SmackDown notes: Roman’s next step, Multiple NXT call-ups, Rousey challenges Charlotte
SmackDown aired live from the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, WI. After hyping a Reign’s segment on RAW this week, WWE kept us in suspense by announcing that Roman would reveal his next step on SmackDown. WWE also announced a Happy Talk segment with Corbin and Moss.
Match Results:
- Xavier Woods over Butch
- Gunther over Joe Alonzo
- Drew McIntyre over Sami Zayn by count-out
- Liv Morgan over Sasha Banks
Ronda Rousey opened the show, interacting with the crowd and smiling jovially. She addressed her next step, challenging Charlotte Flair to an I Quit match at WrestleMania Backlash, which Flair promptly rejected. While Ronda assured Flair that the match will happen, we didn’t get a final verdict on the match, though it’s safe to assume that the match will occur.
Butch and Woods had a back-and-forth singles match. Butch’s nose was bloodied early and Woods actually managed to defeat him with a rollup, which McAfee called “the Back Woods.”
After the match, Butch had a temper tantrum, which is clearly setting him for massive success on his main roster run. After all, nothing gets a performer over quicker than losing and being a baby.
Sami Zayn told Adam Pierce he wanted a match with the next person to come out of the men’s locker room, which just happened to be Drew McIntyre.
Ludwig Kaiser (formerly Marcel Barthel) came out after that to introduce Gunther, who has apparently made his way to the main roster. He wrestled a jobber named Joe Alonzo. Shockingly, Gunther destroyed the enhancement talent with his repertoire of chops and other forms of devastating offensive maneuvers before ultimately winning with a powerbomb.
It sounded like a small segment of the crowd was trying to get a “Walter” chant going during the match, which McAfee claimed was a “Gunther” chant.
After the Gunther destruction, Raquel Rodriguez (Raquel González) made a backstage appearance for her main roster call-up before being interrupted by the Lethal Lovers. They tried to welcome her with a kiss, which was promptly rejected.
During “Happy Talk”, Happy Corbin blamed Madcap Moss for his loss and then insulted his jokes. Moss then told an anti-Corbin joke, which led to Corbin attacking Moss. The two fought for a bit, with Moss getting the better of the exchange.
Sami Zayn and Drew McIntyre had a quick match, which saw Zayn running away, leading to a Drew count-out win.
The WWE finally realized that Lacy Evans has a compelling backstory and she started to tell that story in a pretaped interview segment.
Liv Morgan and Sasha Banks had a decent match with Naomi on commentary. While going for a superplex, Morgan rolled Banks up and picked up the win.
The commentary team announced that next week on SmackDown, Sami will take on Drew in a rematch and Jinder Mahal will face off with Intercontontial champion Ricochet.
Roman Reigns closed the show to a huge reaction from the crowd, who was more than happy to acknowledge him. He told the Usos to go to RAW to unify the tag team championships, which they happily agreed to. Shinsuke Nakamura interrupted and Roman hugged him. However, the Usos superkicked him to end the segment.
