Smackdown Review – 03.27.26

By Niz on 27 March 2026

We are 22 days from Wrestlemania and tonight’s Smackdown comes to the USA/Netflix airwaves LIVE and in living color from the PPG Paints Arena in Bret Hart’s favorite city, Pittsburgh, PA. The announcing team for tonight’s show is Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett on match calls and analysis, Mark Nash on ring introductions, and Cathy Kelley on backstage interviews and breaking news segments. Let’s watch some wrestling!

Then, Now, Forever…TOGETHER

Some folks decided to show up for work: The Bellas, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, WWE Women’s US Champion Giulia with Kiana James, Tiffany Stratton, Kit Wilson, and Jelly Roll with his son. We go to a highlights package from last week‘s show centered on Randy Orton‘s rampage throughout the three hours culminating in his attempt to break Matt Cardona‘s arm.

Here’s Randy Orton out to a rousing Pittsburgh chorus of “Voices”. Orton doesn’t slap any hands, but he gets a pop when Mark Nash announces him and an even bigger one when he hits his pose. Orton gets a mic and talks about the build-up to the re-emergence of The Viper and how Cody Rhodes basically goaded him into his current state. Orton says he wasn’t listening to the voices, but he has been thinking about winning his 15th world championship and then Cody, out of nowhere, gives Orton his blessing. Orton says that now that he’s listening to the voices again, he can’t be held responsible for what happens next. Orton says there is one person outside of the ones in his head that he’s listening to, and here’s Matt Cardona out to smash Orton in the head with his microphone. Orton goes to the floor as Cardona tells him to come back in the ring for some more.

Here’s Smackdown GM Nick Aldis backstage with Trick Williams. Aldis says that Trick has become a major player on Smackdown, and Aldis is rewarding Trick with a match at Wrestlemania. Trick is excited and runs down a list of folks he has to call with the news including Lil Yachty, because that’s Trick’s boy. Sami Zayn wanders into the scene as Trick brags about his match, and Aldis tells Zayn that things haven’t been going his way lately and unless something changes, he doesn’t have a spot for Zayn at Wrestlemania. Zayn wanders away despondently as Trick continues to celebrate with Aldis. Zayn turns back after considering his options and pops Trick in the mouth. Zayn gets in Aldis’s face and tells him point-blank that he’s having a match at Wrestlemania before leaving again.

The Bellas make their entrance as we go to commercials.

Here’s Randy Orton bellowing at Nick Aldis about the attack from Matt Cardona. Orton wants a match tonight and he says that if Aldis doesn’t make it, the voices might cause something bad to happen. Aldis makes the match and tells Orton to go cool off.

The Bellas vs Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss

The lights go out prior to the bell and here are the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions The Irresistible Forces (Nia Jax and Lash Legend) out in the aisle, and they both have mics. Jax tells the crowd that there’s still time to get tickets to Raw where the crowd can see the champs battle Lyra Valkyria and Bayley for the titles. Jax says that sadly, Pittsburgh has to watch these “wanna-be contenders” try their best. Legend says that the Bellas think they’re hot, but they don’t compare to the Forces, and Flair and Bliss have a “fake, phony-ass friendship”. Legend and Jax take seats at ringside to watch the proceedings.

Flair starts with Nikki and Flair trucks Nikki to start before hitting Nikki’s signature dance. Flair goes to the apron and pops a charging Brie to the floor before Nikki hits her with a facebreaker. Brie tags in and ascends for a smash to Flair’s elbow. Brie gets rammed into a corner and Flair chops away before tagging in Bliss. Bliss gets a Flair-assisted kick that smashes Brie to the canvas, but Brie springs up and hits a side Russian leg sweep on Bliss that gets two. Nikki gets a blind tag and Bliss doesn’t see it. Bliss charges Brie who catches her between the ring apron and the ring. Nikki wallops Bliss with a forearm and everyone argues as Flair comes around to make sure no further shenanigans happen. We go to commercials.

