We open Smackdown from Detroit Michigan with a Daniel Bryan promo. After weeks of speculation Bryan finally confirms he will enter the IC title match. Bryan states that many greats stole the show at Wrestlemania in the IC title match and he plans to do the same.
Eventually Barrett, Ziggler, Ambrose, Harper, and Stardust are out and we have the makings of a six-man tag later for our main event.
Coming off the commercial break they recap the tag matches from Raw that set the stage for a four-way tag title match at WM31. The New Day and the USO’s will take on Los Matadores and Kidd Cesaro in an 8 man tag to hype the WM31 match. This is weak booking. Why would semi-faces tag with heels? Why is the New Day even involved in this at all?
Los Matadores get the pin fall on Kofi after a backstabber. The match was otherwise forgettable. The result gives the Matadores a little more creditability for being in the WM31 match despite losing last week to Kidd Cesaro on Smackdown.
The Sting promo that confused everyone on Monday is replayed. Everyone is probably no less confused after watching it again.
A Rusev and Cena promo is run showing what happened on Monday. Fans are reminded to use violence whenever they don’t get what they want in life. Lana and Rusev were both very good on Monday during that segment and it should be noted that since beating Cena Rusev’s profile has greatly improved. John Cena has been responsible for putting over the two biggest stars in the company in CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. It will be interesting to see if they put him over Rusev or keep the luster on the Russian.
Ryback and the Miz are up next. Miz and Mizdow get into a beef backstage during a promo and Mizdow is instructed not to come to ringside for the match. Ryback squashes Miz in a few minutes. Miz eats a meat hook clothesline and then a shell shocked before being pinned. Mizdow seems happy backstage with this result.
Roman Reigns comes to the ring to an amazing amount of piped in cheers courtesy of WWE. After cutting a short, and pointless promo Mark Henry’s music hits. He hasn’t been around for weeks. Henry claims that no one respects Reigns and won’t let up on him about the matter leading to a Superman punch on Henry and a spear through the security rail on the outside. A handful of fans in the crowd react positively about this. This segment was over scripted right down to how strongly everyone was breathing.
There is an amazing amount of fans in sitting down as Reigns stands on top of the announcers table and says he can win the title at WM31.
They play and Undertaker Bray Wyatt promo recapping their…well…feud…so far. Or so it would seem.
Summer Rae and Cameron with Eva Marie in their corner take on Paige and AJ in a tag match. The Bellas are on commentary. The announce team completely ignores the match as they battle to ask the Bellas questions. If the commentators don’t care about the match why should the fans at home?
Paige puts the PTO on Summer Rae and the match is over. The Bellas and AJ/Paige tease a fight on the outside post match, but nothing comes of it. So since Vince said he was going to do something more with the Diva’s nothing appears to have a changed. It was a short match with bad commentary and very limited story building of consequence.
Renee Young interviews Mark Henry. Henry puts over Reigns saying he now believes in him and thinks he can beat Lesnar. This basically was Henry burying himself to put over Reigns. The damage Reigns is doing to the roster is scary bad.
The Randy Orton pre-taped interview airs. It’s basically a sit down interview with segments from Raw spliced in. Orton promises to challenge Rollins on Raw this week.
The six-man tag main event is up next. Harper, Barrett, and Stardust take on Bryan, Ziggler and Ambrose. The match is ok. It ends when Ziggler hits a zig zag on Harper and then Bryan steals a tag in to hit his knee and get the pin fall. Post match Cole enters the ring to interview the winners. There is some tension between the three of them focused at Bryan.
Ambrose says that while Bryan is a nice guy, backstage everyone thinks he’s a turd. Ziggler grabs the mic and says he agrees with Ambrose that Bryan is a turd. Ambrose and Ziggler exit the ring leaving Bryan with a confused look on his face.
WWE intentionally is putting down Bryan probably hoping the crowd will turn against him in a comedic way. The reason is simple. Punish the smart fans baby boy Bryan for wrecking the Royal Rumble and allow all the casual fans to get behind their handpicked guy Roman Reigns. With booking like this it’s no wonder that CM Punk left.
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