WrestleMania 42 is two weeks away, and tonight’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown was live from St. Louis with Randy Orton being one of the main storylines of the night. Many rumors have circulated that we would learn the ‘man on the phone’ with Randy, a storyline that has been teased for weeks.
St. Louis is a solid wrestling market, and they appreciate the sport at its purest; that is why we are likely to get some major Mania storylines ahead of the two-night event on April 18 and 19. Though they ran many video packages, the fans in attendance were treated to a celebrity-packed edition of SmackDown.
LET’S GET RANDY
In Orton’s hometown of St. Louis, he opened the show for the blue brand as he promised the crowd that he would return with world title number 15. It was an odd early promo, following the same feeling as the previous weeks, where Orton cut his promo with a face cadence while the fans reacted to him as the good guy, despite him clearly playing the ‘heel’ role within the program.
Orton said he wasn’t doing it for the fans, but for himself and the six family members in the front row. He blamed Cody for bringing out this version of him, and the champ came out to confront Orton.
Cody Rhodes was standing on the apron with his tie stripped and his cufflinks undone as he blitzed Randy with punches until he put him down in the corner. As he stomped this year’s Elimination Chamber winner into a mudhole, but just as he took a beat, a man with ultra blonde hair and pretentious oversized glasses came into the ring to low-blow Cody—you just knew it was a celebrity.
Pat McAfee revealed himself to be not just the person in Randy’s corner but also the ‘mystery man’ on the phone for weeks, squashing rumors of ‘The Rock’ or a returning Vince. He cut a scathing promo in which Randy was portrayed as the answer to all the problems fans have with the current product.
McAffee railed against the current product, calling it sh**, and even mentioned the low WrestleMania42 ticket sales into the storyline—though it was presented as a commercial for Mania tix. Cody was beaten further with a chair by Orton as the new heel version of Pat yelled in the champ’s ear, claiming that he represents everything awful about the current product.
It was a powerful promo, made even more powerful by Pat shooting on SD’s lowest rating last week. They left Cody in the ring as they walked through Gorilla, Pat staring at the producers he just insulted, and the two jumped into a white pickup truck and drove out of the arena.
CODY GETS HIS
The night was not going to end without the world champion getting his turn on the mic, and he made it count. He called out Pat for being a ‘Logan Paul wannabe’ and ‘a stoner’ (hilariously) before promising to ‘get his receipt against the former NFL punter.
Cody said ‘he knows’ who “Pat represents,” which brought out the biggest line of the night when he said they could ‘fire him,’ but that did not work out well for them the first time—refereeing his place in helping launch the alternative AEW.
RHEA AND IYO REUNITE
Rhea had a blowoff match with one of Jade’s newest minions, and of course, the entire thing resulted in a post-match beatdown. Rhea was getting worked by both Jade and her faction, but that is when Iyo Sky’s music hit, and she ran down to make the save. They interviewed the two backstage, and it seems like the numbers game could decide Rhea-Jade.
MORE STAKES FOR MANIA, ZAYN PUTS HIS TITLE ON THE LINE
The Mania celebrity explosion continued tonight with Lil Yachty accompanying Trick Williams in the U.S. title segment. The champion, Sami Zayn, came down to yuck it up with the challenger and rapper in the ring. Carmelo Hayes entered the chat in an attempt to get into the singles match at Mania by making it a triple threat.
Trick got involved in Melo and Sami’s match last week, costing the former champ, so Zayn decided to give him the rematch tonight, with the Mania match with Trick Williams on the line. It was an amazing piece of booking to hype up an already hyped match with Trick.
ZAYN VS MELO—U.S. Title
The rematch was solid, and we knew it would be, but Zayn ended up retaining. In the post-match, Lil Yachty grabbed the mic and called the champ ‘Gingerbread Man’ in a rather lame move. Trick beatdown Sami to close out the show with the rapper standing by his side as he hoisted the title.
SOLO VS TAMA TONGA???
The singles match between Tama Tonga and Uncle Howdy became a point of contention for the MFTs and Solo. The crux of the issue rests within Solo’s obsession with The Wyatt Syck’s lantern that they had taken from them for some time now. A backstage segment was the first chapter in tonight’s story between Solo and Tama, and the match furthered the potential split.
Solo tried to get involved, and that inadvertently cost Tama Tonga the match. When Howdy grabbed the lantern, Tama stopped Solo from going after it. The whole thing could blow up a faction full of bodies that Solo brought into the WWE.
Other Tidbits
– Aleister Black defeated Matt Cardona in singles action, continuing Black’s corruption of the faces storyline.
– Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair defeated Lyra and Bayley in tag action, and the tag champions came out to deliver a post-match beatdown on their Manai challengers.
– Priest and R-Truth defeated the cursed Miz and Kit Wilson in a successful defense of their tag team title. The best part of the match was seeing the referee suffer from an apparent ‘muscle spasm’ that might have cost Miz and Kit the tag titles, playing into the idea of the ‘curse.’
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