Bliss was in during the entire break and is desperate to make a tag. Brie cuts her off and tags in Nikki. Bliss fights her way out of the Bella corner but Nikki cuts her off with a spinebuster. Nikki smashes Flair off the apron to the floor, and Flair doesn’t like that so she charges back in only to get cut off by the ref. Meanwhile, the Bellas are smashing Bliss around in their corner and Brie tags in. Brie drives a knee into Bliss’s arm and tags in Nikki. The Bellas get yanked into a double DDT and Bliss flies up to tag in Flair. Flair ascends for a double cross-body and then starts chopping away at both Bellas. Flair hits her walkover clothesline on Nikki and then yanks Brie into an overhead suplex. Flair hits the same move on Nikki before nipping up. Flair barks at Jax before tagging Bliss back in. Bliss hits a blockbuster on Nikki and her cover is broken up at two by Brie. Nikki tags in Brie and they hit a Hart Attack on Bliss. Flair breaks up Brie’s cover at two. Nikki and Flair go to the floor as Brie gets waffled by a Bliss right. Bliss and Brie trade O’Connor rolls, but when Brie kicks Bliss off she goes to the ropes where she gets hammered by a Legend right hand. Brie rolls up Bliss and gets three.

This match was not good, and once again, I’m blaming the Bellas. They do not belong in this scene in 2026 but here we are. Tessitore and Barrett tried ceaselessly to praise them during the match but this was bowling-shoe ugly and it was not Bliss and Flair as the culprits. I don’t think they’d have the temerity to put the titles on them at Wrestlemania. I have no idea why Legend targeted Bliss specifically, but I guess the Bellas are heels despite doing their same tired babyface entrance. No need to seek this one out, the highlights on youtube should be sufficient. 2*

Winners – The Bellas (Brie rolls up Bliss after Legend interference)

Post-match sees the tag champs come in the ring as Flair is griping at Nikki and Brie. Jax and Legend smash everyone around but here’s Lyra Valkyria and Bayley sprinting out to start battling with Jax and Legend. Bayley and Valkyria dispose of the champs with help from Flair and Bliss, but it’s the Bellas music who plays at the end. Flair pushes Brie down and puts the stink-mouth on her before her and Bliss leave.

TWISTED TEA presents a look back at Damian Priest and R-Truth winning the WWE Men’s Tag Team Championship from the MFT‘s last week. Here’s Damian Priest running into Truth backstage who proclaims that Judgement Day is back. Priest: “No, we’re not!” Truth: “Is that because we kicked you out?” Here’s Jelly Roll and Truth seems to think he’s Dominik Mysterio. Here’s Rhea Ripley joining in to a HUGE pop and Truth once again says that Judgement Day is back and wants a hot tub in the clubhouse. JR addresses Ripley and tells her that everyone believes in her and she’s going to beat Jade Cargill at Wrestlemania. JR leaves to go get ready for his match with Truth chasing after him calling him “Dom”. Ripley congratulates Priest on winning the tag titles and Priest says Ripley will have gold after Wrestlemania. Ripley says she’s going to handle some Cargill business right now and leaves the scene as we go to commercials.

NXT ORIGINS is the same Tiffany Stratton piece that ran on Raw and NXT this week and it airs when the show returns. NXT’s Stand & Deliver will be on April 4th.

Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair are confronted by the Bellas backstage. Flair says that they didn’t stand a chance if Legend hadn’t smashed Bliss with that right and the Bellas should get to the back of the line. Brie says Flair can’t blame them for what Legend did and they’ll do whatever it takes to win the titles. Bliss says it’s not over between them and whips Brie’s flannel at her before leaving with Flair.

