WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review - April 9

We are just ONE DAY AWAY from WrestleMania as we approach the most important weekend in all of professional wrestling.

Edge In-Ring Segment

Edge sits in the ring, spotlight focused on him. Edge echoes his sentiments of returning to the WWE after missing nine years, with only one goal in mind: to main event WrestleMania. He says that Daniel Bryan weaseled his way into this match, and used sympathy to do it. 

Edge is livid that his dream match was crashed by some “indie bookstore clerk.” And he says Roman Reigns owes him for the very career model that he followed, the template of being a “Samoan Edge”.

Edge is as emotional as he’s ever been, and feels disrespected that he’s not getting the bells and whistles that he feels he deserves.

Rating: 6/5, yup, 6/5.

Just one of the greatest of all time cutting the best promo of his life.

Backstage with Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville

Deville doesn’t believe that Daniel Bryan deserves to be wedged into Edge vs. Roman Reigns, and that she doesn’t think it’s fair that Ziggler and Roode are set to defend their titles against three other teams.

Pearce is mostly in shock as Deville walks away.

Rating: 2/5

I don’t think setting Deville up as a heel authority figure is a good idea, but this is an effective way to set up this bad idea.

Daniel Bryan In-Ring Segment

Daniel Bryan is excited to see the set, smell the smoke, and most importantly, feel the human energy in Raymond James Stadium. There is nothing like wrestling in front of nearly 80,000 screaming fans.

Bryan is used to being told no. But after his journey in pro wrestling, he is tired of being told no. He knows he deserves to be in the position he’s in, and despite all of the negativity, he’s found the truth within himself. 

Bryan knows that he is willing to do anything to walk out of the main event of WrestleMania as Universal Champion.

Rating: 4/5

One of Daniel Bryan’s best promos in his lengthy career, and right on time as we head into Mania.

Backstage with The Street Profits

After The Profits promise to win back their tag team championships, they are jumped by Ziggler and Roode. And out come The Alpha Academy, followed by The Mysterios. A fatal four-way for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships is next.

Rating: n/a

SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match - Fatal Four-Way

These four teams might all deserve a spot on WrestleMania, and somehow with two nights of action they aren’t able to find one. Shame.

After some quick-hitting action from Dominik Mysterio, Gable and Otis get over on him for a bit before Ziggler and Roode do the same. 

In all these years, it seems that Rey Mysterio couldn’t possibly lose a step. The Mysterio’s look to become the first ever father-son tag team champions.

Montez Ford is the next to be worked on, this time most aggressively by the recently turned Otis Dozovic. 

When Angelo Dawkins finally gets going, he’s able to clear out Otis, Ziggler and Gable, but not before Rey Mysterio tags himself in to take down Bobby Roode with a senton.

Highlight: Rey and Dominik Mysterio hit a Double 619 on Roode and Ziggler.

Some shenanigans and accidental tags came to the finish of the match, Roode tagged himself in to pin Gable after Montez Ford hit Gable with a frog splash. Ziggler hit a superkick on Ford, and Roode stole the pin for the win.

Rating: 2.5/5

Dirty Dawgs retaining their championship is actually surprising to me, as the story of the Mysterio‘s really felt more appropriate leading into Mania. This match was fun, though unpredictable.

Backstage with Bianca Belair

Bianca’s got butterflies with tomorrow’s opportunity looming. But she knows that her nerves just reflect how much she cares about capturing the SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania. She believes that she’s about to experience the greatest night of her life.

Rating: 3/5

Bianca’s inner monologue delivered really naturally here. This gave us a chance to know what she’s really feeling without feeling robotic and forced.

Package with Big E

Big E is going back to his roots…of Tampa, Florida — the backyard of WrestleMania. He goes back to his high school, where he was a state wrestling champion, and a high school football all-star. He says that Tampa is where champions are made of, and where Apollo Crews’ dreams go to die.

Rating: 2.5/5

Although short, it was a really nice piece that highlights the home-field advantage that Big E has, which furthers Apollo’s Nigerian Roots gimmick leading up to their match.

Nia Jax vs Tamina

I wouldn’t blame you for skipping this portion.

Although Tamina and Nia Jax are technically cousins, they’ve been shown in the past to have little-to-no in ring chemistry.

Shayna and Tamina end up in a tug-of-war over Reginald, which allows Nia the early opening to take Tamina down.

