Friday Night SmackDown Review - April 3, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Miz TV with SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Miz & John Morrison, The Usos, and The New Day Descended Into Chaos

It was almost depressing watching this because of how most of us now know that Miz wasn't able to compete at the WrestleMania 36 tapings last week and thus it turned into a standard Triple Threat with Morrison, Kofi Kingston and Jimmy Uso instead. WWE later confirmed the change on their social media, but there was no mention of it here. It was a solid segment otherwise with Miz and Morrison standing tall in the end over their WrestleMania opponents.

Tamina def. Naomi and Lacey Evans in a Triple Threat Match

It was painfully obvious that the sole purpose of this match and the entire segment was to get viewers to buy into the possibility of Tamina becoming SmackDown Women's Champion at WrestleMania because of how she hasn't been on TV in forever until recently. Well, it was unsuccessful, especially since the matchup itself sucked. Props to Naomi and Evans for trying their best, but this was a flop, not to mention how Tamina's post-match attack on Sasha Banks and Bayley looked terrible. Here's hoping she disappears from TV again after WrestleMania comes and goes.

Tucker def. Dolph Ziggler by Disqualification

The match was always going to be an afterthought, so I'm surprised it received as much time as it did. Okay, so they had to fill television time somehow without replaying another full-length pay-per-view matchup from years past, but I think they could have gotten to the finish a little quicker. That said, the stuff afterward with it being revealed that Sonya Deville and Ziggler conspired to ruin Otis' Valentine's Day date with Mandy Rose was well done. I assume the 'Mania match between Otis and Ziggler ends with Otis getting the girl (as he should).

Daniel Bryan def. Shinsuke Nakamura by Disqualification

I was really hoping WWE would hold off on the first-ever televised Bryan vs. Nakamura match for when it could have meant more as opposed to a random go-home show, but I doubt many people are as excited for it as they would have been two or three years ago. Nonetheless, this was a quality contest with a lame finish. The heels finally got the upper hand for a change and the seeds were planted for Drew Gulak vs. Cesaro at WrestleMania, but back-to-back disqualifications is just flat-out lazy.

John Cena Agreed to Face "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Fun House Match at WrestleMania 36

As seen with Raw lately, if there's any upside to these empty arena shows, it's that the promos have gotten to shine. Cena's mic work here was superb and I loved that he actually acknowledged the situation at hand (without using the words "coronavirus" or "COVID-19," that is). Not everyone is going to be a fan of Wyatt's spooky antics, but they may as well make the most of no one being there and use the Firefly Fun House puppets the way they did. Personally, I didn't hate it and thought it effectively hyped their upcoming encounter.

Overall Show

Let the record that WWE randomly announced Braun Strowman as Roman Reigns' replacement in the Universal Championship match with Goldberg at WrestleMania during a quick graphic. There was no explanation for why the change was made. What a mess. The funny thing is that the replay of Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair from WrestleMania 24 was easily the best part of this entire episode and that was from a dozen years ago. There was some decent stuff sprinkled throughout the show, but on the whole, it was a poor effort to get me more excited for WrestleMania than I already was. SmackDown has been in doldrums since moving to FOX and, honestly, maybe a post-WrestleMania break wouldn't be the worst thing for it.