“Demon In Your Dreams” hits and here’s Rhea Ripley out to a gigantic pop from the crowd. Ripley tells the crowd that she expects integrity from Jade Cargill, but the one thing she didn’t expect was B-Fab and Michin to be so desperate that they stooped to Cargill’s level. Ripley says it doesn’t matter what she has to do or who she has to go through, she’s dressed for any kind of occasion, and invites everyone out for a fight. “A Storm Is Coming” hits and here’s WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill out with B-Fab and Michin at her side. Cargill says Ripley sounds real slick for someone who got dropped last week. B-Fab tries to make a point and the crowd is screaming over her, and Michin tries to chime in to even more boos. Cargill says if Ripley wants to get her ass beat tonight, so be it, and Ripley is just a guest here on Smackdown. Cargill says that B-Fab wants to step up tonight, and Ripley says that she’s going to teach B-Fab that actions have consequences. Ripley wants a referee and it looks to be on after we have a commercial break.

Rhea Ripley vs B-Fab

We’re joined in progress with Ripley hitting a reverse thrust kick on B-Fab. Ripley smashes B-Fab down and then hits a running dropkick. Cargill jumps up on the apron to bark at Ripley, and here’s Michin grabbing Ripley’s leg. Ripley goes to the floor and drops Michin with a kick and then Cargill and B-Fab team up on Ripley to cause a DQ.

Yeah, I’m not rating this. The build for this match continues to underwhelm.

Winner – Rhea Ripley (Cargill/Michin interference causes a DQ)

Post-match sees Cargill eat a roundhouse kick and a headbutt from Ripley. Ripley wants Riptide but Michin and B-Fab charge in to start beating on Ripley. Cargill yanks Ripley up and hits Jaded, and then everyone barks at a fallen Ripley.

Here’s Kit Wilson and The Miz backstage talking things over, and apparently the Miz stepped in gum. Miz says Wilson can do things on his own and Miz is going into a room with no sharp objects and will take notes from there. Here’s Danhausen entering as the Miz leaves. Danhausen is still baffled by Miz not wanting to mentor him due to his “machismo”, great looks and great clothes. Wilson tells Danhausen to wake up because Wilson looks the part. Danhausen tells Wilson YOU ARE CURSED and disappears. Wilson battles Jelly Roll after commercials.

When the show returns we take a look back at the show-long war between Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu that happened last week. Here’s a limping Drew McIntyre being confronted by Cathy Kelley who asks him if it’s smart to be at the show right now. McIntyre says that he’s still suffering a lot from last week and is in no condition to fight, but if Fatu wants to start something he’ll be ready to go. McIntyre says when a man has nothing to lose, that’s when he’s most dangerous.

Jelly Roll vs Kit Wilson

A main event in any arena in the country, Brain. We take a quick look back at last week’s Slam Poetry segment that caused Wilson to attack JR after some “your mom” verbals. Wilson grabs a mic to say that before they fight, he has to defend the honor of his mother. Wilson opens his book and goes into some poetry. Wilson then attacks JR prior to the bell and then smashes him with an uppercut just after the bell rings. JR grabs Wilson and drops a leg in between Wilson’s legs. JR yanks up Wilson for a front atomic drop, and then hits a normal one. JR sends Wilson over the top rope, but he skins the cat. JR smashes Wilson with a clothesline and sends him to the floor. A pissed Wilson strips off his t-shirt and whips it at the announce desk before retrieving his poetry book. JR takes the book and the ref then retrieves it. Wilson uses that distraction to hit JR from behind and then put the boots to him in a corner. Wilson hits a running uppercut that drops JR mid-ring, and Wilson takes a bow. Wilson punches JR in the head a few times and then gyrates. Wilson boots JR down and then rams him into a turnbuckle. Wilson misses a charge and runs into a belly-to-belly that Barrett calls a “Jelly-to-Belly”. Sure. They both rise and start slugging it out before JR goes into the flip-flop-and-fly. JR wants a chokeslam but Wilson slips out of it. Wilson ascends and JR pulls him into a powerslam that gets two. JR eats a Wilson double-thrust but he finds Wilson’s poetry book in the corner. Wilson hits the Tourn-E-Kit after JR misses a swing with the poetry book. Wilson’s cover only gets two. JR fires up and rams Wilson into a corner before slapping on the goozle and hitting the chokeslam. JR covers and gets three.