Tamina would’ve picked up a surprising W, if not for Shayna interfering after Tamina got the upper hand with a big samoan drop. Instead, Tamina picks up the DQ victory.

Rating: 1/5

Man I’m so tired of everything in this division being centered around Nia and Reginald, and it doesn’t help that Tamina is a charisma vacuum. 

Backstage with The Riott Squad

The Riott Squad are about to talk about how they are “laser-focused,” but Billie Kay shows up with Carmella claiming to be partners now.
Then come Lana and Naomi, and Dana Brooke with Mandy Rose. 

And they all just start fighting backstage. 

Liv Morgan and Mandy Rose face off, and they’re jumped by the recently victorious Tamina and Natalya.

Rating: 0/5

Once again, the women of WWE are given nothing to work with. They all line up side by side and fight each other for the third week in a row. Quite frankly they deserve better.

Backstage with Sasha Banks

Sasha doesn’t care what Bianca Belair has to say, but she should care what The Champ has to say. Banks says that she’s the best, and wants to prove that Saturday Night in their match. She says Belair is beneath her, which makes Banks the “B-E-S-T.”

Rating: 2.5/5

A decent counter-promo, responding to Belair while still making her own statements.

Package with Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn is in Miami, crashing Logan Paul’s sparring session. Sami wants to work out with Logan and his Brother, but casually gets kicked out of the gym. 

Cut to Michael Cole and Corey Graves about to speak to the audience, but Sami comes by the announce table claiming media bias. Corey plays along, but Cole is not interested. 

Kevin Owens ambushes Sami Zayn, and Zayn hightails it out of the arena.

Rating: 3.5/5 

I really enjoyed the camp and levity of this segment, Zayn is the perfect foil to everything this story has put around him. 

Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Typically a WrestleMania pre-show match, two nights of Mania somehow couldn’t find the pre-show to feature this battle royal.

Elias and Jackson Ryker are able to toss out Erik of the Viking Raiders, then Slapjack.

Gulak is thrown out of the ring by Mase and T-Bar, followed by Humberto Carillo being eliminated by the same duo.

The two aforementioned teams face-off, with the former Retribution members eliminating Elias and Ryker. 

Mustafa Ali is then able to throw out both of his former followers.

Lucha House Party briefly reunited as Metalik and Dorado eliminate Kalisto. Then Metalik tossed Dorado.

King Corbin tosses Metalik with ease.

Angel Garza and Buddy Murphy battle on the apron, both teetering on the edge of elimination. Murphy broke Garzas pants, enough of a distraction for Corbin to knock Murphy off the apron.

Garza is then rocked with the Kinshasa by Shinsuke Nakamura.

Ricochet hits Mustafa Ali with a hurricanrana while on the apron, eliminating Ali. 

Jey Uso hits a superkick on Ricochet, eliminating him.

Shinsuke Nakamura, Jey Uso and Baron Corbin remain.

Nakamura is able to eliminate Corbin with a huge head kick. Two superstars remain.

Uso nails Nakamura with a superkick. Nakamura retaliates with a Kinshasa. 

Nakamura looks to toss Uso, but Uso reverses the momentum, eliminating Nakamura and winning the Battle Royal.

Rating: 2.5/5

A non-offensive battle royal with a strong finish. Well done from Main Event Uso.

The Tribal Trio In-Ring Segment

Roman Reigns comes down to the ring following Uso’s victory. He gives Jey a hug, and raises his championship to the hard cam. 

Heyman grabs a mic and hands it to Reigns.

Roman is annoyed that he even has to be here. He doesn’t have to sell himself or his championship matchup. 

For the last 30 weeks, he’s carried SmackDown all the way to WrestleMania, making the Universal Championship relevant in the first place.

Roman says that Daniel Bryan will never be champion. And Edge will never take his place at the top of the mountain, the head of the table.

Roman Reigns guarantees victory this Sunday at WrestleMania.

The whole world will acknowledge him.

Rating: 4/5

The three competitors for the Universal Championship match at WrestleMania all brought it tonight, I couldn’t be happier with the progression of Roman Reigns on the mic.

Overall

Rating: 2.8/5

This show did a lot to excite me for this weekend’s festivities. The package for both Zayn and Big E’s respective storylines really were effective. And as said earlier, the promo work from Bryan, Edge and Roman Reigns was collectively outstanding. It’s too bad the women on the roster remain an afterthought.