continued its march towards 38 as Brock Lesnar sent a clear and violent message to Roman Reigns just over a week before their huge title unification match.
The Beast Incarnate and reigning WWE Champion arrived at the beginning of Friday night’s show, deciding to make himself at home in the Tribal Chief’s private locker room while he waited for his rival to arrive.
He revealed he’s had to buy some news cars and, but there could be more on the way as he spent the night trashing the Bloodline’s inner sanctum.
The Universal Champion took his time turning up, as we found out during the show he was in a car driving round New York with special counsel Paul Heyman by his side.
He promised to recreate , but when Kayla Braxton questioned the Beast, he admitted he was having too much fun.
Eventually, Roman arrived and headed to the ring with Heyman, as they wondered where Lesnar might be.
Eventually he popped up on the big screen and trashed the Head of the Table’s SUV with a pickaxe, before coming through the crowd – without a weapon – in an attempted attack.
Security flooded into the arena to get between the two heavyweights, with Brock on top of the announce table, and it sparked a beatdown from Lesnar as he took out the guards with a steel chair, standing tall 9 days before their WrestleMania match.
Sami Zayn warns Johnny Knoxville, Xavier Woods’ botched return, Ricochet gets WrestleMania SmackDown match and more
The first match of the night saw Shinsuke Nakamura beat Jimmy Uso in a very entertaining bout between two incredibly talented stars.
Rick Boogs and Jey Uso joined for a brawl before the match got underway, and they played into the ending when another scrap sparked enough of a distraction for the Kinshasa.
as he vowed to wipe the smile off his face, before we got treated to a fantastic video package detailing the latter’s journey from King, to Sad, to Happy Corbin.
Up next, Kofi Kingston was set to face Ridge Holland in a rematch from last week, but instead in what ended up being a decent sprint.
Unfortunately, the big moment was botched slightly, with the ring announcer mentioned Woods as accompanying Kofi, with the latter admitting it was supposed to be a surprise.
The New Day star revealed Xavier was Ridge’s opponent instead, and it was a decent recovery all considered.
Ronda Rousey trashed Charlotte Flair in a decent but unremarkable promo, while the Queen popped up on the screen to have her say as they continue the build to their SmackDown Women’s Championship match.
Los Lotharios star Angel scored a huge upset win over Intercontinental Champion Ricochet after some interference from Humberto.
That led to Ricochet challenging him to a match of his own, with Humberto picking up the win to give the team a 2-0 win over the high flying star.
This has led to a Triple Threat between the trio for the IC Title on next week’s WrestleMania SmackDown show, which will be entertaining – but it’s very disappointing WWE couldn’t find space for Ricochet on the main cards.
with a brilliant promo hyping up their Anything Goes match, while Austin Theory again slapped Pat McAfee but ran to hide in Vince McMahon’s office.
In the final match of the night, Sasha Banks won a brilliant Fatal Four Way against Rhea Ripley, Shayna Baszler and Queen Zelina.
This was a fantastic way to build to the Women’s Tag Team Title match at WrestleMania with the stars representing their respective teams, and it also served as a reminder of how special a talent the Legit Boss is.
WWE SmackDown airs Friday nights at 1am on BT Sport 1.
WWE SmackDown results and grades
- Shinsuke Nakamura pinned Jimmy Uso (B)
- Xavier Woods defeated Ridge Holland (C-)
- Angel beat Ricochet, Humberto beat Ricochet (B)
- Sasha Banks defeated Queen Zelina, Shayna Baszler and Rhea Ripley (B+)
