Speaker 1: This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to
Speaker 1: the WWE.
Speaker 2: Podcast stop show, the one that everybody wants meet for sixteen.
Speaker 2: So God, just just g your ass. This my arm,
Speaker 2: you can acknowledge me.
Speaker 3: Hey guys, Ryan Spread here once again filling in for
Speaker 3: Amanda this week with your SmackDown review. SmackDown came to
Speaker 3: us April eighteenth from the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas,
Speaker 3: and this was the final stop before WrestleMania forty one, which,
Speaker 3: if you're listening to this on Saturday, is tonight. So
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna waste a lot of time. Let's get
Speaker 3: to the warm up for WrestleMania, which saw some final promos,
Speaker 3: some decent matches, and a really scary moment for Ray Mysterio.
Speaker 3: But we'll get to that. So first up, we saw
Speaker 3: Seth Rollins opening the show with a very passionate promo
Speaker 3: which sort of doubled as both a personal testimony and
Speaker 3: a verbal assault on his WrestleMania opponents, seem Punk in
Speaker 3: Roman Reigns. Rollins really stressed the difficult year that he's
Speaker 3: had and how he was performing while his stepfather was
Speaker 3: dying of cancer and how he pushed through a severe
Speaker 3: knee injury to remain the face of the company. He
Speaker 3: called out seam Punk for only returning to WWE for
Speaker 3: the money and questioned Punk's true love for the business.
Speaker 3: He also took aim at Roman Reigns, accusing him of
Speaker 3: manipulating people for his own benefit. So the way I
Speaker 3: see it, Rollins really is positioning himself as like the
Speaker 3: soul of the WWE, or course who never left unlike
Speaker 3: punkin rains, and the crowd was firmly behind him as
Speaker 3: he declared that he would walk out of this match
Speaker 3: as the winner in what he said wasn't a prediction
Speaker 3: but a spoiler.
Speaker 2: I love that this was.
Speaker 3: Seriously one of the best promos Rollins has ever given,
Speaker 3: and even he stated that he didn't tell a single
Speaker 3: lie in that promo, and the crowd knew it. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna be honest, I am firmly in Seth rollins corner
Speaker 3: for this triple threat match, and someone else might actually
Speaker 3: secretly be in his corner as well. I honestly think
Speaker 3: we're gonna see Paul Hayman end this by siding with
Speaker 3: Seth Rollins as the future of the WWE. He's the
Speaker 3: wise Man. He's always ten steps ahead. What do you
Speaker 3: guys think? How do you think this match is gonna end?
Speaker 3: Let us know. We then got the Andre the Giant
Speaker 3: Memorial Battle Royal, So who was in it? I'm gonna
Speaker 3: try to do this in one breath. Let's see if
Speaker 3: I could do it. Ray Phoenix, Shinsky, Nakamura, Chad Gable,
Speaker 3: Ludwig Kaiser, the Miz Andrade, Carmelo, Hayes, Carlito, pretty Deadly,
Speaker 3: Creed Brothers are Truth Low, Dragonlee Tyler, Bate, Pete Dunn,
Speaker 3: Austin Theory, Grayson Waller, Otis Akira to Zawa carrying cross,
Speaker 3: Berto angel In Santo's Escabar. Oh, we did it. Good
Speaker 3: job everybody. Ray Phoenix in particular really delivered standout moments
Speaker 3: in this Battle Royale, hitting all of his high flying
Speaker 3: offenses and quick eliminations, and he really did seem poised
Speaker 3: to win until a masked wrestler yep Al Grande Americano
Speaker 3: showed up and illuminated him from behind. The final stretch
Speaker 3: of the Battle Royale saw Carmelo outlast Andrade in a
Speaker 3: very fast paced athletic exchange. This Carmelo Hayes win was
Speaker 3: desperately needed. He's too good to be where he is
Speaker 3: on the roster in my opinion, and I'm really hoping
Speaker 3: this will give him a boost and a good program
Speaker 3: with someone moving forward after this. Okay, next up, we
Speaker 3: had the WWE Tag Team Championship and this pitted the
Speaker 3: Street Profits against the Motor City machine Guns. And this
Speaker 3: began as a just clean, solid competitive match. Machines were
Speaker 3: killing it with their technical precision, Profits were relying on
Speaker 3: their speed and charisma. This was a fantastic match and
Speaker 3: this should have been on Wresselmania. How was this not
Speaker 3: a WrestleMania match? I don't get it. Anyways, just as
Speaker 3: the match was reaching its peak, Gargano and Champa stormed
Speaker 3: the ra and attacked both teams, causing a no contest Q.
