WWE SmackDown Review: Final Cena & Rhodes Confrontation, Tag Team Title Match, Orton Issues Open Challenge, Final WrestleMania Hype

But we'll get to that. So first up, we saw Seth Rollins opening the show with a very passionate promo which sort of doubled as both a personal testimony and a verbal assault on his WrestleMania opponents, seem Punk in Roman Reigns. Rollins really stressed the difficult year that he's had and how he was performing while his stepfather was dying of cancer and how he pushed through a severe

knee injury to remain the face of the company. He called out seam Punk for only returning to WWE for the money and questioned Punk's true love for the business. He also took aim at Roman Reigns, accusing him of

manipulating people for his own benefit. So the way I see it, Rollins really is positioning himself as like the soul of the WWE, or course who never left unlike punkin rains, and the crowd was firmly behind him as he declared that he would walk out of this match as the winner in what he said wasn't a prediction but a spoiler.

guys think? How do you think this match is gonna end? Let us know. We then got the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, So who was in it? I'm gonna try to do this in one breath. Let's see if I could do it. Ray Phoenix, Shinsky, Nakamura, Chad Gable, Ludwig Kaiser, the Miz Andrade, Carmelo, Hayes, Carlito, pretty Deadly, Creed Brothers are Truth Low, Dragonlee Tyler, Bate, Pete Dunn, Austin Theory, Grayson Waller, Otis Akira to Zawa carrying cross,

Berto angel In Santo's Escabar. Oh, we did it. Good job everybody. Ray Phoenix in particular really delivered standout moments in this Battle Royale, hitting all of his high flying offenses and quick eliminations, and he really did seem poised to win until a masked wrestler yep Al Grande Americano showed up and illuminated him from behind. The final stretch of the Battle Royale saw Carmelo outlast Andrade in a very fast paced athletic exchange. This Carmelo Hayes win was

desperately needed. He's too good to be where he is on the roster in my opinion, and I'm really hoping this will give him a boost and a good program with someone moving forward after this. Okay, next up, we had the WWE Tag Team Championship and this pitted the Street Profits against the Motor City machine Guns. And this began as a just clean, solid competitive match. Machines were killing it with their technical precision, Profits were relying on

their speed and charisma. This was a fantastic match and this should have been on Wresselmania. How was this not a WrestleMania match? I don't get it. Anyways, just as the match was reaching its peak, Gargano and Champa stormed the ra and attacked both teams, causing a no contest Q. This led to an all out brawl between all three teams, and a little bit later on the show, Nick Aldis announced that all three teams would compete in a triple thread TLC match for the titles a next week on SmackDown.

I really thought he was gonna announce a surprise addition to WrestleMania, and you could hear the crowd massively booing from backstage when all this announced that this would be next week on SmackDown. Now, granted it's the SmackDown after WrestleMania, it's gonna be great. A lot of fallouts gonna happen. This would be a fantastic match, but we want it at WrestleMania. Don't get it, man, they're just burying these

tag teams. Hate it. Anyways. We then saw our final segment with Eo Sky, Bianca Belair, and Rhea Ripley with a little bit of a twist, so Eo didn't get a single word in before Riha and Bianca did their you know, their back and forth for the millionth time, and then all of a sudden, Naomi comes out to give Bianca a piece of her mind. Jay Cargill hits the ring to give Naomi a final piece of her mind before the WrestleMania match, and it was an all

out brawl with all five of them. Security comes out as they do, and they really struggled to keep these women apart. And the segment ended with Eo Sky climbing to the top rope and hitting a perfect moon salt onto everyone outside the ring, and this really served as a way to hype both matches for WrestleMania. It was sort of genius. I really liked it, and I really think the triple threat match between Bianca, Riea, and EO

could steal the show. I do think Bianca will walk out victory, and it'll be interesting to see how the crowd reacts if that happens, and if WWE will make her a true heal or not. As for Naomi and Jade, HM, I'm obsessed with this proceed with caution persona. Naomi has going on probably her best work ever, and I can't wait to see her at WrestleMania. However, I'm really nervous

