Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 12, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Daniel Bryan Confronted Edge

We haven't seen a ton of Edge on WWE TV since Elimination Chamber, and while I realize the focus is on the feud between Bryan and Roman Reigns, Edge should be making more appearances than he has been. Thus, I thought this was a solid segment teasing tension between the two. Edge having an issue with what Bryan is doing is comical given his checkered past as a "master manipulator," and I don't think he's going heel any time soon (nor should he). This made what happened at the end of the evening more interesting and planted the seeds for a future match between the two that should be stellar.

Rey Mysterio, Dominik Mysterio and The Street Profits def. Otis & Chad Gable and SmackDown Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode

This essentially served as a showcase for SmackDown's tag team division and was enjoyable. It's not that I don't like any of these teams, it's just that we haven't been given much of a reason to care about any of them. The Otis and Gable heel turn has been meh to me, Ziggler and Roode are fine, the Mysterios have looked like losers more often than not, and Street Profits are the best out of the bunch. Montez Ford pinning Roode for the win indicates Street Profits are next in line for a title shot. I assume that'll happen at Fastlane with the obligatory Fatal 4-Way match happening at WrestleMania 37. Ugh.

Cesaro def. Murphy by Disqualification

Murphy being back on TV for the first time in months is an improvement, but it's still disappointing he has no direction when you consider how talented he is and how he owns a singles win over Seth Rollins. Speaking of whom, this didn't last long before Rollins interfered and caused the contest to be thrown out. It was fun for what it was but yet way too short. Rollins' attack on Cesaro was really well done. I still don't get what Rollins' new updated persona is supposed to be (wacky suits and all), but that eventual match with Cesaro is worth looking forward to. Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was teased when Rollins walked backstage and that has me excited as well.

Reginald and WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler Interrupted SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair on The Kevin Owens Show with Kevin Owens

We haven't seen Owens since he once again failed to become Universal Champion at Elimination Chamber, so this was a lousy way to bring him back. Bayley wasn't on this show, so maybe they could have used her talk show instead. At any rate, the back-and-forth we got from Banks and Belair on the mic was damn good. The feud has been all over the place up to this point due to the Jax, Baszler and Reginald crap, but when it's just them two, they have strong chemistry. The heel side of The Boss shined through there at times, so hopefully Banks permanently reverts back to that character sooner rather than later.

Natalya and Tamina def. Banks and Belair

I hate to sound like a broken record, but this women's tag team division is a mess. NXT just introduced their own set of tag team titles for its women's division on Wednesday night and I thought that was completely pointless. Why not just book the women's tag team division better across all three brands with one set of titles? Natalya and Tamina are terrible together and Banks and Belair aren't even a real team. This was less of a match and more of an angle designed to further the feud between Banks and Belair. Tamina pinning Belair is awful in general, but it makes even less sense when you consider the babyfaces have a tag title shot coming up at Fastlane.

Intercontinental Champion Big E def. Sami Zayn

This was an open challenge by Big E, and although he wanted Apollo Crews for what he did to him a few weeks ago, he ended up getting Zayn instead. It's worth noting that King Corbin originally interrupted Big E, but Zayn accepted the open challenge quicker. Please don't tell me this is leading to a multi-man match at WrestleMania between these guys, because it really should be Big E and Crews one-on-one. Yes, we're getting that at Fastlane, but there's no reason they can't do a stipulation match at 'Mania, too. Big E and Zayn had their usual quality contest, but the real focus was on Big E's excellent, intense pre-match promo and Crews' post-match attack. These two have been killing it lately. Now if Crews would just get rid of the inconsistent accent...

The Contract Signing for the Universal Championship Match at Fastlane Descended Into Chaos

There's so much for Reigns and Bryan to delve into and I'm happy we've been getting that over the last few weeks. Reigns was once again in his element here while Bryan's rebuttal was also outstanding. We found out that Jey Uso will fight Edge next week with the winner becoming the special guest enforcer for Reigns vs. Bryan at Fastlane, which will obviously be won by Edge. That led to complete chaos with everyone attacking each other and Bryan accidentally laying out Edge with a knee. Could they be teasing a Triple Threat at WrestleMania or at least Edge vs. Bryan on one of the two nights? If not, where does Bryan fit into the card (especially if Rollins is busy with Cesaro or Nakamura)? I'm curious to see how this plays out in the coming weeks.

Overall Show

I maintain that WWE's build to WrestleMania on the whole this year has been lazy and inexcusable (how the hell do we only know two matches on the card and it's just over a month away?), but at least SmackDown has a better idea than Raw of what its top matchups are going to look like. The stuff surrounding the Universal Championship picture throughout the show was compelling, Big E vs. Crews was furthered effectively, and Rollins' attack on Cesaro was also a highlight. Unfortunately, the women's division has been disappointing, but hopefully they can get back on track once Fastlane is over with and Banks vs. Belair becomes the focal point again.