Hey, guess what. This right here is your match of the night thus far. I give Jelly Roll a lot of credit because A. he clearly loves wrestling and treats it with respect and B. he’s worked hard enough to be as credible as an extremely part-time performer can be. Now, full credit to Kit Wilson for being a consummate professional and bumping around for this AND making JR look as decent as he did. I don’t want to see Jelly Roll wrestle often, but if he’s going to put in this kind of effort, I’m okay with all of it. 2.25*

Post-match sees Jelly Roll get a huge pop from the Pittsburgh crowd before he goes to ringside to grab his son and head up the aisle.

Matt Cardona is warming up backstage. We’re going to take a look back at the confrontation between Roman Reigns and CM Punk that happened on Raw after commercials.

When the show returns, a highlights package shows the entire Reigns-Punk saga thus far including the Usos involvement that happened Monday night. Jim Uso as the voice of reason wasn’t on my bingo card, but here we are. See Kat’s excellent Raw recap for a full rundown of what happened.

The MFT’s are backstage and Solo Sikoa has THE LANTERN. Sikoa says his job is to lead this family but he can’t do it if everyone isn’t on the same page. Sikoa apologizes for what happened last week, but he tells Tama Tonga very specifically that Roman Reigns wouldn’t have apologized. WWE Men’s US Champion Carmelo Hayes approaches a pensive Tonga and asks him if he’s ever going to take a shot at the US title or wait until he’s given permission by Sikoa. Hayes says he’ll be out there waiting as Tonga looks on. Shinuske Nakamura sidles up for some words and Talla Tonga re-enters to make sure everything is good.

Carmelo Hayes makes his entrance for this week’s Open Challenge as we go to commercials.

WWE Men’s US Championship Open Challenge: Carmelo Hayes vs Sami Zayn

Trick Williams now has added a spinning platform to his already excellent entrance, and he makes his way to ringside to keep an eye on the proceedings. Trick and Hayes have a few words to acknowledge their long-time stuff before Trick seats himself.

Hayes grabs a headlock and Zayn hits an armdrag after some rope-running. Zayn yanks Hayes into a crucifix that gets two. Zayn starts chopping away at Hayes before starting to pound on him with rights. Zayn waffles Hayes with a lariat and covers for two. Zayn continues clubbering away before Hayes fires up with some chops. Zayn gets hit with a springboard lariat and a running forearm. Hayes kicks Zayn in the head and then hits a springboard legdrop. We go to commercials.

Hayes smashes a prone Zayn with a clothesline to the back of the head as the show returns. Zayn fires up and they slug it out before Zayn clotheslines Hayes to the floor. Zayn hits a big tope con hilo that flattens Hayes. Zayn gives Trick the stink-eye before tossing Hayes back in. Zayn ascends and gets hit with a Hayes dropkick when he leaves the top turnbuckle. Hayes covers and gets two. Hayes hits his Dirty Diana facebuster and covers for two. Hayes lines up Zayn but Zayn catches the First 48 attempt and drops Hayes with a powerbomb that gets two. Zayn misses a Helluva Kick and Hayes ascends. Zayn and Hayes slug it out before Zayn ascends as well. Zayn hits a superplex and both guys are down as we go to commercials.

