This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre, and you're listening to the WWE podcast.
Before the one that everybody wants me.
Sixteens of God Just with your ass is my arn.
We're gonna acknowledge me.
Hey, guys, Ryan spread here with my final SmackDown review before Amanda returns. It has been such an honor and pleasure sharing these three weeks of SmackDown with you, guys. And what the three weeks it's been the road to and aftermath of WrestleMania forty one. So many title changes, some debuts, some returns. It's some really interesting storylines Furthered as we now move towards Backlash in May. So let's not waste any more time. Let's get to the SmackDown review.
And this one took place in Fort Worth, Texas, on April twenty fifth. John Sena opened the show to a very loud and almost fifty to fifty split Chad of Let's go Sena. Sena sucks. They're torn, man. Do we love him or do we hate him?
So?
Sena continued to pronounce his ruining of wrestling when he's interrupted by Randy Orton. This entire opening was almost identical to Monday Night Raw, where Sena corrected the ring announcer and made him call him the last real champion. But before Sena could say anything, Randy Orton's music hit and he came out to tell Sena that there's no way in hell he's ruining wrestling since wrestling has given or
in everything in his family's lives. He then told Sena that maybe he should have some kids, but Sena responded saying he spent twenty five years raising everyone else's kids. He then went on to make fun of a kid at ringside who flipped him off to prove his point. Orton then challenged him right then in there for the title, but Sina said no, it should happen at Backlash, he said. Sina then tossed the title up at Orton and tried to attack him, but or encountered and hit him with
an RKO. Again. This was sort of a repeat of Raw, but with more words spoken. Obviously, no matter the case, I am super excited for this match at Backlash. Our first match of the night was Los Garzas versus Nathan
Fraser and Axium better known as Phraxium. Phraxium was looking to rebound after dropping the NXT titles at Stanton Deliver this past week, and in this match, Phraxium took control right away, but Los Garzas turned the tables when Angel hit a super kick when Fraser was attempting a moon salt. This is awesome chance were heard throughout this entire match. The match ended with a combo Spanish fly in four
to fifty splash with Phraxiam get in the win. I just have to say this was a fantastic debut by both men as a tag team and they could really enhance the tag division moving forward. Next up, we had Tiffany Stratton coming out to the rank to celebrate or win over Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania, but this was cut short by Jade Cargill, who finally got some mic time. She was a little nervous on the mic in front
of the crowd, but she's slowly getting better. So she told Tiffy that beaten Charlotte only put a bigger target on Tiffany's back and now that she's done with Naomi, Cargill wants a shot at the WWE Women's title. A match was announced right then and there and they squared up Cargo had a slight size and power advantage, but Tiffany refused to be pushed around and held her own as she did at WrestleMania. There is a beast behind
that Barbie. The match itself was a little messy, you know, they've never really worked together before, and Jade is still finding her way through singles matches. But again we're seeing slivers of improvement all around. There was one point where Stratton almost tripped when hitting the prettiest Moonsalt ever, but she ended up saving it. But Cargill avoided the moon Salt, but before she could take advantage of it, Naomi came down and attacked Jade and cost her the match via DQ.
Then out of nowhere, we finally got the return of Nya Jacks. I know some of you are groaning, but look, she's really really evolved. I'm happy to see her back. So Nya ended up attacking Tiffany. So maybe we're finally gonna see another rematch between Nya Jax and Tiffany at Backlash, or this could be setting up a fatal four way Nya Jax, Tiffany, Jake Cargill and Naomi. We shall see. We then got a Jacob Fatu promo. He came out with Solo Socoa to celebrate his US Championship win over
La Night at WrestleMania. Sikkoa said nobody and his family wanted Fatu in the WWE except for him, and he took credit for Fatu not only being in the WWE, but for his title win. Two. Fatu wasn't really feeling that though. He ripped the mic away from Solo Sokoa and said he did exactly what he said he was going to do, and that was to win the title himself.
