On March 29, WWE SmackDown went live from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Jade Cargill made her debut on the show. Bianca faced Dakota Kai. There was a handful of tag team action. Let’s review everything that happened on Friday Night SmackDown this week.
Tag Team Match
Randy Orton and Kevin Owens vs. Pretty Deadly
KO went for an early senton for a quick one-count. Wilson and Prince assaulted Randy using their cheap distractions.
Owens landed an Atomic Drop and a DDT on Prince for a near fall. Logan Paul sneakily interfered and hit Kevin with the brass knuckles. Elton stole the victory.
Orton grabbed Logan from under the ring. Pretty Deadly interrupted again but met with a Stunner and an RKO. Orton chased Logan to the backstage area. Paul entered his car and drove off.
Winners: Pretty Deadly
Grades: B
Analysis: A decent start to SmackDown. WWE tried to put as much heat on Logan as they could.
Video Package: Iyo Sky talked about Bayley. She agreed that Bayley helped her become the champion. But she and Dakota made Bayley relevant again. Sky warned Bayley about WrestleMania. Bayley attacked her from behind. The brawl began, and people separated them.
Jade Cargill’s Debut
Nick Aldis was in the ring with a contract, and he introduced Jade Cargill. She made her entrance and signed exclusively for SmackDown. Cargill notified the whole roster by saying that the storm had arrived.
Backstage: AJ Styles questioned Aldis about LA Knight. Aldissaid that she asked Knight not to be here tonight. Styles said that she should have told Knight rather than asking him.
Tag Team Match
Austin Theory and Grayson Waller vs. The Street Profits
It was a match to qualify for the six-pack tag team titles’ match at WrestleMania XL. Soon, the action went outside with all four members.
Dawkins sent Waller flying over the commentary desk. Back in the ring, Dawkins delivered a T-bone Suplex on Waller.
Theory and Ford tagged in, and Ford landed a flying spinning elbow. Ford hit Theory with a backdrop followed by a standing moonsault for a near fall.
Street Profits delivered a Blockbuster to Theory, but Waller saved the match. A distraction by Karrion Kross did the job for Theory and Waller.
Austin got his knees up during a frog splash and rolled Montez to get the win. AOP attacked Street Profits after the match.
Karrion Kross joined in, too. Lashley came for the save but suffered a beating at the hands of Kross.
Winners: Austin Theory and Grayson Waller
Grades: B-
Analysis: It was a fine match that mostly focused on the ongoing feud between Lashley, Street Profits, and The Final Testament. Theory and Waller got a necessary victory.
LWO and Legado Del Fantasma segment
Legado Del Fantasma were in the ring. Santos Escobar talked about how he beat Rey Mysterio last week on SmackDown.
Dominik Mysterio entered with loud boos from the crowd. They shook hands. Escobar said he didn’t initially agree with Dom, but he was right about his father.
Dom tried to speak, but the crowd didn’t let him. He said in any way that he would do anything in his power to make the life of his deadbeat dad a living hell.
Rey Mysterio came out along with LWO. He claimed to beat some respect into Dom and Escobar and challenged them to a tag team match against himself and Dragon Lee.
They all were face-to-face, and Zelina Vega slapped Elektra Lopez to start a brawl. Escobar took out Rey with a big boot.
Grades: B+
Analysis: It was a fine segment. Rather than an all-members match, we will get a tag team match at WrestleMania.
Backstage: Judgment Day was backstage. Dominik didn’t tell them about joining Santos Escobar. Dom made it clear that he wanted to make them proud by handling the business himself. Balor said that this WrestleMania will belong to The Judgment Day.
Tag Team Match
New Catch Republic vs. Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza
We joined in between the match. Pete hit Angel with a snap German Suplex. Tyler got in, and they sent Garza and Carrillo outside. Bate laid them out with a splash to the ringside area.
Bate spun Carillo on his shoulders, but Garza broke it up with a superkick. Garza landed a springboard moonsault on Bate for a two-count.
Dunne hit a spike, DDT Humberto. Ultimately, Garza was the victim of a double Tyler Driver, and Dunne pinned him for the win.
Winners: New Catch Republic
Grades: B+
Analysis: It was a fun tag team match. New Catch Republic deserved a win and a spot on the WrestleMania card.
Backstage: Paul Heyman said that The Rock took out Cody Rhodes on Raw by order of The Tribal Chief. Jimmy said that Jey wouldn’t make it to WrestleMania by order of The Tribal Chief. Solo said he would see Jey on Raw after the Tribal Chief’s order.
LA Knight is here!
AJ Styles came out and blamed fans. He said that fans were the reason LA Knight entered his house and attacked him.
Styles said that he protected Knight from jail because he would expose him at WrestleMania. AJ called Knight an under-talented piece of trash.
Styles said Knight was surely here tonight, and he called him out. A man in a hoodie jumped the rail, and the security stopped him.
Styles ripped the hoodie, but it was not Knight. Instead, Knight was there in a wig, sunglasses, and a hat.
Knight attacked Styles. He grabbed a chair, and AJ had to run away.
Grades: B+
Analysis: It was an excellent segment. WWE is showing things on a personal level in this feud. Maybe a stipulation can be added to it.
Singles Match
Bianca Belair vs. Dakota Kai
It was the main event for the night. Early on, Dakota landed a big boot. Bianca delivered two suplexes. Later, she landed a vertical suplex and slammed Kai to the mat from the middle rope.
Belair got the moonsault successfully on the second attempt for a two-count. After some back-and-forth action, Belair pulled Dakota up from the second rope and delivered a suplex. Belair delivered a Spear, followed by a KOD for the win.
The Kabuki Warriors attacked Bianca after the match. Naomi made the save, but not for long. Soon, Kairi Sane took out Naomi with a bat.
Jade Cargill made the save this time. She came in and delivered a powerbomb on Dakota. She slammed Sane face-first into the mat. The show went off-air with Cargill, Belair, and Naomi standing tall in the ring.
Winner: Bianca Belair
Grades: The match was not what we expect from a main event. However, The post-match angle was awesome. They portrayed Cargill in a big way in her debut. Having her alongside Belairand Naomi will surely help in learning.
Overall, it was a dull episode of SmackDown, according to the build to WrestleMania. There was no such standout thing on the show. Especially, The Bloodline was barely featured on the show. The main highlight was Jade Cargill’s debut.
