Smackdown opened with a fatal four-way singles contest that featured one member of each tag team that will participate in the fatal four-way tag match on Sunday as part of the kickoff show at WrestleMania for the tag titles. Each of these superstars laid it all on the line as the crowd witnessed a superplex of some sort that had fans gasping for breath. An incredible match indeed, that gives us a glimpse into what might be expected from these grapplers come Sunday. In the end, Jimmy Uso def. Big E, Fernando and Cesaro.

WrestleMania Axxess is off and running Byron Saxton and Renee Young are the hosts of the WrestleMania 31 Axxess, which gives fans a chance to not only meet superstars but also witness the best memorabilia of WWE over the years. The duo spoke in detail about Axxess and then went on to entertain the Smackdown viewers by showing video packages of each of the marquee matches at the showcase of the immortals.

AJ Lee and Paige address their relationship AJ made her way to the ring to address what happened on raw when miscommunication between her and Paige led to doubts being cast about whether they will be on the same “page” come WrestleMania. AJ went on to say that she’ll take down the Bellas herself if Paige isn’t willing to do so. Paige came out and stood by AJ and the duo claimed that they wouldn’t let the Kardashians win on Sunday. This brought the Bella twins to the stage and they claimed that everyone wants to be a Bella and after a few insults, made it clear that they were going to leave winners on Sunday.

John Cena, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan and Mark Henry def. Seth Rollins, Big Show, Kane and Bray Wyatt The main event of the evening saw a huge eight man tag team match starring the big boys of WWE that no doubt stood out on a lackluster episode of Smackdown. Reigns and Rollins opened this fight and got into it straight away, both looking for momentum ahead of their big matches at WrestleMania. The match took a very familiar route throughout as the team of Rollins and co. dominated through the middle of the match.

Things did get exciting towards the end though as Bryan got himself tagged into the match and demolished Seth Rollins. Roman Reigns yet again tried his best to gain crowd support with spear after spear to clear the playing field and allow Bryan to hit the running knee on a dazed Big Show to pick up the win for the all-star team amidst a sea of yes chants. A good way to end the show, but doesn’t mask the fact that Smackdown has lost its traction as an important WWE show over the past few years and requires serious rebuilding to make it popular again.

The show ended with the familiar voice of Michael Cole making a final hard sell for the WWE network to be subscribed before WrestleMania and no doubt that the magnificence of the event may be too tempting to give up at just $9.99…