With one week until the WWE Draft, Tonight's SmackDown was the final show under
the roster as it was originally composed by Vince McMahon. We have yet to
have a triple H draft. This is gonna be the first triple H draft
since he took over as the head of creative and SmackDown as we know,
it is going to look different after last week. We just don't know how
different just yet. I'll tell you what though, after seeing seth rollins against
Omas randomly booked for Backlash in two weeks, I'm not so sure that Vince
McMahon is not going to be booking the show going forward. He's already he's
peeking out of the weeds again. There he is. I see him off
in the distance in the weeds. Either that or he smoking him, I'm
not sure. It's one of the up Where the hell did that come from?
I'm sitting here watching SmackDown tonight and they're flashing match graphics on the screen
for Backlash coming up in Puerto Rico in two weeks. We know Cody Rhodes
is going to face Brock Lesner. We know that Kevin Owens and Sammy Zane
and Matt Riddle are going to be taking on the Usos and Solos Zakoa.
Those matches have already been made official, and then we had some new match
announcements tonight. We know that Ria Ripley is going to be defending her SmackDown
Women's Championship against Zelina Vega, which was set up in a backstage segment on
the show tonight, so that we already know. But then they're they're continuing
on and I see Seth Rollins in a match graphic with Omas and I'm thinking
to myself, did I miss something? Maybe maybe I'd blinked on Monday and
I miss something. Boy, be the booker has come early tonight. Usually
we saved that for the end of the scream. We got that pre stream,
we got before I even went live on the stream tonight. We had
to be the booker. Did they set this match up on Rampage last week?
And maybe I just didn't see it? Maybe I'm dark? This right
here is the best that they can come up with for seth Rawlins. I
was just talking of the other day about how directionless Rawlins has felt. They
just, you know, they wanted to give us a visual aid. So
there it is Omas gets a random match with seth Rawlins with no bill,
but La Night cannot seem to buy television time on these shows. Now,
hopefully this is just a draft swerve where they announced the match out of nowhere
to shock us when seth Rawlins gets moved to SmackDown next week. That's what
I'm hoping this is. That wasn't the only match they announced. They announced
the United States Championship triple Threat for Backlash. It's gonna be Austin Theory defending
his title against two n He's gonna be putting the championship on the line against
Bobby Lashly and Bronson Reed. And that at least makes sense because when we
saw Lashly, in Theory and the Ring together on Monday Night, it was
Bronson Reed who showed up to spoil the party and he interfered in the match
and he squashed Bobby with the tsunami splash, and so that at least made
some modicum of sense. But boy, you know, this draft next week,
men, This draft cannot come soon enough. This tonight was the definition
of a lame duck show. This draft cannot get here soon enough. It
had some good wrestling on the show tonight, and I see good wrestling on
television every single week, on WWE Television, on aw Television, Ring of
Honor, when I'm able to catch it, get plenty of good wrestling.
I get plenty of great wrestling on television every week. You gotta give me
more than that. And that's not what this show tonight was all about.
If you were looking for more than just some good wrestling on the show tonight,
he didn't really get much of it. Tonight's main event was a rematch
last week's main event between Matt Riddle and Solo Sukoa, this time with a
no disqualification stipulation added to it, although the outcome was no different. Kevin
Owens and Seth Rollins were not at SmackDown tonight, so the show ended with
Matt Riddle being overwhelmed and outnumbered by the Bloodline and left Lane to close out
the show. We did get a fun Intercontinental Championship match, though, with
Gunther defending the title against Xavier Woods. It would be quite shocking to me
if he had an Intercontinental title defense that was anything other than at least good.
Gunther can do no wrong, and Woods, I thought was a fine
opponent. For him tonight, although no doubt as to the outcome of this
match, But then again, you could say that about most of the matches
on the show tonight as far as them being very predictable, but that was
a good match between those two. This is your Friday Night SmackDown review for
Friday Night, April twenty first, twenty twenty three. We opened SmackDown tonight
with a tag team match. It was raymis Stereo Santos Escobar representing the LWO
taking on Finn Balor and Damian Priest of the Judgment Day. It's good to
see Damian Priest getting television time post WrestleMania. He was the one Judgment Day
member who did not have a match at WrestleMania this year, but they did
have a good spot for him for back Lash year. I was thought when
they announced the show for Puerto Rico, it just seemed to me like he
would end up in the main event, or he would end up in a
big ten team match on the show, which he is. I'm sure it's
going to end up being Ray, Mysterio and Bad Bunny against Damian Priest and
Dominic. Most likely could be Priest and Balor, but I'm thinking it'll be
a Priest and Dominic, and so we've been getting Damian Priest on television.
He's been racking up wins. Bad Bunny is going to be back. He's
hopping back onto Ran Chicago this Monday night, so we'll have I'm sure I've
faced to face between them. I thought the opener here was solid. Came
down to confusion at the end of this match on the part of the baby
Faces. Ray got Balor in the ropes for a six one nine. He
did not see Damian Priest make the blind tag tagged himself in. Priest got
sent to the floor. Ray followed through with a six one nine to Valor,
which led to Escobar tagging in and Escobar went up top, but he
hit a top rope splash, seemingly had the match one, but the referee
was trying to communicate to him, no, no, no, not the
legal man. Priest came back into the ring. He picked up Escobar,
hit the south of heaving choke slam and pinned him. So again mysterio.