about Jade. This will still be one of her first singles matches that isn't a squash, and she's really got to keep up with Naomi or the WrestleMania crowd honestly will probably eat her alive, especially if she's poised to win, which I think they're leaning towards. So this really is the one match at WrestleMania that I'm nervous about. I've got like a pit in my stomach, but we'll see, We'll see. We then got Randy or In coming out to find out who his mystery opponent is WrestleMania will

be and it was an open challenge? Is it just me? I was under the assumption that we were gonna find out who it was gonna be, Like Randy literally was hyping that on social media, but instead he issues an open challenge and that sort of it as a good promo. He's always good on the mic. But it kind of left everyone like, oh, okay, I guess it's gonna be a surprise at WrestleMania. Cool. I mean, end of the day.

Either as fine, Either they announce it and it gains anticipation for WrestleMania, or it's a complete surprise at WrestleMania. I'm fine either way. It's gonna be a good match. But who's it gonna be? Who is it gonna be? Guys, let us know, let us know your thoughts. Next up, we had the second week in a row where we had Chelsea Green taking on Zelina Vega in a rematch from that ten count debacle from last week. It was

a quick match, didn't really do anything. Chelsea ended up winning, Selena rolled out of the ring, went back to like no fanfare whatsoever, and that was it. I feel so bad for Chelsea that she doesn't have a WrestleMania match, Like.

They could have done something to make her look strong, and maybe they were going for a very raw, gritty feel no script. See what they come up with. This is their final final chance, and I will say Flair bombed epically, And to be honest, Tiffany's wasn't that much better, but she did acknowledge her weaknesses and her inexperience on the mic, which I actually really appreciated. She said that she would take care of what she had to in

the ring, which is most important end of the day. Obviously. However, if Tiffany loses at WrestleMania, which I think she might, the heat on Flair is gonna literally like it. It's gonna create like its own sun. Right, It's gonna destroy the whole world because she does not deserve this championship run. I'm sorry. I'm not even saying Tiffany should keep it going, but Charlotte hasn't earned it, and I know that might piss a lot of people off, but you know what,

I don't care about her past accomplishments. You can only use that card for so long. So yeah, I'm sorry to any Charlotte Flair fans out there, I'm just not

one of them. Our next match was pretty fun. We saw La Knight taking on Solo Socoa in a US Championship title match, where Jacob Fatu interfered and attacked Night, causing a DQ and as Night is getting beat up, Bronze Stroman made the save and Eldis on the spot booked a tag team match immediately This was a very high energy tag team match, which ended with Knights sending Fatu into the commentary team and pinning Sokoa for the win, and just further heating up this match with Fatu at WrestleMania,

Man Solo has really becoming afterthought, that's just an observation. Kind of feel bad for him at this point, but he had his time, He had his time. Anything can happen in the WWE. Next up, we had a six man tag team match with American Made versus l WO sort of I guess it was Ray Mysterio, Dragon Lee, and Ray Phoenix squaring off against American Maid, Chad Gable

and the Creed Brothers. This was a fantastic match, with Ray Phoenix coming out on top with all of his aerial work, but Dragon Lee really deserves the props for this one. He carried this match. Creed Brothers were great. They slowed things down a bit, got us on a good even pace with everything, but eventually Ray Phoenix hit a meteora on Julius for the win. But all the attention was unfortunately outside the ring, where Raymistereo was shown

holding his knee and needing help from medical staff. There were fan videos posted in the arena showing Ray literally not being able to walk and he had to be carried out on the ramp to backstage. So this could be a serious injury which would cause him to probably

miss his WrestleMania match against Grande Americano. And all joking aside, like I was really looking forward to that match, but honestly, like the way Dragon and Ray Phoenix performed in this match tonight, either one of them could easily be inserted into that match, and it'd probably be better. No shade to Ray Mysterio at all, but I think it could actually be a more fast paced match. Ray gets injured

