Friday Night Smackdown Hosts ‘Go Home’ Show On the Eve Of Elimination Chamber In Perth

It was the ‘go-home’ episode of Friday Night Smackdown, just hours before the 5 am Eastern start time of Elimination Chamber in Perth. The early morning Premium Live Event, scheduled for 6 pm Saturday in Perth, meant that SmackDown would be pre-taped prior to its Friday airing.

The show was meant to further the storylines heading into Elimination Chamber, but without Seth Rollins on the Blue Brand, it was difficult to accomplish that fully. There are plenty of reasons to be excited and wake up early for Elimination Chamber, but with the winner of the Chamber match getting a shot at “Monday Night Rollins” and his World Heavyweight Championship, it felt like the story was without its motivation.

They did announce Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins would appear in a segment at Elimination Chamber, but more on that later. Without Seth, this episode focused on a couple of the Chamber competitors, Drew McIntyre and LA Knight, who main-evented the evening.

After Seth and his title were dragged into the WrestleMania main event orbit, he was left as the big loser because the whole thing felt like a complete waste of time. However, it could be argued that his attempt to get the Cody Rhodes match got him on the big stage with The Rock and at one of the biggest WWE press events in the company’s history. Still, trying to ‘land a match’ with Cody only served to challenge his role as champion. Championships are hunted for, and Champions are hunted.

Logan Paul was seen backstage with Grayson Waller and Austin Theory in what was a funny segment after Kevin Owens entered the mix. Paul made fun of one of wrestling’s biggest contradictions, asking why they didn’t “jump” Owens right then and there in the backstage area while they had the numbers advantage. This is a common question casual wrestling fans have regarding backstage promos, and the comment by Paul was meta and funny.

Before the segment’s conclusion, Paul Heyman entered the frame and told Waller that Roman Reigns wanted to see him.

We had seen Roman earlier in the night in the recap of Jey Uso’s unsuccessful intercontinental title challenge on RAW. Jimmy Uso, who cost his brother Jey the win and his first single’s gold, was boasting on about how he carried out “the play” perfectly to Heyman’s specifications, which were really Roman’s orders.

Waller would enter Roman’s lair with hesitation on his face as the entire Bloodline had him outnumbered, but Roman would call him closer and tell him that ‘this is for his ears’ only’ before the camera cut. However, with Cody and Seth scheduled to appear on Waller’s show, we can only speculate what is to come.

MAIN EVENT: MCINTYRE vs KNIGHT (ELIMINATION CHAMBER MOMENTUM ON THE LINE)

McIntyre continues to be one of the best characters on TV week in and week out, but he is really putting the World Heavyweight Championship picture on his back and making things interesting. The match was really good and had the makings to be one of the best TV matches of the year.

Unfortunately, the match ended in a brawl amongst all six competitors scheduled for the Elimination Chamber match. Lashley, who was defeated along with The Street Profits by AOP earlier in the night, appeared to be suffering from an elbow injury after he was attacked with a chair by Karrion Kross. The segment led to online speculation that we may be getting a ‘surprise entrant’ to the Elimination Chamber, but Lashley being involved in the show’s final battle points to him being in the match.

In the end, the match did what it needed, and the combination of Logan Paul, Randy Orton, Kevin Owens, Lashley, Knight, and McIntyre offers many possibilities—though some would be better suited than others to challenge Seth for his title.

IN-RING ACTION

• With Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne challenging The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and Damian Priest for their Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at Elimination Chamber, the pair would receive a warmup against fellow Judgement Day faction members Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh.

This was a great pairing, and both teams worked well together in the match. The energy was great, and it felt like real stakes for Bate and Dunne who ended up getting the win. It was easy to forget for a second that Bate and Dunne hadn’t won anything just yet, but this sure is the kind of momentum you want heading into the tag title match.

• Bron Breaker made his main roster debut, taking on and taking apart Dante Chen from NXT. It felt like an old-school debut, the one that came against a jobber a few weeks before you’re thrown into your first storyline.

However, we have been here before with these NXT call-ups — I think Gargano and Ciampa had a couple each — so it’s hard to get fully invested until he is squaring off against someone on the main roster with a pulse.

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

See author's posts