Escobar did not realize that Damian Priest had made the blind tag. As Priest
and Valor walked away, they stopped on stage, priest had the mic right,
He's gotten a bit of mic time over the last few weeks, and
he said the Bad Bunny is going to be back on Raw. Sold out
in Chicago this Monday. As dull as some of these shows have been post
WrestleMania, the company is still on a hot street. I mean they have
a lot of sellouts coming up. I saw the pick sure that Paul Hayman
posted on social media the other day telling them it was like a photo that
he took of a sign. I guess that's posted at some of the shows
for talent saying sorry, no comps, no complimentary tickets for friends and family
for these shows, and they list a whole bunch of upcoming TV shows and
Backlash coming up. They're legitimately sold out for Backlash, over seventeen thousand tickets
out for that show, which with Bad Bunny on there is not a surprise.
But they're on a hot streak, you know, business right now.
Ticket sales, it's all, you know, all coming up aces for WWE
creatively these last few weeks. Not so much. The draft has a lot
to do with that. But we're going to see you know, there's going
to be a creative reckoning coming out of the draft, especially when it comes
to things like the women's division on these shows, and you can't just blame
Vince McMahon for that. You know, Triple H is gonna bear a lot
of the blame or credit if things improve coming out of the draft, if
things are really refreshed, and if there are new call ups from NXT that
can really kind of, you know, invigorate the shows and invigorate the women's
division, invigorate the tag team division. You know, you got to give
Triple H some of that blame as well, or you give Triple H credit.
But one thing is for sure, they definitely need a refresh on these
shows, that is for sure. But as I said, Priest giving a
warning, too bad Bunny heading into Run Monday night, and he said,
Benito, I hope things go better for you on Monday than they did the
last time that you paid a visit, and then he ended with a diabolical
laugh to close out the segment. Escobar was on the floor in this match
when Priest made that blind tag, so he didn't see it. It's it's
not as if you know what a dummy had did he not see it?
He's standing there on the apron. He was on the floor. He didn't
see it, so you know, at least he didn't come across as a
moral on. But he's been losing a lot of matches lately. Now,
Escobar has been losing a lot of matches. Ray and Escobar they lost to
the Judgment Day two weeks ago un SmackDown. Just last week he lost a
singles match to Damian Priest, and I went back to check. You would
have to go all the way back to the very beginning of the year,
the very first SmackDown of twenty twenty three to find the last singles win on
television for Santos Escobar was a win over Kofi Kingston. That's how far back
you'd have to go to find a win for this guy. And you know,
all these losses they could be leading to something. I certainly hope they
are. They could be leading to something. They could be leading to Escobar
turning on Ray, which I think, you know, potentially has two positive
outcomes to that, and it's something I've talked about, you know, in
the last several weeks. One is that we get a Rainbow Stereo Santos Escobar
program. You know, while it's nice to see them as friends and allies
and tag team partners in the LWO, I would much rather see Ray and
Escobar in a match in a program together. But the other potential positive in
that is another idea that I've floated, which is that dominic mysterio, especially
if the Judgment Day is split up in this draft, Because there's a bunch
of different groups on this roster right now. You've got the Bloodline, you've
got the Judgment Day, you've got the LWO, you've got tag teams.
Who or what is going to be broken up in the draft. You would
think some group, some tandem, some faction will end up being split up.
It's not going to be the Bloodline. Although if the USOS were to
regain the tag team titles, they could move the USOS to a different show
and then just by being tag team champions they could appear on bull shows.
Anyway, I think I don't think they have the balls to break up the
blood Line, nor would I The Judgment Day to me, would seem like
the likeliest possibility as far as the group being broken up. If that happens,
we could end up with Dominic mysterio as a member of or leading the
LWUP, because right now it's like his father is sort of the de facto
leader of this new group that's formed. Perhaps Escobar and them go heal Dominic
joins with them. I think that could work. So I'm hoping that whatever
it may be, it's it's leading to something. I feel the same way
about La Night, all these losses that he's been racking up on television.
Now, you would hope if there's some semblance of an idea, there's some
direction for it, and there's a method to the madness. That's something I
would expect from Vince McMahon as the head of creative, booking shit for the
sake of booking shit, forgetting that he books something a month ago, booking
rematch after rematch. Guys go on losing streaks. They don't lead to anything.
I would like to think Triple H is a little more careful and a
little smarter about that sort of thing. I hope, especially when it comes
to someone like La Knight, who was not on the show today, but
apparently you know, we don't have any room for him on the backlash card.
We gotta get Omas on that card. In Puerto Rico, Zelina Vega.
She was backstage talking to Adam Pierce. She told him that she wanted
to challenge Riha Ripley and Backlash for the SmackDown Women's Championship. As the only
Puerto Rican female on the roster, she wanted that championship match in Puerto Rico.
Pierce said that he would talk to Ria, talk to upper management and
get back to her. This was always the obvious match for Backlash because the
Judgment Day is feuding with the LWO, and later in the show they did
make it officials, so that is going to be the SmackDown Women's Championship match
at the pay per view. We got a pre tape Carrie and Cross promo.
I like the way this was shot. This was very slick the way
they did this, and we had Scarlett as he was speaking, walking behind
him way off in the background coming into the foreground bringing the tarot cards over.
Raw said that it takes a lifetime to find an identity. Clearly been
taking him a long time to find one since he came back. He said
he never did anything to anybody. It was the car It's a tarot cards
that decides things. Says, we don't know who we are until someone takes
things away from you. He took away Drew McIntire's temperament in their feud,
and as he was speaking, they spliced in footage from their feud from many
months ago. Even though Drew ended up winning that feud, he I guess
took him off his game. He he got under his skin. I guess
that's a moral victory for carrying Cross. He said he took away MadCat Moss's
joy. You know all the jokes. He said, he took away Raymisterio's
patients. Now he's going to take Shinsky Nakamoa's honor. It's an interesting approach
to, you know, draw attention to the past feuds that he's had,
and he hasn't had that many of them, but to draw attention to the
past people that he has feuded with. Some he's beaten, some he hasn't.
