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WWE SMACKDOWN, MARCH 22, 2024
With just two weeks to go until Wrestlemania, Smackdown took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Let’s get into some of the biggest talking points from this week's show.
FACE OFF
After weeks of The Rock dominating Smackdown TV, it was welcome to see the focus going back on what should be the main story going into Wrestlemania. Cody Rhodes & Roman Reigns. In the last few weeks, Reigns was starting to become a background player to The Rock, which may or may not be by design, and things were becoming more about Cody vs Rock, than Cody vs Reigns.
This did a lot to add some more layers to the story, particularly the tag match, with each man planting seeds of doubt as to whether the other can trust their partner or not.
While the story of the Rhodes family being the first team to beat The Shield makes for a nice story, but unfortunately is not correct. The Shield suffered their first loss to the team of Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan & Kane several months before that.
Cody Rhodes is a smart babyface, and was able to call Roman’s bluff. Too often in the past a babyface will fall for a set up that Stevie Wonder could see coming. Not here, and there was yet again, no physicality between these guys. The only physicality between the four men in the tag match has been two slaps, and it’s the hottest thing in wrestling. That should be a lesson for anyone that thinks wrestling is all about matches and wrestling moves.
DOM STRIKES
Smackdown opened with an excellent match between Rey Mysterio and Santos Escobar. Rey, just off knee surgery, again continues to defy the laws of ageing, somehow still looking and moving better than he did 15 years ago. He did slip here, and looked to have maybe tweaked his knee, but let’s hope it was just an excellent sell job.
This expected Wrestlemania match taking place here on SD, was a give away that we probably weren’t getting it on the big stage. And with Dominik Mysterio once again attempting to ruin his father’s life, it looks as though we will either be getting Dom vs Rey 2, or some sort of LWO vs Legado Del Fantasma & Dominik team. We may even see Andrade involved, as we have seen a relationship between him and Dom appear on Raw. In the year since Rey & Dom have last faced, we have seen only one interaction between them (I think), at NXT. Even with all the history there, two weeks is probably not enough to really heat up the issue again to the point it was at last year for a major singles match. The finish here was so well done with the Dominik distraction allowing Santos to hit a brilliantly timed 619.
UNFORGIVING BIANCA
For far too long wrestling, and WWE in particular has seen so much bad storytelling that when a heel turns babyface, even after years of doing despicable things to the babayfaces, they all just join together as if nothing ever happened. All history is erased. But not in the new WWE. Much like the deeply layered and nuanced, slow Drew McIntyre heel turn this year, we are seeing similar elements of that here with Bianca Belair refusing to forgive Bayley straight away. Excellent storytelling and character development that should be a given in pro wrestling, but sadly, often isn’t.
Naomi and Iyo Sky had a really good match, with Iyo scoring the win after Damage CTRL interference, and with Bianca making the save for Naomi, I would expect them to challenge Kairi & Asuka to challenge for the tag titles, possibly at Mania.
CALL THE COPS
What would Wrestlemania season be without a home invasion or car angle?
LA Knight really wants to kick the s**t out of AJ Styles, so he showed up at AJ Styles house to do just that. Simple and effective.
In the past we would have seen this angle done, but with a full camera crew that just happened to be hanging out at AJ Styles house, and a fully edited multi-camera shoot, making it look like a scene from a movie. Or in a lot of cases, a really low budget TV show.
This was so well thought out with the bulk of this being recorded through police body cams. A really nice, creative way to do this angle that added a whole lot of realism and intensity to this Wrestlemania match.
I can be reached at matthewmacklin90@gmail.com
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