Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 27, 2020

​By Graham "GSM" Matthews

SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley, Sasha Banks and Tamina Attacked Lacey Evans and Naomi​

Everything involving the SmackDown Women's Championship picture has been a total miss for me over the last month. As I've said before, Bayley vs. Banks one-on-one at WrestleMania 36 makes a lot more sense than the Fatal 5-Way they have planned. By the way, it was originally advertised as being a Six-Pack Challenge, but I believe Dana Brooke had to be pulled due to being quarantined (you won't get any complaints out of me). Everyone interrupting each other was whatever, and Tamina standing tall over Evans and Naomi would have led to a silent reaction even if it wasn't an empty arena.

Drew Gulak def. Shinsuke Nakamura

It's amazing that Nakamura went from competing for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34 to losing to Drew Gulak a week ahead of WrestleMania and (likely) being left off the card entirely. Such is life, I suppose. This was a nice little match as Gulak and Daniel Bryan continue to be a blast together. Thanks to Gulak's victory, Bryan will now contend for Sami Zayn's Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania.

King Corbin Attacked Elias

Elias was performing his usual shtick ridiculing Corbin on the raised platform in the Performance Center when Corbin ambushed him from behind and sent him spiraling off the side. Unlike when Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa did it a few weeks ago on NXT, this didn't look nearly as cool because there wasn't anything breaking Elias' fall... or so we were led to believe. Since this was taped in advance, they edited it look like Elias fell on the concrete, which is completely ridiculous because he obviously would have been seriously hurt. I know that happens a lot in wrestling, but I wasn't a fan of the execution of the angle.

Alexa Bliss def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Asuka

Nikki Cross did more to distract viewers from the fact that there was nobody in attendance than anyone else in the last few weeks. Michael Cole did his best to act annoyed, but she was great on commentary. It actually enhanced the match, which was a total afterthought and nothing special. I assume this sets up a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship clash for WrestleMania, but we haven't seen Kairi Sane in weeks, so I'm not even sure they'll be able to do it.

The Usos vs. The New Day in a SmackDown Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Match Ended in a No Contest

What a weird main event. Don't get me wrong, this was a quality contest as these teams always work well together and this was no exception, but it didn't feel like it was main event worthy. If nothing else, they made the most of the time they had and Miz and Morrison were fun on commentary I thought. That said, the finish with Miz and Morrison interfering and causing the bout to be thrown out was incredibly predictable. As expected, it will be a Triple Threat Ladder match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania. That sounds awesome on paper and is actually fitting given that this year marks 20 years since the first-ever Triangle Ladder matchup on the grandest stage of them all.

Overall Show

This week's pay-per-view flashback was Triple H vs. Roman Reigns from WrestleMania 32. I appreciate that it was a WrestleMania match with the Show of Shows happening next weekend, but it was a poor choice. It also did nothing to make me want to watch WrestleMania 32 again this Sunday on ESPN. The rest of the show was business as usual, and I don't mean that as a compliment. I enjoyed the latest Firefly Fun House and the main event was entertaining before the lame finish, but on the whole, it was a pretty paint-by-numbers show. Two new matches were made official for WrestleMania, but we now know Miz's involvement may be in jeopardy due to being sick while Reigns will reportedly be replaced at WrestleMania due to pulling out of the event. What a mess.