Drew McIntyre got the better of him in the end of that. But
the last time we saw Cross in the ring with Raymisterio, for example,
I believe Cross got the way. When Cross feuded with Mad Cat Moss,
he ended up getting the win. What did it really mean? Not much,
because they didn't have a direction for carrying cross. Carrying Cross beat MadCat
Moss and then Wozi and the Andre Battle Royal. At WrestleMania, he was
one of I think twenty bodies in the ring. He certainly didn't have a
match of Wrestle Media hasn't done much since Wrestle Media hasn't wrestled a single match
on television since Wrestle Madia. So even the people that he has beaten and
gotten a win over Raymisterio right incidental. It wasn't about carrying Cross. It
was about Ray. That was all about furthering the Ray and Dominic story.
It had nothing to do with cross. Cross was a warm body in the
ring. It was a means to an end. They have had no direction
for carrying cross. Now they're pairing him up with Shinskandakamura, a man who
he actually has a friendship with in real life or a history with. I
guess they've trained together. There's been pictures of them on social media. They're
not bringing any of this up so far in this few though. It's all
about, you know, the tarot cards, and it's all about, you
know, the very gimmicky stuff that he's been doing on television. Here.
But the problem with carrying across other than what I just talked about is the
fact that while he is good in promo segments like this right, he has
a certain presentation that I think is a plus, he does not come across
as a legitimate threat. He doesn't. He speaks, you know, he
uses these big words, and he has these platitudes and everything that he uses,
but because he hasn't really done anything to back up those words, they
ring hollow. Nobody looks at him as any kind of meaningful threat because he
hasn't given us a reason to look at him. Is one. It reminds
me of Bray Wyatt back when he was still doing the original Cult Leader gimmick,
and he would do these spooky promos right where going into a pay per
view match, maybe a big climactic match with somebody at John Cena or a
Cane Undertaker, whoever it was. He would do these promos and it sounded
good, but then he would go and he would lose, and it became
a running joke. That's where the whole Eater of Pins thing came came from.
Now, the fact that I'm drawing that comparison is not meant to be
a compliment. It's not a good thing. You can talk the talk,
you can't walk the walk, And so far in his return carrying Cross has
been like a lost soul. Maybe there'll be a little bit of direction here
with this program with Knackama. I don't really see any reason why this would
be any different. I just don't get the sense that they really know what
to do with this guy, and they certainly don't seem to have any big
plans for so He's not someone who comes across as a as a real threat.
Cross is somebody who I think would benefit from a move to Mondays in
this draft. I don't know that they're going to do that, though,
unless they move Nakamura as well, because they're just starting a program with these
two, so it seems unlikely that they would move him if they're about to
start this program, unless they move both of them. But I think he's
someone who would benefit from a change of scenery because so far on SmackDown,
it's the Bloodline show, and as long as the Bloodline is in the top
spot and in the driver's seat, and all the focus and attention is on
Roman Reigns and Solo Sakoa and the USOS, there's no spot for Carrying Cross.
It's why I laughed when Mike Johnson had that report on PW Insider and
it said that on the internal roster, Carrying Cross is listed and he may
still be listed as the number two heel on SmackDown, And I said,
on what planet is Carrying Cross the number two heel on any of these shows?
Shows that he's barely on in the first place. Roman Reigns is the
number one heel in the entire company. Goon third is the number two heel
on SmackDown. Always was the best thing for Carrying Cross would be to get
the hell away from SmackDown, trying to get a fresh start. On Monday
Night Rong, we had Ricochet and Braun Stroman against the Viking Raiders. Michael
Cole on commentary said that Stroman is now calling his team with Rickett Shat they
have a team name. Now. I don't know if this is official,
but according to Michael Cole, the name that Braun Stroman has come up with
for their tag team is Team Jacked, Tan and Juicy. Good luck putting
that on a T shirt. Team Jacked, Tan and Juicy doesn't sound very
marketable to me during the break. During this match, Valhalla caused a distraction
outside the ring, allowing the Viking Raiders to take over. Ricochet broke free
and he tagged in braun Stroman, who took out Ivar with a shotgun drop
kick. This guy thinks he's Finnbalor in here hitting the shotgun drop kick in
the corner. And then with the Viking Raiders outside the ring, Braun got
a big smile on his face and it was time. It was time.
You know what? Can you know what comes next here in a braun Stroman
match, It was time for the Stroman Express. The train pulled out of
the station, braun Stroman exited the ring. Down goes Eric. He blasts
Ivar right into the ring post with a shoulder tackle. He gets up on
the apron. He's about to get back in the ring, and Valhalla provides
the distraction and that gave Eric, who was back in the ring at this
point, gave Eric the chance to catch Stroman with a niche strike. Ivar
came back and he hit his giant flying splash off the top rope. All
three hundred plus pounds comes crashing down on braun Stroman, and it looked like
they had a double pin too, because Eric was in the ring and he
was almost pushing down and still Braun kicked out. He got the tag to
Ricochet. Ricochet rocked Ivar with a jumping knee. Stroman then launched Ricochet into
Ivar and then sent Eric out to the floor. Ricochet came off Stroman's shoulders
with the elevated swanton bomb and Pinnedivar to win the match. You had to
know that they were not losing here. They just got a new tag team
name. They have a new name now. They're not going to start pushing
a new team name and then have them lose in their first match. The
announcers talked about them being in line now for a future tag team Championship match,
which could be another ominous sign for Kevin Owens and Sammy Zane. The
Saudi show coming up next month is one because Owens and Zane neither one of
them have ever flown out for one of the Saudi Arabia shows, which I
think is their choice. Certainly for Owens, I think it's been a choice
of his. I don't see why this would be any different next month for
a Night of champions and if that's the case if all titles have to be
defended on that show, that's ominous signed number one that they're not going to
make it to Saudi Arabia as the tag team champions. The fact that they
are now setting up, potentially setting up Braun, Stroman a Ricochet to be
contenders maybe number one contenders after next week for the tag team titles could be
another sign. Because we already had Owens and Zane against the Street Profits a
few weeks ago, baby Face against Babyface. I don't know that they're going
to do another baby Face against baby Face match. It's more realistic for me
to see them doing the ussos again in there against Ricochet and Stroman, which
again is a match we've already gotten. But I think that's more realistic than
them doing Owens and Zane against ricocheme Stroman. So it's looking more and more
to me like those guys were in for a short tag team title run.
