SmackDown notes: Sasha Banks takes a loss, recaps galore
By: Dave LeClair
SmackDown aired live from the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. This is the WWE’s go-home show for WrestleMania Backlash, so it features the final builds for the matches. WWE advertised matches such as Sasha Banks versus Shayna Baszler, The New Day battling Sheamus and Ridge Holland in a Tables Match, and more.
Match Results:
- Shayna Baszler over Sasha Banks
- Gunther over Drew Gulak
- Sheamus and Ridge Holland over The New Day
- Sami Zayn over Shinsuke Nakamura via count-out
After a recap of last week’s beat-the-clock challenge, Charlotte Flair opened up the live portion of SmackDown with a rematch against Aliyah. Before the match, she cut a promo filled with plenty of cheap heat and Long Island burials. Flair attacks Aliyah with a cheap shot to start things off, and she proceeds to beat her down until Rousey makes the save. The pair brawled until WWE officials are able to separate them.
Further recaps and a commercial led to the first actual match with Sasha Banks taking on Shayna Baszler in a singles match. After a lengthy match that spanned a commercial break, Baszler defeated Banks with a roll-up with Natalya helping provide extra leverage. After the match, Natalya and Baszler attack Naomi and Banks as the final build for the tag team title match at Backlash.
The Usos cut a backstage promo where they say they’re going to win. Happy Corbin came out for a Happy Talk segment. However, before it could start, there was a commercial break and an RK-Bro interview segment with Kayla. Riddle rambled about people putting things in their mouths before Orton cut him off the say that the Usos need to worry about being in the ring with RK-Bro and not what kind of sneakers they’re going to buy.
After a recap of the Madcap Moss and Happy Corbin feud (wherein Corbin has been sitting around in the ring waiting this whole time), The Happy Talk segment finally started. After getting a couple of sentences out, Moss interrupts from the big screen with some bad jokes. What seems like an eternity passes before Corbin calls Moss out. Moss makes jokes to Corbin’s face and eventually gets the crowd to chant “Big Bald Wolf” at him. Corbin looks sad and leaves to end the segment.
There’s a recap of Drew Gulak’s auditions and the embarrassment Flair has caused him. This leads to him facing Gunther, which is sure to go well for him. Gunther destroyed Gulak, as you’d expect. After the match, Nakamura cut a promo on The Bloodline, which was spied on by Sami Zayn.
Before the tables match, Drew McIntyre cut a backstage promo hyping up the six-man tag match. He dupped his team RK-McBro, which is awesome. Eventually, the match got underway, which featured Kofi jumping off the top rope and putting Sheamus through the barricade. The New Day and Sheamus and Holland had a really fun match with lots of cool-looking spots. Late in the match, Butch was hiding under the ring which led to Holland and Sheamus putting Xavier Woods through the table.
Paul Heyman did an interview where he accused Kayla of flirting with him. After an awkward minute, Zayn came over to tattle on Shinsuke Nakamura. Zayn promises to take care of Nakamura on The Bloodline’s behalf.
After the commercial, Zayn bothered Adam Pearce backstage, where he asked for a match with Nakamura next week. Instead, Pearce said he could take on Nakamura right now.
Another Lacey Evans story segment led to her coming to the ring to a receptive crowd. From there, WWE cut to a Raquel Rodriguez highlight video. After the video, Evans was gone and Zayn made his entrance for a match against Shinsuke Nakamura. I’m not sure what the point of Lacy coming out was, as she just posed and left.
Zayn and Nakamura had a solid battle for a WWE TV match, which Zayn won via count-out.
For the main event segment, RK-Bro and Drew McIntyre acknowledged a bunch of stuff about their past, Randy Orton’s legs, and some other things. After what seemed like 20 hours of acknowledging stuff, Roman’s music hit, and The Bloodline made their entrance. Everyone brawled for a while and the segment ended with McIntyre hitting Reigns with a Claymore.
