Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 20, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rob Gronkowski, Mojo Rawley and Elias Embarrassed King Corbin

Holy shit, Gronk's entrance music is absolutely atrocious. It sounds like the music WWE would dub over the entrance themes on old WWE Network content they don't own anymore, yet way worse. Other that that, I didn't mind this segment, except for how Gronk essentially turned heel when he announced it will be Corbin vs. Elias at WrestleMania 36. I can't possibly bring myself to care about that one, personally. Gronk's over-the-top energy won't be for everyone, but I think it makes him a good fit for WWE. I'm happy they're utilizing him in a host role for now as opposed to rushing him into the ring. That would be a massive mistake. On a side note, I would complain about Rawley appearing on SmackDown despite being a Raw Superstar, but I hardly think that matters right now.

Daniel Bryan and Drew Gulak def. Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura

Bryan and Gulak are quickly becoming an absolute treat to watch. I love how their newfound alliance is leading to Gulak getting television time, whereas before he was almost never on SmackDown. He and Bryan worked well together here and contested a quality match with Cesaro and Nakamura that received an ample amount of time. If Gulak can beat Nakamura next week, Bryan will receive a shot at Sami Zayn's Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania. That can be a lot of fun, but I wonder what that means for Braun Strowman, Jeff Hardy, Sheamus and the rest of SmackDown's midcard division.

Paige Announced a SmackDown Women's Championship Six-Pack Challenge at WrestleMania 36

Paige was supposed to appear on SmackDown last week (likely for this same segment) but couldn't make it due to travel issues. She had to Skype in this week, and while the segment wasn't the same without her appearing in person, it wouldn't have made much of a difference even if she was there. This was played out pretty predictably with Paige confirming the rumors that Bayley would be defending her SmackDown Women's Championship against five other women at WrestleMania. Her challengers will include Lacey Evans, Naomi, Sasha Banks, Dana Brooke and... Tamina. Yes, the same person who has not been on WWE TV in many months and hasn't won a formal televised match in over a year is getting awarded a title shot for no reason at all. Ugh.

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Miz and John Morrison def. Heavy Machinery by Disqualification (Non-Title)

Miz and Morrison hosted an edition of The Dirt Sheet beforehand where they mocked The New Day, The Usos and Heavy Machinery by dressing up as them in the "crowd." The match that followed between Miz and Morrison and Heavy Machinery was solid albeit unspectacular. The main focus was on Dolph Ziggler walking down to ringside and attempting to serve as a distraction to Otis by showing pictures of himself and Mandy Rose. I thought that would lead to Miz pinning Otis, but instead, Otis got himself disqualified by battering Miz and Morrison with a chair out of anger. I'm interested to see what happens with the Otis/Rose/Ziggler storyline at WrestleMania considering the card has reportedly changed a few times.

Universal Champion Goldberg and Roman Reigns Signed the Contract for Their WrestleMania 36 Match

Reigns and Goldberg throwing their chairs down to ringside seemed unnecessary considering there hasn't been any established bad blood between them until now. I know Reigns talked trash about Goldberg last week on SmackDown and they've traded some shots over Twitter, but that's about it. Sure, they brought the intensity, but that was about it. I can't say I'm sold on this one yet, and having it headline Night 2 of WrestleMania is an even worse idea.

Overall Show

Similar to last week's SmackDown, a portion of the show was dedicated to replaying an old pay-per-view match. This time, it was John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt from WrestleMania 30. While I didn't watch it back myself, I actually didn't mind that because it's relevant to the ongoing Cena vs. Fiend feud and also served as a plug for the WrestleMania 30 encore presentation happening on FOX this weekend. As for SmackDown on the whole, it was a decent show, but I can't believe they didn't make any drastic changes to the atmosphere after what AEW Dynamite did on Wednesday night. Would it kill them to put some wrestlers in the crowd? Or to at least not go about the show like it's business as usual? A few WrestleMania matches were announced and Gronk debuted, so it was a fairly newsworthy night, yet I wouldn't recommend you watch it in full if you missed it originally.