Doesn't necessarily mean they're losing next week, but are they gonna make it tonight
of champions with those titles? It's not looking good. Braun. We'll see
you Lateryboddy. There you go. The women's tag team titles were on the
Line. Live Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez their first title defense, defending against Sonya
Deville and Chelsea Green. The Heels cut a promo on the champions in the
ring before the match began. Sonya was threatening to throw water on Live.
Both of them were threatening to throw water on Live, the way they did
to me A Yim and Candice on Monday. Chelsea landed a Russian leg suite
from the middle rope. Referee though stopped the count because she was trying to
use the ropes for leverage. Sonya tagged in. She and Chelsea hit a
double supplex on Live. Sonya got a pump kick, also tried using the
cheating tactics to get the wind here got caught by the referee. Live eventually
tagged out to Riquel, who hit the twisting Vader bomb to Chelsea. Sonya,
though broke up the pin that led to Live Morgan making a tag.
Rikeel was trying for a superplex on Sonya. She got it Live, caught
Chelsea with the backstabber and then doused her with water, and Chelsea of course
sold it like she was shot, and that led to a roll up with
an assist from Raquel using her legs her feet to push Live forward for added
momentum for the wind at a finish. We saw the usos use many times
early in this Bloodline storyline. You'd have one USO going for the pin in
the ring, the referee wouldn't see the other Russo on the apron using his
legs to push his brother forward. Same finish here. Sonya and Chelsea were
not credible challengers. They won one match on TV. They gave them a
token win on Monday Night over me Chin and her tag team partner, Candice's
Candice. How sad right for Candice Larey that she's been relegated to her tag
team partner. It's a token win for them on Monday just to try to
give them some credibility that they did not have going into this match their first
title defense. They weren't losing the titles in their first title defense. They're
still waiting for Ronda Rousing and Shana Basler to come back. Ronda has the
broken forearm. We have no idea when Ronda will be cleared to come back.
She came back at WrestleMania because it was WrestleMania and she didn't want to
miss the show. She didn't do anything, and now we have to wait
until she's all healed. So we're just kind of stuck in limbo with all
of this now. As far as the match itself, not much to speak
of. People didn't really seem to care about it, and the match was
average at best. You know, I gotta tell you this, Everything that
they have done since Solemania, since those two excellent matches that we got for
the Women's Championships, and I'm not talking to the tag titles, I'm talking
to singles titles Rhea and Charlotte, Bianca and Oscar, those matches were excellent.
Everything they have done with the women since WrestleMania has been just completely lame
and dead and stupid, and the matches have been average at best. I
don't know what's going on. Clearly creatively, there's no direction, but even
the matches themselves just have not been very good. So I don't know what's
going on with this women's division right now. This women's division feels like it
is just it is in the fucking dumps right now, all the more reason
to get some new blood up in this draft and give these women some direction,
give them some focus, give them some attention. Do something. You've
got two women's championships, that's to say nothing of the tag team titles.
But you have two divisions. You've cut them in half. You have a
raw women's championship at a SmackDown women's championship. Do something with them. Triple
H. This is not something you can just throw on Vince McMahon. This
is on Triple H. He's been at the job now for what probably eight
or nine months. The women's division, if anything, is worse under Triple
H than it was before he took over. There's no excuse for them.
And for the first time in his career, Xavier Woods challenged for the Intercontinental
Championship. That's the good news for him. The bad news is that he
had to challenge Gunther. Woods got his initiation in this match with the Walter
chops. He took him like a champ. He took him to the chest,
he took him to the back, he took him to the neck.
He held up okay. Gunther taunted him. He said that he wasn't on
his level, which fired up Woods. Woods drop the champion with a tilted
world forearm shot. Woods then landed a somersault splash he went up to the
top rope. Gunther, though sent him back down with a chop to the
chest. Woods cut down Gunther with a kick to the face and then hit
a big diving top rope leg drop for a close near fall that they got
the crowd to buy into, which is not an easy thing to do,
because how many people honestly expected that we were going to get a title change
here a week before the draft, after how many months that he's been championed,
that Xavier Woods would go on a random SmackDown and beat him for the
Intercontinental Championship? Are you fucking kidding me? Right? But they got the
crowd to buy into this near fall. They were on their feet, they
thought he had he was this close. They thought he had it, but
Walter kicked out. Gunther recovered. He put Woods in a sleeper hold,
then he attempted a power bomb. Woods countered out of it. Gunther kicked
out of an O'Connor roll and immediately went back to the sleeper, and this
time there was no escape for Xavier Woods. It will be a new day
when he finally wakes up and still you're Intercontinental champion. Good match here,
and Gunther racks up another victim, as if there was ever any doubt.