Hayes and Zayn are slugging it out on a top turnbuckle and Zayn hits a sunset flip powerbomb that gets two. Zayn and Hayes slug it out some more and Zayn yanks Hayes into an Exploder. Zayn wants a Helluva Kick but runs into a First 48. Hayes cover only gets two and we get SHOCKED KICKOUT FACE. Hayes ascends and Zayn springs up to smash him with a right. Hayes hits a headbutt and drops Zayn, but when he tries Nothing But Net Zayn catches him and sends Hayes into the Blue Thunder Bomb. Zayn’s cover only gets two. Trick springs up and grabs the US title belt before wandering around to the side of the ring and tossing the belt into the ring near Zayn. Zayn hands the belt to the ref and as the ref takes the belt back to the ringside personnel, Hayes pushes Zayn towards Trick. Zayn ducks and Trick pops Hayes in the face with a right hand before Zayn kicks Trick away. Zayn lines up Hayes for the Helluva Kick and hits it. Zayn stack covers Hayes and gets three.

The Smackdown mid-card has been a jumbled mess for awhile now with Black, Priest, Zayn, Hayes, Dragunov and Trick kind of jockeying for slots and status. Everyone has had some stories with each other and the obvious Open Challenge matches that let them all get some shine during this endless content era. Zayn winning this belt out of the blue speaks to the chaotic nature of the booking that can just turn on someone on a dime, as now it would appear that Hayes has no shot at Wrestlemania UNLESS they’re planning a multi-man for the US title with Trick, Zayn, Hayes, maybe Dragunov and who knows who else (I’d jam Solo Sikoa in there but we’ll see how all this goes). Anyway, yeah, new US champion and I guess we’ll see where this leads. 3.25*

Winner and NEW WWE Men’s US Champion – Sami Zayn (Helluva Kick)

Post-match sees a grumpy Trick head back up the aisle as Zayn celebrates.

Here’s Jacob Fatu limping in to chat with Cathy Kelley. Fatu tells Kelley that he didn’t come all the way to Pittsburgh to stay backstage. Fatu says he’d rather speak with the people than Kelley, and he heads out to do just that as we go to commercials.

There are some Pittsburgh Steelers in attendance, and they appear to be enjoying some adult beverages. Here’s a jubilant Sami Zayn backstage running into Nick Aldis backstage, and Zayn wants to know if he’s got a match at Wrestlemania. Aldis confirms he has earned the match, and he’ll be defending against Trick Williams.

That kind of sucks out loud for Carmelo Hayes to be three weeks away from WM and lose whatever shot he had at being on the card. Enjoy the ARMBAR, I guess, Melo.

Here’s Jacob Fatu out to “Samoan Destroyer”. Fatu gets a chant and tells the crowd he’s limping, busted open, has cracked ribs and it’s all got to do with one person. Fatu asks what’s wrong with McIntyre trying to take him out and end his career while trying to take food off his kids table. Fatu asks what McIntyre thought he was doing trying to keep him down. Fatu says McIntyre did all that damage last week but Fatu is still standing and still here, and every week he’ll be here to dogwalk McIntyre’s punk ass. “Gallantry” hits and here’s Drew McIntyre in the aisle with a microphone to a cacophony of boos. McIntyre says Fatu is playing the victim but it’s actually McIntyre because Fatu accused him of a crime he didn’t commit. McIntyre calls Fatu a criminal who committed the crime and did the time, and then stole everything from McIntyre. McIntyre tells Fatu to look him in the eyes and says “Screw your damn kids.” Here’s Nick Aldis out to tell Fatu to stay where he is because neither one of them is in condition to battle again tonight. Aldis makes a match between the two of them for Wrestlemania but it’s going to be an Unsanctioned match with No DQ, No Countout stipulations.

Here’s Matt Cardona chatting with Jelly Roll backstage. JR tells Cardona that he’s sorry for sending Orton out there last week to apologize and tell Cardona that Cody Rhodes is on the way. Cardona doesn’t care about JR’s thing with Rhodes and Orton, he just wants to kick Orton’s ass tonight. JR leaves and here’s Aleister Black and Zelina sneaking in to summarize Orton calling Cardona a “mark-ass stooge” last week. Black wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t prodded Orton towards the voices. They leave, and Cardona wonders out loud what that was.

