline for a nearfall of his own. Cesaro wanted the swing but eventually after Rollins was scrambling we soon got to Cesaro coming off the top, Jey Distracting him that allowed Rollins to go up top and hit the superplex into the Falcon Arrow… but Cesaro kicked out. Both got nearfalls after the ad break, Cesaro worked his way up into a sharpshooter, and then into a crossface, but Rollins smashed Cesaro in the back of the neck, and then hit a kick for another 2 count. Rollins tried the stomp but Cesaro caught him and placed Rollins in the corner, he tried a gutwrench but Rollins hit a buckle bomb… Cesaro came right back with a big clothesline to leave both men down. They exchanged strikes, Cesaro hit uppercuts but Rollins sent him to the outside… Jimmy Uso distracted the ref, and Jey went towards Cesaro only for Rollins to stop him saying “I’m not Roman” and that he didn’t need his help… Rollins then pushed Jey down… Jimmy then hit a superkick to Rollins as Cesaro came over the ropes onto Jimmy… Back in the ring Cesaro set for the Neutralizer and got it. 1,2,3. Cesaro gets his shot at Roman!!! Very interesting stuff with The Usos too… lets see where that goes and how Rollins fits in. Good opening match.
We got the proper graphic after the break for Roman vs Cesaro at Backlash. Amazing that this will be Cesaro’s first singles WWE World title match.
Rollins spoke to Roman backstage. He asked if he should be pissed at him (Jimmy) or pissed at you (Roman)? Roman said he now has to deal with his loose ends because that’s what he does, but when it comes to his family, he’ll handle that too. Rollins said they were cool, but that he should handle him “or I will”. Man… seeing these two together will never not scream MONEY!
They’ve got the famous smackdown fist via the hologram stuff they do at the top of the ramp (all I’ve seen on social media all week is people wanting that to be the actual stage). Our next SmackDown throwback moment was the famous supermarket brawl between Stone Cold and Booker T. Always a crazy fun watch.
Teddy Long was backstage with Sonya Deville. He praised Deville’s decision to make the Cesaro vs Rollins stip (despite saying it was Adam Pearce who gave him the power to do so when he made the announcement earlier). Deville said when she heard Adam Pearce was going to be unavailable tonight she thought she’d be running the show herself, but was happy Long was here (is anybody going to tell us where he is? Or is it just getting Teddy Long on just because it’s THROWBACK smackdown?)… Sami Zayn came into show now… (before Sami speaks I’ve hit pause… and I’m going to make a guess that Teddy Long makes a tag team match PLAYA with Zayn and Crews against Owens and Big E)… Zayn tried to kiss ass and explained about the conspiracy, Zayn wanted an IC title match, but instead if you had “you will go one on one with THE UNDERTAKER” on your Teddy Long bingo card then you can tick that one off now (I did laugh to be fair). He then made the tag match… fuck sake ahahahahaha!!! Oh so apparently it’s a 10 man tag as well with Shinsuke and the street profits… Zayn asked who was on his team and with help from Sonya we found out it was Otis, Chad Gable “AND KING BOOKER” said Long (fuck sake ahaha)… The actual guy was KING Corbin. A 10 man tag… WHYYYYYYY… Long then did his dance with Zayn not joining in but Sonya doing so… Christ…
Roman was then with The Usos. He was not happy with Jimmy. Jimmy said to Roman ‘you wont be talking to me like you talk to my brother… and second of all I ain’t nobody’s bitch’ before walking away. All is not fully well in the family it seems…
Just why I think about it during the ad break… Why did the street profits get the win with Belair in that mixed 6 person tag the other week? I get they wanted the babyfaces to go over, but they lost the tag title match before, then got a pin on the champions, and now someone else has the tag title match at the PPV???
The Riott Squad were in the ring, Ruby in a singles match with… Carmella… interesting…
Carmella defeated Ruby Riott (with Liv Morgan)
I just noticed the refs are wearing old school smackdown ref tops. As much as I like Carmella and Ruby Riott WWE have done little with either recently to make me care too much about a match between them, releasing Billie Kay before the tag team with Carmella really got off the ground didn’t exactly help. Carmella dominated most the match, and hit the big kick which looked like it would be the finish, but Liv alerted the ref to Mella having her foot on the ropes and that stopped the pin. After they exchanged roll up nearfalls until Mella got her Code of Silence submission in for the win.
Throwback moment was Hogan and Edge winning the tag titles.
Bayley is out next… I adore this version of Bayley with all my heart. A graphic shows us that she is out here to celebrate the women’s champions of WWE… so I’m guessing we’re getting some women of the past before Bianca comes out and they brawl…
Next SmackDown classic highlight was when Brock and Big Show broke the ring. The first time was insane, the 28475658589 times it’s happened since? Not so much.