But this was good stuff. This was good stuff. And look, Xavier
Woods. We don't get to see him very often in singles matches. It
just so happens right now that he is a man on an island all by
himself because his partners are in a bad way. Biggie may never wrestle again.
It's still possible he'll never wrestle again. We still don't have any clarity
on whether or not he will be back in the ring, and if so
win It's been over a year. Kofi Kingston I think basically broke his ankle,
had surgery. He's going to be out for a while, so he's
all alone, right the new day is down to one, so we're starting
to see him in more singles matches, and you might forget how good he
really is. You know, he's very good, and I thought he played
his role well. He was very good here in this match. But under
no circumstances should he have beaten Gunther for the intercontinental title. I could,
I could see him challenging for the United States championship, but so long as
Gunther is the Intercontinental champion, that just is not gonna happen now. They
replayed the Kevin Owens and Sammy Zan win at WrestleMania. They got their big
WrestleMania moment, won the Undisputed Tag Team Championships from the USOS. So we
had footage of that, and then they plugged the WrestleMania rematch for television.
Next week, it's going to be Kevin Owens and Sammy's Ain against the USOS.
That brought the USOS down to the ring for a promo here before this
main event with their brother. They were focused on winning the titles back next
week and they said that they're going to become nine time tag team champions and
they're going to dedicate their win to the tribal Chief Roman Reigns and they put
their fingers up in the air. That brought out Solo Succo for his main
event with Matt Riddle no disqualification. And before I get into the main event,
I do want to thank everybody who has not only liked the video because
I appreciate that, but I saw Paul Hamilton give to ten channel memberships,
so we have ten new members of our SoundOff family because of Paul. Paul,
you are with us. Thank you very much, sir Paul, you
are the man. It is much appreciated and welcome to all of our new
channel members. You'll be getting a new episode, by the way, number
four of a SoundOff Gamer in a few days, and you guys, as
usual, we'll get early access to it, so keep an eye out for
that. But we had our main event, no dq Riddle jumped Solo from
behind in the ring to kick things off, and Soakoa quickly took over.
He pulled kendo sticks and steal chairs out from underneath the ring. I love
too like when he lifted up the ring skirt, we got a little glimpse
underneath the ring and you saw the kendo sticks. They were all neatly lined
up. It's amazing of a company, you know. They're just like,
here you go, we have kendos. What do you need. It's like
a fucking home depot under there. We got chairs, we got tables,
we got Kendo sticks, we got ny tools, we got a toolbox.
What do you need? You need a wrench, You need a screwdriver.
We used to have a screwdriver in here. Brian Danielson took it so we
don't have one right now. But you can have a wrench, We've got
a compass, We've got an alan key. What do you need? So
he grabbed the kendo sticks and he grabbed the chairs. He beat Riddled down
with a kendo stick, and then it was Riddle's turn to return the favor.
Riddled t's pulling out a table from under the ring to a big pot,
but Solo cut him off easy heat a lot of booze for that.
Riddle recovered. He hit a broton off the ring steps that took us into
the final commercial break of the show. Coming out of the brakes to go
up Riddle in the corner with the chair over his face. He went for
the corner splash, but Riddle threw the chair back in his face instead.
Riddle followed with an exploder onto four chairs that were positioned upright in the ring.
Socoa rolled out to the floor and Riddle tried to go after him,
but Solo grabbed his leg and slammed him on the apron. Solo tossed Riddle
over the announced desk and he tried to flip it over on top of him
like he did last week at the end of the show. Instead, Riddle
he was he had his back up against the barricade, and he was using
his feet to push off against the table, stopping Solo from flipping the table
over onto him. Instead, it was Riddle. A moment later, it
was Riddle who ended up overturning the table on top of Solo Succo. He
buried him, literally buried him underneath this table, at which point the USOS
appeared. Of course, here come the USOS and they attack a Riddle And
I was thinking, you know, this match is notice qualification. There was
nothing stopping Jimmy and Jay from coming out and interfering it will, but they
decided to wait. When when things started to look bad for a baby brother,
that's when they decided to come out and interfere in this match. Riddle
fought them off. He wiped them both out on the floor with a floating
bro As that was happening on the opposite side of the ring, Solo Sakoa
emerged from underneath the announced desk like like a movie villain. He popped up
in the ring. Riddle ducta Samo and spike attempt hit the ropes, but
when he came off, Solo caught him with a spike to the throat,
which Michael Cole first said was a clothesline, then he wondered, well,
maybe it was the spike. Yes, it was the spike. Solo Sakoa
did not win this match with a clothesline. He won with the Samoa spike.
After the match was over, the USO's Riddle of One and done through
a table in the ring to close out the show, as the announcers wondered
if we were going to have new tag team champions next Friday night, they
were a little heavy handed with this to the point where now I'm thinking,
okay, they were. They were pushing it so hard and the bloodline was
standing tall at the end of the show to where now I'm thinking, Okay,
We're not going to get a title change next week. But honestly,
I still feel like their run is going to be cut short, shorter than
people like. And if it isn't next week, I still think it probably
will happen before the Saudi Show at the end of next month, but it
could very well happen next week. It's a draft show. Anything is possible.
And that was SmackDown right some good wrestling. The Walter match the main
event was pretty good, so there was there was some good wrestling on the
show, but there just wasn't enough meat on the bone. I mean compared
to a lot of the other SmackDown shows that we have been used to watching,
where we said Smackdowns the A show. Well, if SmackDown is the
A show, then we're in trouble right now because the A show the last
few weeks has not been all that interesting, and tonight it was just a
very overall it was a very dull show. But it was a lame duck
show because in a week they're going to shake up the rosters. We don't
know what that is going to me and we don't know what that is going
to look like. Triple H said, we are truly going to change the
game. We still have no indication what that means. If a couple of
big names go from Raw to SmackDown or SmackDown to raw. Who cares?
