Since Backlash in France last year, the European members of the WWE Universe have been hyping up the electricity that an Italian crowd would bring. Tonight that fire was on full display in Bologna.
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Adding to the Mania Card
Randy Orton kicked off the show with a bang by simply existing. The Italian crowd really brought it, screaming his song at the top of their lungs. It gave me goosebumps just watching. You can tell that it had the same effect on Randy as he took his time with his entrance and took it all in.
Before Randy could speak a word into the microphone, Kevin Owens’ music hit. He interrupted Randy and said something unexpected. Kevin was here to apologize.
He said that the piledriver he gave Randy was something that he regretted and that if anyone should understand regretting a decision made in anger it would be Randy.
Randy wasn’t having it, however. He said that that piledriver brought back the voices, and the voices were telling him to kick Kevin Owens’ head off at WrestleMania.
Priest and Uso vs Nakamura and McIntyre
A tag team match between the teams of Damien Priest and Jimmy Uso versus Shinsuke Nakamura and Drew McIntyre was the first in-ring showcase of the night.
The action began before the bell would ever ring as Damien Priest attacked Drew McIntyre during his entrance.
Priest and Uso would win this match, getting the pinfall on Shinsuke Nakamura. Drew McIntyre would walk away looking the strongest, however. He beat down Damien Priest badly after the match was over to the point where Priest could barely move.
Drew had the crowd’s support throughout this match. Bologna loved him. Let me just say that out of all of the chants we hear from these European crowds, Drew’s has to be one of my favorites. They were loud for him the whole time.
I agree with the Bologna crowd. I am a huge McIntyre fan. I am gaining more and more support for his feud with Priest every single week. Drew has to win this match at WrestleMania though. If he walks out of Vegas a loser I honestly don’t know what can be next for him.
Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair Interview
In the next segment of the show, we got to see an interview between WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton and Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair.
The 14-time Women’s Champion destroyed Tiffany in this segment. She made Stratton look like the newcomer that she is. Tiffany looked and sounded incredibly nervous whenever it was her turn to respond to Charlotte’s daggers.
You could tell that Tiffany was reading from her script at times. Whenever Charlotte would respond with something of her own (like the true professional she is) Stratton would resort back to whatever she was saying before she was interrupted.
For as good as Tiffy is, to me this showed that she can’t yet hang with someone of The Queen’s caliber. The WWE Women’s Champion was embarrassed tonight.
Kaiju Fight
Jacob Fatu and Braun Strowman had yet another match on Friday Night Smackdown. This time, the winner was named the number one contender to LA Knight’s United States Championship.
Braun Strowman won this contest via disqualification. He had Fatu seemingly beaten but was attacked by Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga before he could land the pinfall.
LA Knight came out to save Strowman from the vicious attack.
After the match, we got a backstage look at the conversation between Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu. Fatu was pissed. He was wondering the same thing we all were. Why would Solo purposefully ruin His chances at the US title?
I think Solo is jealous of Fatu’s success. This feud could boil up in the next few weeks and lead to a match at WrestleMania. Both of these guys deserve a spot on the card. What better way to fit them in than head-to-head against each other?
Piper Niven vs Zelina Vega
Zelina Vega made her in-ring Smackdown debut in a loss against Piper Niven.
This match was boring from start to finish. Vega debuted with brand-new music and the Bologna crowd was not loud for her (or Niven) at all. I felt kind of bad honestly.
However, this match didn’t deserve loud pops. Nothing exciting happened, like, at all. It was way too long as well. There were several near falls at which I groaned because I wanted to move on to whatever came next.
I was pleasantly surprised that they gave Piper the win. They let Alba Fyre and Chelsea Greene assist in her win which I was fine with. It made Chelsea’s faction look a lot stronger than I thought they would be. It would’ve been a shame to add a new member just to lose anyway.
Jade Cargill vs Liv Morgan
Jade Cargill had her first singles match since August of last year tonight against Liv Morgan. A match that spawned from their altercation last week during Jade’s interview with Cathy Kelley.
Jade started off the match dominating Liv to the point where Liv and Raquel tried to retreat. Jade grabbed Liv by the hair and dragged her back to the ring.
From that point forward Liv started to show some offense. She would end up winning the match after taking advantage of interference from Naomi, who hit Jade over the head with Liv’s title belt. I beatdown from Naomi to Jade then ensued after the match.
I honestly thought that Jade Cargill should’ve won this match. As of now, Liv Morgan unfortunately doesn’t have a story lined up for Mania and might end up missing the show entirely. She could’ve taken a loss here and not have gotten completely buried.
As for Naomi, this was her first real appearance as a heel. She looked nasty, absolutely destroying Jade Cargill. She looks like a real threat going forward for the women’s division as a whole after this feud is over. Smackdown could really use more big heels in the women’s division other than Nia Jax.
Celebration Cut Short
The brand-new WWE Tag Team Champions made their way to the ring to celebrate last week’s win over DIY. They debuted with new entrance music as well. The Bologna crowd was all for Tez and Dawkins, and that showed in what went down next.
Lagado Del Fantasma interrupted them demanding a match for the titles. Pretty Deadly came out next, reminding everyone that they were next in line. However, The Profits would give the match to Lagado, and defeat them in what was, in my opinion, the match of the night.
Smackdown’s tag team division has come such a long way from just a few months ago. I remember seeing complaints online about Triple H not knowing how to book tag teams. Those people are awfully quiet now, huh? As long as they don’t look over at Raw’s division anyway…
Punk, Reigns, and Rollins
The main event of the show was the segment that everyone had been waiting weeks for. That was the promo between CM Punk, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins to set up a triple-threat match at WrestleMania.
Roman made his way to the ring first with his wise man, Paul Heyman. For the first time since losing his title to Cody at WM 40, he said his infamous line “acknowledge me.”
He was swiftly met by Seth Rollins who gave a quick rundown of their beef throughout their time in WWE. They came into the business together, became stars together, betrayed each other, and grew to become even bigger stars simultaneously, crossing paths only every so often. There is no Seth Rollins without Roman Reigns, and there is no Roman Reigns without Seth Rollins.
CM Punk came out to interrupt the two former S.H.I.E.L.D. brothers. He reminded them that neither of them would exist without him either.
CM Punk also dropped a hint about the favor that Paul Heyman still owes him, although we are yet to find out what that might be.
Finally, Punk thanked Paul for bringing the Tribal Chief right to him. Roman turned to glare at Paul in confusion, and Punk attacked him from behind.
A brawl ensued in which each man attacked one another and called their shot for WrestleMania. We got camera shots of each of them pointing toward the ever-looming WrestleMania sign all but confirming our hopes of a triple-threat match at the show of shows.
Personally, I was disappointed with this segment. It did what it needed to do by setting up the match, but I expected more mic work between three of the industry’s best promo cutters.
WrestleMania is still weeks away, however, and I am sure there will be plenty of time between now and then to get some awesome mic battles.