Speaker 3: This led to an all out brawl between all three teams,
Speaker 3: and a little bit later on the show, Nick Aldis
Speaker 3: announced that all three teams would compete in a triple
Speaker 3: thread TLC match for the titles a next week on SmackDown.
Speaker 3: I really thought he was gonna announce a surprise addition
Speaker 3: to WrestleMania, and you could hear the crowd massively booing
Speaker 3: from backstage when all this announced that this would be
Speaker 3: next week on SmackDown. Now, granted it's the SmackDown after WrestleMania,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be great. A lot of fallouts gonna happen.
Speaker 3: This would be a fantastic match, but we want it
Speaker 3: at WrestleMania. Don't get it, man, they're just burying these
Speaker 3: tag teams. Hate it. Anyways. We then saw our final
Speaker 3: segment with Eo Sky, Bianca Belair, and Rhea Ripley with
Speaker 3: a little bit of a twist, so Eo didn't get
Speaker 3: a single word in before Riha and Bianca did their
Speaker 3: you know, their back and forth for the millionth time,
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, Naomi comes out to
Speaker 3: give Bianca a piece of her mind. Jay Cargill hits
Speaker 3: the ring to give Naomi a final piece of her
Speaker 3: mind before the WrestleMania match, and it was an all
Speaker 3: out brawl with all five of them. Security comes out
Speaker 3: as they do, and they really struggled to keep these
Speaker 3: women apart. And the segment ended with Eo Sky climbing
Speaker 3: to the top rope and hitting a perfect moon salt
Speaker 3: onto everyone outside the ring, and this really served as
Speaker 3: a way to hype both matches for WrestleMania. It was
Speaker 3: sort of genius. I really liked it, and I really
Speaker 3: think the triple threat match between Bianca, Riea, and EO
Speaker 3: could steal the show. I do think Bianca will walk
Speaker 3: out victory, and it'll be interesting to see how the
Speaker 3: crowd reacts if that happens, and if WWE will make
Speaker 3: her a true heal or not. As for Naomi and Jade, HM,
Speaker 3: I'm obsessed with this proceed with caution persona. Naomi has
Speaker 3: going on probably her best work ever, and I can't
Speaker 3: wait to see her at WrestleMania. However, I'm really nervous
Speaker 3: about Jade. This will still be one of her first
Speaker 3: singles matches that isn't a squash, and she's really got
Speaker 3: to keep up with Naomi or the WrestleMania crowd honestly
Speaker 3: will probably eat her alive, especially if she's poised to win,
Speaker 3: which I think they're leaning towards. So this really is
Speaker 3: the one match at WrestleMania that I'm nervous about. I've
Speaker 3: got like a pit in my stomach, but we'll see,
Speaker 3: We'll see. We then got Randy or In coming out
Speaker 3: to find out who his mystery opponent is WrestleMania will
Speaker 3: be and it was an open challenge? Is it just me?
Speaker 3: I was under the assumption that we were gonna find
Speaker 3: out who it was gonna be, Like Randy literally was
Speaker 3: hyping that on social media, but instead he issues an
Speaker 3: open challenge and that sort of it as a good promo.
Speaker 3: He's always good on the mic. But it kind of
Speaker 3: left everyone like, oh, okay, I guess it's gonna be
Speaker 3: a surprise at WrestleMania. Cool. I mean, end of the day.
Speaker 3: Either as fine, Either they announce it and it gains
Speaker 3: anticipation for WrestleMania, or it's a complete surprise at WrestleMania.
Speaker 3: I'm fine either way. It's gonna be a good match.
Speaker 3: But who's it gonna be? Who is it gonna be? Guys,
Speaker 3: let us know, let us know your thoughts. Next up,
Speaker 3: we had the second week in a row where we
Speaker 3: had Chelsea Green taking on Zelina Vega in a rematch
Speaker 3: from that ten count debacle from last week. It was
Speaker 3: a quick match, didn't really do anything. Chelsea ended up winning,
Speaker 3: Selena rolled out of the ring, went back to like
Speaker 3: no fanfare whatsoever, and that was it. I feel so
Speaker 3: bad for Chelsea that she doesn't have a WrestleMania match, Like.
Speaker 2: What what is that?
Speaker 3: Anyways? We got another Alistair Black promo which specifically stated
Speaker 3: that he will debut on the SmackDown after WrestleMania, So
Speaker 3: this would I guess infer He's not Randy Orton's mystery opponent,
Speaker 3: which leaves other possibilities obviously, literally anyone else but Alistair Black?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 3: Russov? Is it gonna be Solo Socoa? Nick Aldis who
Speaker 3: you guys got? I want to know. Possibilities are endless.