That happens in every draft. What is it about this draft that's going to
change the game. We haven't been told. We do know that NXT talent
will be eligible for the draft. We could have main roster talent that gets
drafted to NXT, right that would be a surprise. It wouldn't be the
first time we've had main roster talent go to NXT. Delve Ziggler's done it,
Bobby Rud's popped up in NXT. The New Day gotta run down there
as tag team champion. Apollo Cruises still down there in NXT. T Bar
went back to NXT. Is dy Jack even that? I mean, that
wouldn't be groundbreaking if that were to happen, but it's safe to say that
the reason they were we did not get any new NXT call ups coming out
of WrestleMania was because the draft was coming up and they wanted to save those
surprises for the draft. Somebody like Cameron Grimes, who's been stuck in purgatory
now for how many months? When was the last time we saw Cameron Grimes
on NXT television. It feels like it's been almost a year at this point.
There were rumors of him being revealed as Uncle Howdy. We don't even
know when, when or if Bray White'll ever be back. We have no
idea what's going on in that situation. When, when, and if that
ever does happen, it'll be bog Dallas as Uncle Howdy. Cameron Grimes could
do his own thing get him up there. You got some tag teams down
there, you got a pretty deadly You've got at least a couple of ladies
you could easily call up. You've got a great women's tag team in Caden
Carter and Katana Chance. You've got bron Breaker. I don't know if they're
gonna call him up in the draft or wait a little bit longer, but
he certainly he doesn't have a whole on going on himself. He literally said,
I don't want the NXT Championship again because that thing was a curse on
me, and he gave away a potential spot in an NXT Championship match.
So now he's got a match coming up. It's spring Breaking next week.
They're big spring Break episode. I guess Andre Chase, who has built up
a little bit of a fan following, but he is a mid carter at
best on that show. That's what they have bron Breaker doing. Bron Breakers
should get called up as well. Grayson Waller is another one. He's challenging
for the NXT Championship next week. He ain't gonna win. Get him on
up. Let's get some new faces on up. Really really freshen things up
on these rosters, but at the end of the day, it comes down
to the booking. You can call up everybody in the world. You can
call all up the entire NXT roster if you want to. It won't matter
if you don't have a plan for them. It won't matter if you don't
have something for them to do. And it reminds me of the Triple H
quote from a few years ago when he was talking about when he was still
actively running NXT and he said, we don't want to call people up unless
we have a six month plan for them. Six months. I agree with
that. By the way, if you're going to call somebody up, you
should have at least a six month plan for what you want to do with
them when they get called up to the main roster. Triple H said this
at a time when he wasn't running Creative. He said this at a time
when Vince McMahon was still officially the head of Creative. Well, this is
Triple H's first draft, and if he's going to call people up, I
certainly hope he sticks to his own words and he remembers what he said and
has a six month plan for the people that he calls them, because it's
usually around this time of year we get spring cleaning cuts. They haven't happened
yet. April fifteenth came and went. Nobody got cut. I hope nobody
gets cut. I don't want to see anybody lose their job, but it's
always possible it could still happen. Hopefully they have a plan for these people.
If not, people that are just kind of floating around aimlessly. Unless
you're a big star like Seth Rollins, they're not gonna let go of him.
Who was anybody else? I'd be worried. That's the SmackDown review for
tonight. Here's the poll thirties all across the board. Look at that thirty
percent thumbs up, thirty six percent thumbs in the middle, and thirty three
percent of you have given this show tonight eight thumbs down. So the thumbs
up votes are in the minority. Right now, there's more thumbs down and
thumbs in the middle than there are thumbs up with over seven hundred votes in
so far. So at solom Monster on Twitter, go ahead and vote in
the poll. Thirties across the board is never a good thing. So I
am clearly not alone in my thoughts about this. SmackDown show tonight. So
let's take a look at your super chats here. We're gonna we're gonna get
on through this easy. Man. I'm telling you, this show, this
show, this television show is fucking dead right now, even just like the
people who you know, the numbers, as far as the live streams and
stuff. Man, it's like WrestleMania happened and then Cody lost, and it's
like, fuck man, nobody nobody seems to give a shit. Hopefully the
draft will change that. Hopefully the draft will change We have talked about the
draft and what it means and what it doesn't mean. I certainly hope that
it means something to something because they gotta get something going. Let's start with
Jacquie. Jacquie Fowler is surprised The Dark Side of the Ring has not done
an episode on hawk Who yet, given some of the stories involving Dark Side
of the Ring, he focuses on people who fell on hard times, have
either dealt with tragedy caused tragedy in some way. There's nothing dark about hawk
Who's life. He's a very scary man. He still is, and there's
a lot of stories out there about him. But I don't think he's necessarily
a candidate for Dark Side of the Ring. It's not usually what these episodes
are focused. Jay Glow with the four ninety nine Solo Sukoa is boring and
saying he is a poor man's Umaga is being kind, Yet he gets the
massive push because of who he is related to. Well, he is getting
a push at this because he is a USO. That's true. There's no
live him. Being added to the bloodline put him in a very posh position
from the moment he debuted. He debuted in the main event of the Cardiff
Show in front of sixty seven one thousand people. All Right, there's nobody
else from NXT who's gotten that kind of call up. So yeah, I
mean you don't like Solo. I think Solo has done well, but has
he benefited from being part of that family. There isn't anybody in the world
that is going to tell you otherwise if they do their Lion Team. That's
why he's being pushed in main events every single week because he is part of
the bloodline. That's it's the only reason. If somebody asked if I'm going
to talk, if I'm going to review Rampage. No Rampage for those who
want to watch, it is airing tomorrow night. Rampage is not on tonight,
but no, I will not be reviewing the Fluff Salisbury Good Evening solo.