pretty easily nowadays. He botches every now and again. He is incredible to this day, but age catches up to all of us. Yeah, does it ever? Anyways, I'm hoping Ray Mysterio is okay. Hopefully we'll get words sometime today before WrestleMania matches commence and the final segment of SmackDown tonight saw John Cena and Cody Rhodes have their final confrontation before Night two with their main event at WrestleMania

for the Undisputed Championship. Sina was accusing Rhodes of being in decisive, suggesting that he listens too much to fan reactions and lacks the killer instinct to truly finish his story. Sina also said that Cody Roots is playing the hero role too well but lacks the grit needed for the top spot. Cody fired back, mocking Sina's sporadic appearances and his part time Hollywood status, and he reminded Sina that he's there every single week fighting for that top spot,

and I cannot argue that whatsoever. Some lines that really stood out during this verbal spar. Let's go through these. Sina said, quote, you will lose because you care about them. Losers don't write history, Winners do. Sina also said, quote, these people will always make up a version of the truth they want to believe. Last line for Sina here quote you didn't need the tattoo or the suit because Sunday, I'm gonna make you somebody, somebody who has to severtise

with the losers in your life. It would have been good if he ended it, I'm gonna make you somebody. But yeah, that added line is fine. Is fine? Cino wants to call us losers, I'm all for it. Here's some lines from Cody. Cody said, quote you called me underwhelming, Well you're overrated. And perhaps the line of the night when it came to this spar Cody said, quote your palor then sting at Stark nineteen ninety seven. What universe

are we living in? Guys, I'm loving it. Last line that I'm gonna point out from Cody, he said, quote the whole world saw you saunter round bud Ass naked at the Oscars for the people, you run errands for now, and you still can't wrestle. That one really really got to Sena as it should, and he ended up trying to hit Cody with an attitude adjustment, but Cody ended up reversing it and nailed Sena with the Crossroads standing tall to end the show, which to me, guys, Cody

standing tall on the go home SmackDown. This is definitely going to see a Sena victory at WrestleMania. I hate to say it, or I love to say it. I don't know what do you guys think? Is Sena gonna break that record? I think he is. I think he is.

So yeah. This SmackDown was much better in build for WrestleMania than I think Raw was the week, but it was a lot of filler, again to be expected, but I would have hated to have been in attendance for this SmackDown and not also have tickets to WrestleMania, but what can you do. Somebody has to go to these go home shows before big events, and I hope most of those somebodies are also going to WrestleMania if they've taken out like ten loans and sold their firstborn. But yeah,

that's besides the point. One note here, I cannot wait for SmackDown to go back to two hours. That's it. Overall, decent show, Happy for Carmelo Hayes, A little scared for Raymistereo, but excited nonetheless for Night one of WrestleMania tonight. Who do you have coming out on top? What debuts or surprises are in store? Let me know. You can find me on Twitter, Blue Sky, and Instagram. Just search for

Ryan Sprague. Yes, I'm the Ryan Spread with all the UFO stuff connected to his name, and I hope you'll consider checking out my wrestling podcast somewhere in the ring. We'll actually be going live on YouTube immediately after the main events both nights of WrestleMania just to give our instant reactions, so hope you'll check us out and subscribe. Just search social media, YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts.

Once again for somewhere in the Ring. Thank you again to Matt, Amanda in all of you forgiving me your time today. I have one more week of the SmackDown review before Amanda returns, which should be a good fallout from WrestleMania, so be sure you subscribe to the WWE podcast for that and so much more than Matt has going on. The WWE podcast is literally the one stop shop for everything WWE, and if you want even more, be sure to check out the WWE podcast Patreon for

bonus content. That's gonna do it. Guys, here we go. It is Saturday. Enjoy tonight for Night one of WrestleMania.