La Knight came out and gave him credit for beating him Farrence Square, but this all ended when Drew McIntyre, of all people, came out and bragged about beating Damian Priest and complained that Randy Orton jumped the line ahead of him for the WWE title shot. Nick Aldis in Fashion came out and offered to book a match between Knight and McIntyre, with the winner getting a US title shot. This set up a match for later that night and
potential feuds for Jacob Fatu moving forward. We then got Chelsea Green once again her US Championship against Zelena Vega Piper Niven and Alba Fire the Secret Harvists were present and they helped Green throughout the match, but Zelena Vega was able to fend them all off and the ref eventually ejected them. And while a quick match, it was a really good match, and Zelena Vega hit a code read to get the pin. You heard that right, guys.
Zelena Vega is our new Women's US Champion and she got a huge pop. She took the belt, went up the ramp crying, very emotional, very powerful. Loved seeing it, and just like the Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania, we were bound for some surprises and this was it. So we'll see what Vega does with it. She works her butt off, so I think she does deserve it. But where will Chelsea Green go next? I'm seeing a backlash
match between Chelsea Green and Selena Vega. Speaking of debuts and or returns, we had the turn of Alistair Black, so the mis came out and complained about how nobody respects him. He said, Raymistereo went to someone he barely knows for help instead of him, and Orton did the same thing. He said, he's sick of seeing people get opportunities when he isn't. Kind of sounds like echoes of carry and cross but whatever. So then the lights went out and we had the return of Alistair Black. He
rose from the floor very creepily. I guess this was his entrance back in the NXT days. I'm not familiar with Alistair Black guys, so I do apologize. I know he did leave a lasted impact when he was over at NXT, and I love his style, I do so. He slowly came down to the ring, he hit Miss with a black Mass without saying a single word, and
then he just sat in the ring ominously. So this could be setting up a feud with a Miz for backlash, or just asserting Alistair Black's dominance as the weeks continue. Underwhelming for me personally, as again I have no connection to Alistair Black, but he got a pretty decent pop and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can actually do in the ring. Next up, we finally had our match between La Knight and Drew McIntyre for the number
one contendership spot for Fatu's US Championship. This was a fantastic, methodical match until Sikoa showed up and hit Night with a Samoan spike while the ref was distracted. McIntyre looked mad that he was about to be helped by someone that he saw as an enemy, but he was unable to take advantage of the moment because Damian Priest showed up and attacked him. He put McIntyre through the announced table with the South of Heaven choke slam, causing a
no contest. Q and Night got into his face for causing it, but both men were soon taken down by Jacob Fatu, who stood tall. This really seems like it's setting up a multi men match at Backlash, and I cannot wait to see these three go at it. And we finally got our main event of the night, the Street Profits vers DIY versus Mody Mody versus Motor City machine Guns. This was a TLC tag title match and again, guys, this should have been at WrestleMania because it was definitely
the match of the night at SmackDown. So montes Ford and Angelo Dawkins, Chris Saban and Alex Shelley and Johnny Gargano and Tamaso Champa risked it all in this match. It was given a lot of time, There were no commercials and they used every second of it, and they all had their own moments and some scary spots, and there was one point where Ford actually used a fans prosthetic leg as a weapon, which got a huge pop
from the crowd. There was a very rough spot where Angelo Dawkins took Chompo off the ladder and through a table. They both looked dead after that, there were a few more high spots off the ladder, and then Ford eventually retrieved the titles to retain for the street profits. This was an exceptional match and really showed what this tag division can be when booked Wright And that was SmackDown, guys,
all three hours. And I'll say this, this is perhaps one of the first times that it felt like SmackDown used every minute of those three hours. But I still can't wait for it to go down to two hours. Really hit us hard as the Blue Brand bounces back. Overall fantastic SmackDown after WrestleMania, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. So again I want to thank all of you for giving me your ears these past
three weeks. It has been a super fun experience. Again, I want to thank Matt and Amanda, and I want to once again remind you to check out my wrestling podcast called Someone in the Ring. We just suppressed a thousand subscribers over on YouTube, so you can find us there or just search for the Somewhere in the Ring podcast wherever you get the WWE podcast as well. Thanks again everybody, here we go down the winding road to backlashra.
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com and for all of these shows add free head over to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you next time.