What is your favorite match from any pay per view that you attended?
For me, it is HBK. Flair at WrestleMania twenty four. I've had
the great fortune of seeing a lot of great matches. You know, Daniel
Bryan's both of his matches at WrestleMania thirty word Fantastic Undertaker and Cmpunk. You
know, WrestleMania twenty nine. Yeah, wrestle Media thirty one we had,
we had Brock and Roman and then the big Money in the Bank Cash And
I'm just thinking of the WrestleManias that I've been too. Kurt and Ronda against
Triple H and Stephanie was a lot of fun to be there live for Brian
and Kofi at Wrestlemdia thirty five. If we're talking just you know, in
terms of just best pure pro wrestling match, it probably was one of the
matches I saw on the Ring of Honor shows that I went to. It
was probably something from the I want to say it was Glory by Honor five
Night two, two thousand and seven. Maybe if I have the year,
brit, I want to say maybe two thousand and seven there was a match
between Kenta and Brian Daniels. If that isn't if that isn't the best,
it's certainly up there is one of the best matches I've ever seen. Love.
So I can't tell you right now exactly what the number one matches because
I've seen so many great ones. But if you've never seen that one,
try to track that down. They probably have it on Honor Club. I
imagine they have all those old Ring of Honor shows on Honor clubs. So
if you're an Honor Club member right now, you're paying for the service.
Look that show up. Glorie by Night five or Glory by Honor. I
think it was Part five, Night two, and there was a GHC title
match on that show at Nigel McGinnis. Oh gosh, I forgot who it
was against, but that was also a great match as well. Josiah,
thank you for the super chat. I appreciate it. Brandon McNeil with the
nine ninety nine sending tons of love to everybody watching this video in the present
and the future. Each of you were beautifully unique and each of you matter
in this world. Thanks for all that you do, solom Monster. That
was a very inspirational message. I appreciate that, and Brandon, I hope
you were having a wonderful night the champ with the nineteen ninety nine This kind
of this is kind of why I don't like the draft after WrestleMania, unless
they are going to pause everything for a few weeks, it is always slow
or doesn't make sense leading up to a draft. That's the problem that you
have with the draft, regardless, it doesn't matter whether it's after WrestleMania or
if it's the time they were doing it in the fall. There's always this
period beforehand, this lame duck, dull dead zell where they don't want to
make any big moves, they don't want to start any major angles if they're
just going to go and shake up the rostals. So the fact that they're
doing it a few weeks after WrestleMania or a month after wrestle Media, I
still think if you're going to do a draft, this is the right time
of year to be doing it. Although I would have done it a few
weeks ago. I wouldn't have even waited this long. Two weeks after wrestle
Madia. That's when I would do a draft. If I was doing it
would be two weeks after wrestling. They chose to do it a month later,
do it over the course of two nights, which is what they've been
doing in recent years. But it doesn't matter regardless of what time of year
it is, you're always going to have this dead period. Rob g was
the king mad At Jr. When he returned in November of two thousand and
one. Why would he be mad now? The reason for him to be
men? I think they were very happy to be working together again. Rodams
Prime Rollins against Omas at Backlash. WTF you and me both, James Cooper.
I know it's not an aw stream, but what do you see as
the ceiling for to Kesh's exciting has charisma, incredible in the ring, and
very over. I think the guy's the limit for him. I look at
him and I hate to even make this comparison because I feel like it's unfair,
but he could be He could eventually be still very young, but he
could eventually be what Okada turned me too. You know, he could be
that guy. I think as he gets to show off more of his personality,
just as far as, like you know, is a certain charisma about
him. I was saying, he's the rock. Everybody has their own unique
type of charisma. You can bring more of that out of him in the
ring. We already know what he can do. And think about this.
As great as he is now, he's still very young. I mean,
he's not super young. He's been doing this for a while, but he's
not you know, he's still a young guy. He could get even better.
And just think of all the names that he hasn't even worked with you
yet, that he can work with. He could be a major player.
So I think the sky's the limit for its attention Bobby's world with the twenty
dollars super chat we have as a fellow Mets fan, although I don't watch
because every time I do for a season, they lose. How do you
feel about the pitch clock? Personally? I don't think the game needs to
be sped up, as baseball is a game of anticipation. I don't mind
it. I think that there were a lot of games that you know,
went on for too long, and if it helps speed the game up a
little bit, then I think that's a positive thing. So I don't hate
it the way that I know some people don't. It doesn't really bother the
Mount Vernon kid Christopher Bennett. I find it fun Garry and Cross is taking
credit for Ray beating his son. I said, it's an interesting approach that
they're taking. We've got the Van Vernon kid again. Answer me this.
I can't be the only one that is getting tired of the constant losing with
Ray and the lwo which just makes them feel like losers. If it's leading
to Escobar turning heel on Ray and in the end it won't matter. If
the losing is leading to something and potentially leading to a feud between the two
of them, then I'm okay with that. But I agree with you.