Here’s Tiffany Stratton running into a wheelchair-bound Chelsea Green backstage. Green tells Stratton that she feels like they got off on the wrong foot, and Stratton wants to kick her away but Alba Fyre prevents it. Green offers her services to Stratton tonight to be in her corner, and Stratton points out that Green might have been a two-time US champ but that just means she’s lost it twice. Stratton declines the help and leaves.

Giulia and Kiana James make their entrance as we go to commercials.

Raw will be at Madison Square Garden this Monday. I’m guessing that show will be relatively massive. Kat will have you covered shortly after it ends with all the details.

WWE Women’s US Championship: Giulia (C) vs Tiffany Stratton

Kiana James is out with Giulia as usual. Giulia and Stratton exchange elbow locks and then reset. Giulia lifts a knee and then rams Stratton into a couple of turnbuckles. Giulia beals Stratton over by her hair and then Stratton sort of hits a dropkick. Stratton rams Giulia into each of the top turnbuckles and then hits an awkward looking springboard facebreaker on Giulia who slides out to the floor. We go to commercials.

Stratton trucks Giulia when the show returns, and then wallops her with a spinebuster. Stratton hits a couple of clotheslines and then hits her back handspring elbow. Stratton hits a cartwheel Alabama slam that gets two. Stratton gets popped by a Giulia forearm but Stratton shakes it off and hits a bronco buster along the ropes. Giulia slips another charge and rolls Stratton up for two. Giulia yanks Stratton into a Saito suplex and then hits the Arrivederci knee for two. Giulia kicks away at Stratton and then mounts her in a corner. Giulia gets yanked into a facebuster and then Stratton botches a swanton landing full force on Giulia’s mid-section (She clearly went for height over distance and wow she could have really hurt Giulia there, my GOD.) before covering and getting two. Giulia kicks Stratton in the gut but Stratton yanks her into her rolling senton. James disrupts the Prettiest Moonsault Ever and when Stratton tries it she meets Giulia’s knees. Giulia yanks her over in a roll up and gets three.

Phew, this was ROUGH. Stratton had a very bad night out there and I think Giulia just tried to hang on and keep the whole thing together. If this was a styles clash, maybe they needed to rehearse a bit more? I don’t know but man oh man, Stratton needs to be better than this if she wants to keep her spot in the upper mid-card. 2*

Winner AND STILL WWE Women’s US Champion – Giulia (roll up)

Lyra Valkyria and Bayley are exiting the building and Cathy Kelley catches up with them. Bayley says that Jax and Legend think they run things and they’re very wrong. Bayley says they’ll find out the hard way at MSG and her and Valkyria exit.

Randy Orton is once again chatting with someone on his phone and tells this person that he’ll see them soon. We’ll have a look at Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar’s confrontation from Raw after commercials.

After the Lesnar-Femi package, Tessitore and Barrett run down the current Wrestlemania card.

Randy Orton makes another entrance, we go to commercials.

Matt Cardona vs Randy Orton

Cardona charges and gets immediately booted in the back several times when the bell rings. Cardona is wearing a cast on his wrist and he fires up by smashing Orton repeatedly with it. Orton bails to the floor and Cardona chases him out there, so Orton takes the damaged wrist and fires it off the announce table a couple of times before yanking Cardona up and dropping him back-first on the table. Orton rolls in to break the count and then goes right back out to stalk Cardona. Orton backdrops Cardona on the barricade and then smashes his wrist on the table again. Orton plants Cardona’s wrist under the table apron, springs back in to break the count again, then fires back out to stomp on the apron and Cardona’s wrist. Cardona slides in and Orton goes back in as well. Orton eats a boot when he charges, and then Cardona springs into a Ruff Ryder that gets two. Orton bails to the floor and appears to want to leave so Cardona charges after him and Orton pokes him in the eye. Orton jams Cardona arm-first into a ring post and then slams the wrist on the ring steps. They go back in and Orton rams Cardona shoulder-first into a ring post. Orton yanks up Cardona’s arm and pulls off the temp cast before bending Cardona’s arm all the way back. Orton smashes the hand into the ring post a few times and then pulls Cardona into a rear suplex. Orton stomps on Cardona’s wrist a few times and then puts the stink-mouth on a gasping Cardona. Orton runs Cardona into the ring post again and then torques on the wrist. Orton hits the RKO and takes a beat before covering and getting three.