Speaker 3: I know I keep harping on that, but the mystery continues.
Speaker 3: We also got sit down interviews with Tiffany Stratton and
Speaker 3: Charlotte Flair. The Flair one was so bad, like unbelievably bad.
Speaker 3: She was searching for words to say in an interview
Speaker 3: that was pre recorded. They easily could have edited this.
Speaker 3: They could have done something to make her look strong,
Speaker 3: and maybe they were going for a very raw, gritty
Speaker 3: feel no script. See what they come up with. This
Speaker 3: is their final final chance, and I will say Flair
Speaker 3: bombed epically, And to be honest, Tiffany's wasn't that much better,
Speaker 3: but she did acknowledge her weaknesses and her inexperience on
Speaker 3: the mic, which I actually really appreciated. She said that
Speaker 3: she would take care of what she had to in
Speaker 3: the ring, which is most important end of the day. Obviously. However,
Speaker 3: if Tiffany loses at WrestleMania, which I think she might,
Speaker 3: the heat on Flair is gonna literally like it. It's
Speaker 3: gonna create like its own sun. Right, It's gonna destroy
Speaker 3: the whole world because she does not deserve this championship run.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I'm not even saying Tiffany should keep it going,
Speaker 3: but Charlotte hasn't earned it, and I know that might
Speaker 3: piss a lot of people off, but you know what,
Speaker 3: I don't care about her past accomplishments. You can only
Speaker 3: use that card for so long. So yeah, I'm sorry
Speaker 3: to any Charlotte Flair fans out there, I'm just not
Speaker 3: one of them. Our next match was pretty fun. We
Speaker 3: saw La Knight taking on Solo Socoa in a US
Speaker 3: Championship title match, where Jacob Fatu interfered and attacked Night,
Speaker 3: causing a DQ and as Night is getting beat up,
Speaker 3: Bronze Stroman made the save and Eldis on the spot
Speaker 3: booked a tag team match immediately This was a very
Speaker 3: high energy tag team match, which ended with Knights sending
Speaker 3: Fatu into the commentary team and pinning Sokoa for the win,
Speaker 3: and just further heating up this match with Fatu at WrestleMania,
Speaker 3: Man Solo has really becoming afterthought, that's just an observation.
Speaker 3: Kind of feel bad for him at this point, but
Speaker 3: he had his time, He had his time. Anything can
Speaker 3: happen in the WWE. Next up, we had a six
Speaker 3: man tag team match with American Made versus l WO
Speaker 3: sort of I guess it was Ray Mysterio, Dragon Lee,
Speaker 3: and Ray Phoenix squaring off against American Maid, Chad Gable
Speaker 3: and the Creed Brothers. This was a fantastic match, with
Speaker 3: Ray Phoenix coming out on top with all of his
Speaker 3: aerial work, but Dragon Lee really deserves the props for
Speaker 3: this one. He carried this match. Creed Brothers were great.
Speaker 3: They slowed things down a bit, got us on a
Speaker 3: good even pace with everything, but eventually Ray Phoenix hit
Speaker 3: a meteora on Julius for the win. But all the
Speaker 3: attention was unfortunately outside the ring, where Raymistereo was shown
Speaker 3: holding his knee and needing help from medical staff. There
Speaker 3: were fan videos posted in the arena showing Ray literally
Speaker 3: not being able to walk and he had to be
Speaker 3: carried out on the ramp to backstage. So this could
Speaker 3: be a serious injury which would cause him to probably
Speaker 3: miss his WrestleMania match against Grande Americano. And all joking aside,
Speaker 3: like I was really looking forward to that match, but honestly,
Speaker 3: like the way Dragon and Ray Phoenix performed in this
Speaker 3: match tonight, either one of them could easily be inserted
Speaker 3: into that match, and it'd probably be better. No shade
Speaker 3: to Ray Mysterio at all, but I think it could
Speaker 3: actually be a more fast paced match. Ray gets injured
Speaker 3: pretty easily nowadays. He botches every now and again. He
Speaker 3: is incredible to this day, but age catches up to
Speaker 3: all of us. Yeah, does it ever? Anyways, I'm hoping
Speaker 3: Ray Mysterio is okay. Hopefully we'll get words sometime today
Speaker 3: before WrestleMania matches commence and the final segment of SmackDown
Speaker 3: tonight saw John Cena and Cody Rhodes have their final
Speaker 3: confrontation before Night two with their main event at WrestleMania
Speaker 3: for the Undisputed Championship. Sina was accusing Rhodes of being
Speaker 3: in decisive, suggesting that he listens too much to fan
Speaker 3: reactions and lacks the killer instinct to truly finish his story.
