Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 19, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Nia Jax

The actual match quality was fine, but it was impossible to believe that Jax was going to win the SmackDown Women's Championship so close to WrestleMania. I mean, she likely wouldn't have won anyway considering she's a Raw wrestler, but that didn't stop Banks from becoming Raw Women's Champion while a part of the SmackDown roster last year. Nonetheless, this served its purpose and did what it needed to do. It just disappoints me that the build to Banks vs. Bianca Belair has been entirely focused on the tag titles and Reginald so far.

Shinsuke Nakamura Attacked Seth Rollins

I'm not sure what Rollins' "big news" was supposed to be, but I enjoyed this segment. Rollins is still trying to find his footing with this new character (whatever the hell it's supposed to be), but he still excels at being unlikeable, so there's that. He also makes for a fun foil to a guy like Nakamura. Nakamura standing tall to end the segment was smart since he won't win at Fastlane, but I like this as the setup to Rollins vs. Cesaro at WrestleMania 37. Cesaro winning would be huge for him.

Dominik and Rey Mysterio def. The Street Profits; Otis and Chad Gable def. Dominik and Rey Mysterio

The tag team division remains in a state of flux as WWE can't quite figure out what they want to do with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. Considering the Mysterios defeated the former SmackDown Tag Team Champions and then were immediately defeated by their archrivals, I assume the idea is that the titles will be defended in a Fatal 4-Way at WrestleMania, which screams laziness. Don't get me wrong, these back-to-back matches were decent, yet nothing worth writing home about. Worse yet, fans don't seem to have a reason to want to cheer for any of these teams.

Universal Champion Roman Reigns Interrupted Daniel Bryan

The verbal exchanges these two have are never anything but great. They didn't cover much new ground, but it did its job of leaving me more excited for their championship clash at Fastlane than I was previously, which I didn't think was possible. I'm very interested to see what happens at Fastlane with Bryan because if he loses and isn't involved in the title picture at WrestleMania, then I have no clue where he goes from there and how he factors into plans for the pay-per-view.

King Corbin def. Sami Zayn

The video package that preceded this was hilarious, touting their encounter as one of the "least anticipated" of all-time. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before for a match that wasn't played up for comedy, and it was perfect considering the conspiracy storyline Zayn is doing at the moment. Heel vs. heel matches are rarely interesting and this was no exception, but at least they kept it short and sweet. I'm happy it looks like we might be getting Zayn vs. Kevin Owens at WrestleMania. Yes, the feud feels a little rushed, but it's a nice use of both guys and it's about damn time they faced each other on the grand stage.

Intercontinental Champion Big E and Apollo Crews Brawled

This is easily one of the best feuds going in WWE right now. Both guys are holding up their end tremendously well and it's nice that their Fastlane match actually feels unpredictable as it could go either way. The split-screen interviews were well done and I honestly thought Crews cut the better promo of the two (accent aside). The subsequent brawl was terrific and I loved that they made use of Tropicana Field. Regardless of what happens at Fastlane, this needs to be the Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania and not some multi-man mess.

Bianca Belair vs. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Shayna Baszler Ended in a No Contest

Belair just beat Baszler last week, so I wasn't sure why this was happening again until it became clear afterward. If Baszler won the first time, then it would have made sense, but she didn't, so this was pretty pointless, especially since Banks and Jax already furthered the feud earlier in the evening. This solely existed so Natalya and Tamina could crash it and attack both women. I have a bad feeling Belair and Banks are going to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at Fastlane only to lose it to Natalya and Tamina on SmackDown next week. I'll pass on that, thanks.

Edge def. Jey Uso to Become the Special Enforcer for Reigns vs. Bryan at Fastlane

The brief video packages that aired throughout the night looking back at various Edge highlights on SmackDown were a nice touch and made this match feel as important as it should. It was far from an instant classic, mind you, but they worked well together and Uso once again delivered in the main event spot. The only issue was that the outcome was never in doubt, so really, most viewers were just waiting for it to be over so Reigns could strike. That's exactly what happened, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It was a solid ending to the episode and, again, I'm intrigued as to whether the WrestleMania match will remain Reigns vs. Edge or if Bryan will be inserted.

Overall Show

I thought the last two editions of SmackDown were subpar by recent SmackDown standards, but this was a much stronger effort. Belair vs. Baszler was a wash and the tag team stuff didn't land for me, but everything else was good enough to make this a worthwhile show. Edge being back in action was noteworthy, Bryan and Reigns killed it again on the mic, Big E and Crews are doing wonderful work in their rivalry, and the setup for some matches at Fastlane and WrestleMania was effective. It's amazing how SmackDown has its shit together en route to WrestleMania way more than Raw currently does.