Orton squashing Cardona and torturing him along the way is pretty solid storytelling but this crowd has been burnt since the Zayn title change and didn’t do much reacting at all during the match. Orton looked sharper here, more sadistic, and worked with an edge, so I’m inclined to be kinder to a squash of this nature. Cardona is always solid as an “opponent who’s going to lose” and he got in a Ruff Ryder for the hope spot. 2.75*

Winner – Randy Orton (RKO)

Post-match sees Cody Rhodes emerge from the Nightmare Bus Sponsored By Wheatley Vodka as we go to commercials.

Rhodes had a word with Jelly Roll along the way into the arena, and “Kingdom” then hits to a huge pop from the crowd. Here’s Nick Aldis out pre-emptively with Security to try to prevent a confrontation, and he and Rhodes go nose-to-nose before Rhodes walks away and jumps onto the apron. Rhodes and Orton stare each other down and then the fisticuffs start in earnest. They go to the floor and Security tries to break it up to no avail. Rhodes sends Orton into the timekeeper’s area. Orton rises up with chair and Rhodes blocks it and smashes Orton with a right. They fight around ringside and Rhodes goes to Orton’s eyes before walloping him with rights as Orton collapses onto the announce table. Orton tries to escape and Rhodes stalks him, and it all starts again. They go into the ring and Rhodes fires off a bunch of rights before Security appears to finally stop things. Rhodes of course breaks away and goes back to smashing Orton around. Aldis begs for order and here’s Orton charging over to continue things. There’s a “Randy” chant that springs up and Orton starts mashing Security on the floor while Rhodes is doing the same thing in the ring. They battle again on the announce table and Rhodes again goes to Orton’s eyes. They go back to the ring and continue fighting before being broken up again. Rhodes springs across the ring again, more rights, and it’s broken up again. Here’s Jelly Roll out to try to calm Orton down before going over to check on Rhodes. Jelly Roll gets yanked into an RKO and Orton grins up the aisleway while leaving. The “Randy” chant continues as the credits roll and we’re out.

We’ll be talking about two things coming out of this show – the Zayn title win and subsequent announcement of his match with Trick at Wrestlemania, and the closing Orton-Rhodes angle with Jelly Roll eating the RKO. That’s it. The rest of this was skippable dreck, quite frankly, unless you REALLY care about the women’s tag scene (and quite frankly, I’m kind of over it in general and the Bellas are really not helping) or the Kit Wilson stuff with Jelly Roll (which, yes, not a bad match but there’s three weeks til Wrestlemania and this is the very definition of content). The women’s US title match was lucky to end without a serious injury, and the Ripley-Cargill thing was mostly just to get to the beatdown angle. I know they have a lot of time to fill and something has to be on this show, but like…no follow up to the MCMG’s angle from last week, no Trials of Sad John Wrestling, no Wyatts, just a bit of the MFT’s, and I don’t know man. This show just drifts along. I’m excited for the Fatu-McIntyre match, I think it will be good. I think Cody and Orton will be decent enough. The women’s tag thing, we’ll see but that’s a lot of bodies. I have no idea where anything is going with Giulia now, and the men’s tag scene was non-existent tonight. So we’ll see. I’ll call it thumbs in the middle tonight but you have to look really long and hard to find the moments on this show right now.

Thanks for reading and commenting. Enjoy your weekends.