Anyway, Bayley said just because you’re a superstar doesn’t make you a champion. She said she knows about that being the longest reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion. She told us not to worry as she wouldn’t be talking about herself (pop from me)… she wanted to pay tribute to some of our fellow women’s champions, she led to images of the likes of Alundra Blayze saying she was no Bayley, Jacqueline saying she wasn’t quite Bayley, Lita, Trish, Ivory, Beth Phoenix, Molly Holly (I feel in a non COVID world they would all be here). The last one she showed was Belair, she called her full of potential… and then naive saying she had no idea what she had in store her, and if she wasn’t careful she’d end up like all those other women… not on Bayley’s level! She said she’d beat Bianca and finally show she was right about her all along. Belair came out then. Belair said she was living her best life and it was only going to get better, she said Bayley wished she was insecure. That it was her confidence that concerned Bayley, but maybe she should be worried about herself, and she said she was on her way to being the longEST reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion. Bayley couldn’t hold it any longer and laughed hysterically, she then tried to take Bianca down but Belair took the fight to Bayley, launching her around the ring and then a dropkick, Bayley fought back and pulled at one of Belair’s earings, she screamed at her as she did so. Bayley stood on Belair’s hair and soon after did her facebuster type move to leave the champion laying. Bayley then left laughing back at Belair.
Jimmy was in the back, Jey wasn’t happy and asked if eh thought he meant those things. Jimmy asked what happened to us? And the two went back and forth with Jimmy trying to explain how Roman was champion because of Jey, but Jey arguing back that he was family though. Jimmy said Roman wouldn’t need Jey but he did and they need eachother. He told Jey to picture them being tag champions and Roman being Universal champion… he said THAT would be representing the family… before he left with jey looking on… This was another great segment.
Rey and Dominik came out next. He faces Dolph in our next match.
Raw was advertised with Drew vs Lashley. Lets see if Lashley beats his other challenger before the PPV as well… fuck sake…
Throwback smackdown moment next up was Cena’s debut when he came out to face Kurt Angle. And then him getting respect from then champion The Undertaker backstage.
Dolph cut a promo on Dominik before the match. And then it appeared a challenge was made and now it’s Dominik vs Dolph!
Dominik (with Rey Mysterio) defeated Dolph Ziggler (with Robert Roode)
Dolph battered Dominik early on… He would try to fight back but Ziggler’s offence was always harder. Dolph tried a suplex but Dominik got an inside cradle for the win in maybe a couple of minutes if that.
They recapped the women’s tag match from last week. If I love Bayley with all my heart I hate this feud equally as much. They also played part of the promo from Tamina on last week’s talking smack.
Kayla Braxton then said she had never seen passion like that from Tamina. And then she introduced “Tamina’s opponent for tonight… Reginald” along with the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler…
EXCUSE ME…
Kayla asked why he had made this challenge to Tamina for tonight… WHAT… REIGNALD VS TAMINA… MY GOD… Anyway, Reginald said that Tamina left him with a sour taste in his mouth. And that next week they’d have their spirits broken when Nia and Shayna defend their titles next week. Jesus christ…
We had a retro WWF Ice cream ad with Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
The next throwback was when Arnie came on a SmackDown in 1999. The spot was when Arnie went at Triple H.
Roman was in his locker room. He ushered Heyman to him and said ‘bring me my cousin’. Heyman asked which one before seeing Roman’s face and saying I understand.
Tamina (with Natalya) defeated Reginald (with Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler) by DQ
Reginald was in his regular suit jacket and trousers. Reginald took off his jacket to reveal his shirt with Nia and Shayna on it. He got out the ring as Tamina tried a superkick. Reginald got out of trouble time and time again, until Tamina tossed him in the corner, Reginald balanced on the ring post and jumped over Tamina as she went after him (Nia and Shayna loving all this). Tamina then hit a big superkick, and then put him in position for the splash, Nia then dragged Reginald out the ring as Shayna went at Tamina for the DQ. Natalya came in and a big brawl ensued, the champions got the better of it… the champions destroy the challengers a week before the title match… cool…
Crews cut a promo saying he would lead his men into battle tonight. He put over each man on his team, but not Zayn. As the others stood behind him and cheered.
Big E then did the same for his team. The babyface team one was hilarious.
Apollo Crews (with Commander Azeez), Otis, Chad Gable, King Corbin and Sami Zayn defeated Big E, Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins in a 10 man tag team match
Nobody got a tv entrance, we came back from break and they were ready for the match. Good match for what it was, but chaotic given their was 10 guys in the match! There was a lot going on so it was hard to keep up, everyone got their stuff in before and after the ad break mid match… The finish came when Corbin hit an End of Days to Nakamura as everyone else had been taken out.
Roman was in his locker room. He seemed to be admonishing Jey for Jimmy’s conduct. He spoke about love for the family, saying he loved his brother (Jimmy), and he wanted to give him the same opportunities but that he needed to know where he stands. We cut to another break but I’m going to guess Roman calls out Jimmy when we come back.
Next throwback smackdown moment was when Vince took a ride in Eddie Guerrero’s lowrider.
Roman and company were in the ring… Roman said this was not how he envisioned tonight, and as he spoke Jimmy Uso’s music played… and out he came… Jimmy set up to a video recapping Hell in a Cell many months back when Jey Uso said I QUIT to stop Jimmy Uso getting hurt… go out of your way to watch that match back by the way. Some of the best in match storytelling I’ve ever seen.
Cesaro beating everyone up will never not be cool. This was a GREAT way to end a pretty good show. No review from me next week as I’m a tad busy on Saturday… enjoy the women’s tag title match…
Josh.