If they're just going to continue to lose, Ray can lose because Raisin may
have gone right. He's a hall of famer. Escobar is not, and
you don't build a hall of fame resume by being a loser. People like
to think O wins and losses don't matter. I've heard I've heard people who
work in the company. I think rodug oh wins and losses don't matter,
and I just don't. I don't agree with that, and I think,
frankly, that's a lazy, fucking excuse for people who just think, well,
you know, this is the way that we book and this is the
way that we do things, and everything we do is right and we know
what we're doing and everybody else is wrong. Now, look, you can
book your product in a way to make wins and losses meaningful. I mean,
it's all a work. But you get a ring, you ring the
bell, you got a referee in there. One person wins, one person
loses. Yeah, I'd say wins and losses fucking matter. And if Escobar
just continues to lose with after being any sort of payoff to it or a
reason for it, then people are going to hear his music when he comes
out and they're going to say, oh, here comes Dob Zigler or here
comes you know, it inserts someone else who is typically used these days as
a punching bag. You know, you can fill in the blank, put
anybody in there you want to. That's not how Escobar should be used.
Escobar is very talented. Escobar, I think, deserves a chance to be
pushed. He's doing the eld u thing right now, he's being associated with
Ray that's a plus, get some television time. Losing all the time will
not do him any good unless there's some kind of payoff to it. A
few Dom Joseph, what was Pullie thinking putting mass Transit against new Jack?
It was a recipe or his ass. They were not thinking, I think
is the easy way of answering. They weren't thinking, They weren't using their
head. He Sean Johnson with a ninety nine. Would you be willing to
do something like tales from the Territories and which area to territories draw the most
money at which promoters other than Vince had a big impact on wrestling that we
see too? M No. I mean, look, I've talked about stuff
like that on the podcast that periodically. As far as doing a segment on
it, probably not, I don't think so. I don't. I don't.
I mean, that would be a lot of work for a segment that
I'm not really sure what the level of interest would be in just doing a
segment on that, But I, you know, talk about some of the
other territories and promoters, and I did a lot of that one I covered
tales in the territories. You know, I did reviews on every single one
of those episodes, and we have Dark Side of the Ring coming up,
and sometimes in those stories, you know, in those episodes we talk about
other territories. I've done this Week in History. We did that for a
year. We brought that back, so it's it's been covered before. Luther
Angel with the five dollars super chats. Hypothetically, speaking of WWE could sign
anybody at all, is there anyone you could think of who would beat Roman
instead of Cody? I say, John Musk. So you're saying, is
there anybody that if WWE could sign them to a contract, that they would
put them over Roman? No? I think, you know Cody. I
think Cody'll end up being the guy. And Cody did helped start AW and
all that, But he also came from WWE, so I think Vince McMahon
saw him as a WWE guy. That's why you know they gave him the
big push when he came in. If he was purely an AW guy,
I don't think his push would have been as strong as it was when he
first came back. But I think they looked at him as somebody who left
made himself a name and came right back Drew McIntire, same thing. They
fired him, he left, became a bigger star, and they brought him
back. If Kenny Omega suddenly became available and they signed him, They're not
gonna bring in Kenny Omega who's never worked on the w w E main roster
before. He's an AW guy, right, he was a new Japan guy.
He's an AW guy and put him over Roman reigns. I don't.
I don't see that happened. So I don't think realistically that they would bring
any anybody in and put them over Roman Rings. They would want it to
be a WWE guy. If they could get somebody like Jericho back or Moxley
who used to be in WWE, I still don't think that they would have
them beat Roman rings, nor should they. Moxley should not be beating Roman
rains PRIs, Jericho should not be beating Roman Rings. So no, I
guess to answer your question, the answer is now. Keyshawn says, how
different would WWE be if Jerry Jarrett took over? And do you think that
that would have played a role during the Monday Night Wars. Yeah, it
would have been different. How different is impossible to know. I don't know
what a Jerry Jarrett book WWE would have looked like, but his track record
of success as a promoter speaks for itself. I think he would have done
well. How it would have affected the Monday Night Wars against WCW, It's
impossible today. I have no idea how he would have utilized a w W
A roster. But if I were a betting person, do I think would
he have succeeded or would he have failed? I think he would have succeeded.
I think he would have done well because he had a track record of
doing well elsewhere and I think he could have done that in WWE. But
we'll never know. And Lakers pats Seth makes it rain with drift all him
the rain made. Seth's not making it rain doing anything these days, the
way that he's being booked. Now, he's got he's got to go in
there and be a miracle worker with Omas at back. Lad, I'm telling
you, I'm hoping that this is all just a draftswork. They just pulled
this out of their ass, out of nowhere, and then the draft is
going to happen and one or both of them. I could see Seth going
to smack them, but then Becky would have to go too. But somebody
moves and because of that, the match doesn't happen. I can't wait to
hear the explanation on Raw Monday night for how this match came about. I
cannot wait to find out what their explanation for this is going to be.
This is going to be very entertaining to see how they explained this one Falcon
arrow on Omas, says Brock Benningfield. Oh man, anyway, thank you
guys. Kind of a quick SmackDown Street toon again. Not much really on
this show to talk about, but you got over an hour of sound of
Game or episode number three. It went up for everybody earlier today. For
those of you enjoying the Gamer content, please leave a comment on that video
and give that video alike as well. Episode three is up right now.
Episode four is going to be going up next week. Channel members will get
it first, and we have over a dozen new members of our family.
Thank you to all of our new channel members and those who gifted memberships the
people. When the next episode goes up, you guys will get early access
first. As always, we did not hit our goal for be the Booker
tonight. Unfortunately, so there will be no Be the Booker. But hopefully
you guys will be able to hit the goal on Monday, because that's when
we'll be live again after Monday Night Raw, the final raw before the Draft,
which does not begin until next Friday. So get ready for another three
hour lame duck show on Monday night. I can't wait for this. Rallins
and Oma's explanation. Enjoy yourselves this weekend. Episode eight o five of the
podcast will drop on Sunday. Until then, be well, stay safe,
enjoy the weekend, guys. I'll see for eight o five on Sunday and
Raw live on Monday Night. Until then, take care,