WWE SmackDown Review - March 31, 2016

AJ Styles flies high against Heath Slater.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AJ Styles def. Heath Slater

Kicking off the show with Styles was a brilliant idea as Brooklyn came unglued for him. That would explain why the crowd reaction for him wasn't as hot on Raw because they already saw him (this was taped prior to Raw). Slater is perfect in the jobber role because he always bumps so smoothly for his opponent and Styles was no exception. Slater scored more offense than he probably should have, but that's merely nitpicking. This was a good match for the opening slot.

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D-Von Dudley def. Jey Uso

This might have been the best thing we have seen from the feud so far. The two parties were actually given the right amount of time to produce the fun little match they were capable of instead having their time cut short per usual. As I've said many times in the past, The Usos do nothing for me as singles competitors, but I enjoyed this for what it was. I completely forgot D-Von had a finisher until he hit that spinebuster for the win, and then I remembered that was what he used to finish off his opponents during his singles run in TNA.

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D-Von Dudley lays out Jey Uso.

Dean Ambrose def. Erick Rowan

I could use this platform to rant about how ridiculous it is that The Wyatt Family are currently without a match at WrestleMania, but I think that's pretty much implied. I'd also ask if they have ever meant less, but we already know the answer to that question. It's a shame Luke Harper is out with an injury because that means Rowan will be doing most of the in-ring work in the meantime. Sure, he's better than Braun Strowman, but that's obviously not saying much. The match wasn't anything special, but if nothing else, it was a nice tune-up for Ambrose before he collides with Brock Lesnar on Sunday.


Overall Show

Anyone who is quick to criticize how worthless of a show this was must not have been watching SmackDown for very long. It has been a tradition for years that the go-home edition of SmackDown before WrestleMania features mostly video packages and footage from Axxess and because the show is taped before Raw, only a few matches are held. None of these matches are worth watching, and as great as some of the video packages were, you'll be seeing them several times throughout WrestleMania weekend, anyway.

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