This week’s edition of SmackDown was live from Manchester, UK. Following last week’s edition of SmackDown, which featured the glorious NXT invasion, there was much expectation. However, with the return of the rest of the roster (who were last week stranded in Saudi Arabia) and a lack of NXT, this show felt much like an ordinary SmackDown. Join us for this week’s SmackDown Highlights.
SmackDown Results:
The show kicked off with a King Corbin promo. He displayed solid skills on the microphone and worked the crowd well. However, his comedy fell flat as he joked about Roman Reigns testicles. Yes, really. Standard WWE heel promo.
Following on from the Corbin opener was The New Day vs The Revival for the SmackDown tag team championships. The Manchester tapings began with a title change as Kofi Kingston and Big E recaptured the titles for a seventh time. The Revival seem prone to short reigns and this loss might halt their momentum, but we all love The New Day.
We went backstage as Sami Zayn tried to convince Daniel Bryan to join him. Will it happen? Stay tuned. They are going to keep this going. Though not shown for the live audience, “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt appeared to kill Bryan. Not cool.
Heavy Machinery came out for a match, but that was quickly stopped by a small-scale NXT UK invasion. Imperium got a decent pop, which was good to see.
We returned with more tag team action as the team of Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro faced off against Shorty G and Ali. This was an entertaining match, culminating with a Nakamura victory following a Kinshasa on Ali.
Nikki Cross versus Sasha Banks was up next. Nikki received strong support from the British crowd. A small note: Sasha Banks debuted new entrance music from Snoop D-o-double-g himself, so look out for that on Spotify soon. Sasha also got the win, tapping Nikki out with a Banks Statement. Following the match, Bayley – who was at ringside – attacked Cross. Thankfully, Shayna Baszler was on hand to make the safe, to the delight of the crowd.
We then got a short match between Fire and Desire (Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville) and the team of Dana Brooke and Carmella. Dana got the win with a well-executed Senton. Again, short match.
Roman Reigns came out to show King Corbin that he does indeed possess testicles. However, Roman’s testicle fortitude would not be enough to overcome King Corbin as a distraction from Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler cost him the match. Expect this feud to continue.
Tonight’s main event was the billed return of Manchester native and lineal boxing heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury. He pandered to the crowd and promised to beat Deontay Wilder on February 22nd. He then called out “The Big Dosser”, Braun Strowman. However, rather than fight again, the two behemoths agreed to form an alliance and challenged anyone stupid enough to face them. Thankfully, the B Team were on hand to be stupid enough to face them. As expected, this turned out to be a squash match, with Strowman and Fury standing tall to close the show.
SmackDown Moment of the Night
The New Day capturing the SmackDown Tag Team Championships for a respected seventh time.
SmackDown Worst Moment of the Night
Baron Corbin joking about Roman Reigns’ testicles, featuring an animated dog on the titantron, making chihuahua noises. Yep.
Funny Moment of the Night
Braun Strowman: “Who would be stupid enough to face us?” B Team comes out. Curtis Axel: “We are dumb enough to face you.”
This was a hurried edition of SmackDown. Yes, it was entertaining in parts and was fun live, but it was a strange show. SmackDown was immediately followed by RAW (pre-taped for Monday) tonight and it felt as though they were rushing through SmackDown to tape the Monday show. It will be interesting to see how the show comes across on TV, as a hot UK crowd can make most shows fun.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. WWE fan? Check out the WWE Network to fulfill all of your WWE needs. And while you’re at it check out our NXT primers to learn more about some of the men and women we saw tonight.