Speaker 3: Sina also said that Cody Roots is playing the hero
Speaker 3: role too well but lacks the grit needed for the
Speaker 3: top spot. Cody fired back, mocking Sina's sporadic appearances and
Speaker 3: his part time Hollywood status, and he reminded Sina that
Speaker 3: he's there every single week fighting for that top spot,
Speaker 3: and I cannot argue that whatsoever. Some lines that really
Speaker 3: stood out during this verbal spar. Let's go through these.
Speaker 3: Sina said, quote, you will lose because you care about them.
Speaker 3: Losers don't write history, Winners do. Sina also said, quote,
Speaker 3: these people will always make up a version of the
Speaker 3: truth they want to believe. Last line for Sina here
Speaker 3: quote you didn't need the tattoo or the suit because Sunday,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna make you somebody, somebody who has to severtise
Speaker 3: with the losers in your life. It would have been
Speaker 3: good if he ended it, I'm gonna make you somebody.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that added line is fine. Is fine? Cino
Speaker 3: wants to call us losers, I'm all for it. Here's
Speaker 3: some lines from Cody. Cody said, quote you called me underwhelming,
Speaker 3: Well you're overrated. And perhaps the line of the night
Speaker 3: when it came to this spar Cody said, quote your
Speaker 3: palor then sting at Stark nineteen ninety seven. What universe
Speaker 3: are we living in? Guys, I'm loving it. Last line
Speaker 3: that I'm gonna point out from Cody, he said, quote
Speaker 3: the whole world saw you saunter round bud Ass naked
Speaker 3: at the Oscars for the people, you run errands for now,
Speaker 3: and you still can't wrestle. That one really really got
Speaker 3: to Sena as it should, and he ended up trying
Speaker 3: to hit Cody with an attitude adjustment, but Cody ended
Speaker 3: up reversing it and nailed Sena with the Crossroads standing
Speaker 3: tall to end the show, which to me, guys, Cody
Speaker 3: standing tall on the go home SmackDown. This is definitely
Speaker 3: going to see a Sena victory at WrestleMania. I hate
Speaker 3: to say it, or I love to say it. I
Speaker 3: don't know what do you guys think? Is Sena gonna
Speaker 3: break that record? I think he is. I think he is.
Speaker 3: So yeah. This SmackDown was much better in build for
Speaker 3: WrestleMania than I think Raw was the week, but it
Speaker 3: was a lot of filler, again to be expected, but
Speaker 3: I would have hated to have been in attendance for
Speaker 3: this SmackDown and not also have tickets to WrestleMania, but
Speaker 3: what can you do. Somebody has to go to these
Speaker 3: go home shows before big events, and I hope most
Speaker 3: of those somebodies are also going to WrestleMania if they've
Speaker 3: taken out like ten loans and sold their firstborn. But yeah,
Speaker 3: that's besides the point. One note here, I cannot wait
Speaker 3: for SmackDown to go back to two hours. That's it. Overall,
Speaker 3: decent show, Happy for Carmelo Hayes, A little scared for Raymistereo,
Speaker 3: but excited nonetheless for Night one of WrestleMania tonight. Who
Speaker 3: do you have coming out on top? What debuts or
Speaker 3: surprises are in store? Let me know. You can find
Speaker 3: me on Twitter, Blue Sky, and Instagram. Just search for
Speaker 3: Ryan Sprague. Yes, I'm the Ryan Spread with all the
Speaker 3: UFO stuff connected to his name, and I hope you'll
Speaker 3: consider checking out my wrestling podcast somewhere in the ring.
Speaker 3: We'll actually be going live on YouTube immediately after the
Speaker 3: main events both nights of WrestleMania just to give our
Speaker 3: instant reactions, so hope you'll check us out and subscribe.
Speaker 3: Just search social media, YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts.
Speaker 3: Once again for somewhere in the Ring. Thank you again
Speaker 3: to Matt, Amanda in all of you forgiving me your
Speaker 3: time today. I have one more week of the SmackDown
Speaker 3: review before Amanda returns, which should be a good fallout
Speaker 3: from WrestleMania, so be sure you subscribe to the WWE
Speaker 3: podcast for that and so much more than Matt has
Speaker 3: going on. The WWE podcast is literally the one stop
Speaker 3: shop for everything WWE, and if you want even more,
Speaker 3: be sure to check out the WWE podcast Patreon for
Speaker 3: bonus content. That's gonna do it. Guys, here we go.
Speaker 3: It is Saturday. Enjoy tonight for Night one of WrestleMania.
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Speaker 1: next time.